With Al Simpson’s passing, another tall tree gone

It’s mid-March up in Al Simpson’s country around Cody. If you look closely, you can see the first green shoots of grass in the creek bottoms and hillsides. Aspen are budding at the tips, and the countryside is shaking off its cold blanket of snow. Spring is in the air.

Simpson likely saw this before he died, and thought that this is a fine time to ride on up ahead of the herd and check a new country for good grass and water. His backward glance lets us know that he trusts us to carry on without him.

Great Wyoming citizens, and particularly our best statesmen, live like this — from the ground up. Heedful of the earth beneath their feet, their neighbors and the work that needs to be done. Al Simpson was one of these top hands.

For my money, the best congressional delegation that ever represented Wyoming was Malcolm Wallop, Dick Cheney and Al Simpson. Wyoming punched above its weight when we sent these three to D.C. The Wyoming Republican Party never produced a finer crop.

I worked for Gov. Ed Herschler at the time. Herschler was a Democrat, but he, and later Gov. Mike Sullivan, worked hand in glove with the Republican delegation without a hint of partisan rancor or “gotcha” politics. They did Wyoming’s business with their feet firmly planted on Wyoming’s soil.

From the ground up.

A case in point is the Wyoming Wilderness Act, legislation that Wyoming’s conservative element fought against tooth and fang as government overreach, but supported by the governor and delegation. The Wyoming Wilderness Act protects and preserves the part of our state that takes your breath away. Al Simpson and his friends would not let that disappear.

The word “neighbor” is a verb in Wyoming. And Al Simpson was a good neighbor. He’d work with anyone, regardless of party affiliation, to get the job done.

Simpson neighbored with Democrat Romano Mazzoli to pass the Simpson/Mazzoli Immigration Reform Act of 1986. Had this law been funded and followed, we would not find our borders in the mess they are today.

He neighbored with President Clinton’s Chief of Staff Erskine Boles on the 2010 National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, another effort that was ignored by Congress. But had the powers-that-be heeded the Boles/Simpson report, we would not be in the fiscal mess we are now, and there would be no need for DOGE.

Al Simpson and Teddy Kennedy debating the issues of the day on “Face Off” was a hoot, and an object lesson in political civility. The mutual respect was palpable, and the humor tongue-in-cheek. Today’s politicians should take note.

The Big Empty is a lot emptier with Al Simpson’s passing, but we are left with the treasure of his example.

When Simpson eulogized his friend Gov. Ed, he said, “A tall tree is gone from the rugged Wyoming skyline.” That always stuck with me. It was my first thought when I heard of Al’s passing.

There is a huge gap in our skyline today, where our tallest tree once stood. We are left to remember, and to mourn. We are left to think about a fitting memorial to this man.

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There will be a lot of talk about statues, plaques and naming important places after him. This is a natural reaction among folks who lose a hero and a true neighbor. We don’t want to be left with an emptiness where he once was.

But I think that, if we could seek Al Simpson’s wise counsel one last time, he might tell us to forget all that fancy stuff. I think he’d tell us, very lovingly, to just be careful whom we choose to stand in the gap he left. He’d tell us to choose a good neighbor.