“My work here is done”

I can’t express enough how sad I am at hearing the news that Ron Smith is stopping chemotherapy and opting for home palliative care

I am no longer on chemotherapy. After consultations it was determined that was a futile way to go. And therefore I have ceased, that there won’t be a second round of chemotherapy instead what we are doing is palliative care that that will result down the road in home hospice care.

So the idea of some miracle with a stage 4 pancreatic cancer, well there isn’t going to be any miracle. And this is a decision that was reached and agreed upon among everyone concerned

It is the best thing under the circumstances and I’m okay with it. There is no way of predicting how long I’m going to be functioning so we’re sort of playing it by ear from this time forward.

I’ll be on the air as long as I can.

I began listening to Ron when I first moved to Baltimore and I was immediately taken with his erudition and grasp of the topics he spoke about. The Ron Smith Show became a daily addiction for me. The links on the Ron Smith page became my daily reading, and the books he recommended ended up on my shelf, especially Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson.

My favorite segment of Ron’s show had nothing to do with politics or policy, rather it was Ron taking our own colleague Rick Vatz to task for thinking Christiane Amanpour was somehow hotter than Lara Logan. I was driving on I-83 near Timonium and nearly had to pull over because I was laughing so hard. Ron’s veering into other realms constantly reminded me that there is life outside politics and it is precious and funny, worth stopping to enjoy it.

After I started writing for Red Maryland, Ron gave me several opportunities join him on air to talk about things I had written. Ron always greeted me with a smile, hearty handshake, asked about my family. They were wonderful experiences and I will cherish them always.

In his farewell Baltimore Sun column Ron wrote:

The country is torn asunder between those who perceive a profound decline and those who believe passionately that there is no decline at all, but rather the beginnings of a march into a progressive utopia. That all previous utopian schemes have failed utterly is ignored.

What is a mere individual to do? Live as sane and decent a life as you can, love your family and friends and understand that everybody is in this together.

My work here is done.

That we as a nation are running out of road to which we can kick the can, is a lesson Ron always stressed to me. It is a lesson I keep in mind every time I write about what faces our state as well.

Ron Smith is a local treasure and to think that there will be a time when his voice and wisdom will no longer grace the airwaves is unfathomable.


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