I am really angry at Ed McVaney

BY JON CALDARA -- INDEPENDENCE INSTITUTE

I found out over the weekend that a good friend of Independence Institute and a friend of mine, Ed McVaney had passed away.

And just like his style in most everything during his life, he was quiet about the illness that took him. And because of that, I didn’t know he was going to leave us. I couldn’t say thank you for all he did for Independence, and for me. And he probably wouldn’t want me to thank him anyway. He preferred to do things that way, the quiet way. That is so damn Ed.

Ed lived the American Dream and then used his wealth to protect the American Dream. When I hear that a poor person can’t get ahead in America, I immediately think of people like Ed, who was raised in poverty. Through hard work and the economic opportunities that this country still offers, he used his mind to help create the software firm, JD Edwards, in 1977. This made him a wealthy man, an evil one-percenter.

Although he prided himself on his quiet nature, his deeds were anything but quiet. He had two great passions beyond his family, Jesus Christ and the Founders’ vision of America. And other than a few ridiculous cars, (nothing like watching him park his Hummer at a restaurant full of social-justice progressives) he used his wealth to build people’s understanding of Christ and of Liberty, always doing so quietly.

I won’t embarrass him by listing what he did with his evil one-percent wealth, what he gave away, except to say that countless children have and are receiving educations their families could have never afforded. Churches are serving families they never could have served. And people in Colorado, in fact around the world, are learning about why we should remain free to risk our own time and resources to pursue our dreams, so that we too might taste success and pass it on.

He has touched more lives than he could ever know. So many people’s lives are better because of his giving, and they will never know it came from him, this quiet Christian.

For me personally, I am grateful for the deep and often painful fights I had with Ed in the wake of losing my daughter to cancer some 19 years ago. Ed, always comforted by God’s love and me, well, not so comforted by it, went at it over why my little girl had to die. Without ever preaching, Ed comforted me and listened to my anguish. Why would a man of Ed’s stature and wealth care about what I was going through, and on such a personal level? Because, I think, he was fearless in looking at the universe and saw me as an equal man. Damn one-percenter.

Ed, I’m angry at you for not letting me thank you properly for all you did and for the friendship we have. I’m angry at you for not allowing me to apologize to you for anything I might have said during those great philosophical battles we had. And I’m angry at you for dying at this time in history when people of your clarity and passion for Freedom are needed more than ever. We are in a pitched battle for that America you love, the America where a poor kid from Nebraska can achieve what you did. Perhaps I am most angry because you were my brother-in-arms.

Who will show up on the front lines to defend the Founders’ vision? Who will step up and take Ed’s place fighting for a Colorado where we are free to make our own decisions? Will it be you? And Ed, thanks for the many beers we had over the years.

Think Freedom, Jon