Excellent post. Keep it up!

Second, how ungracious to tarnish an attempt at a tribute that none of the commenters who knew the man cared to essay!

There is only one comment to which I would care to reply, Gary Odom’s.

I did try to determine his political philosophy, but a request to his long-time assistant for anything on his political philosophy yielded only articles in his publication that explained why one should study history and the utility of humor in politics. Although interesting these were not answerable to my quest and came to me the morning of the day of the event commemorating his life and the 40th anniversary of the founding of the American Independent Party by him.

I also searched the web for published works by William Shearer, but did not find anything to answer the important question of his political philosophy. Then I went to the UCD library which had copies of all the issues of William Shearer’s California Statesman. I scanned a couple of years of those but did not find what I sought.

Given the limited time I had to prepare this effort I have only limited apologies for its acknowledged inadequacies.

At the event honoring William Shearer I found my tribute unexpectedly printed on the program and was asked to give an adumbrated version of it after which several in attendance at this most pleasant dinner rose to contribute their personal remembrances of the man.

When I reached the last of my presentation, I actually almost choked up, surprising me. It evidently came through, because someone exclaimed, “And he didn’t even know the man!” as indeed I had acknowledged when I began to speak.

=Spoken by a true hypocrite named Bri.

“The precise nature of his political philosophy, I have not as yet been able to determine.” Uh, gee… as one who was privileged to know Bill for almost 36 years, I think maybe the author, perhaps, should have tried to derive some kind of an understanding of this somewhat important subject, before attempting this rather hollow tribute.

Bri

Bill passed in March this year and there was a obituary done by me then.

I see why you Reformers can’t get your act together.