Love Letter 17

Dear Robert,

This is a spiritual exercise so I thought I’d try and expand my horizons, see if I can open my heart to someone I might not immediately be drawn to. I heard you speak tonight at the Marin Speakers Series. We wanted to hear from the guy who “transformed the FBI” after 9/11. I didn’t know what to expect, but you know what, I think I grew to love you. I mean really, in order to have done that job – and done it by all accounts, (except that agent in NYC of course), well – during that critical time in the life of our nation, in order to have guided the organization through and incredible maze of changes and challenges, with a President, and a Congress, and a Nation kind of breathing down your neck, well that required a consummate bureaucrat. I’ve never liked that word before, but tonight I started to love it. What did you miss about the job? “You missed the people at the FBI they were a family of sorts, people who supported you as you, (and I loved this line), worked to get the job done right.” That was really it for you in the midst of all those power games and turf wars, you were trying to get the job done right. God I love that. It sounds next to impossible to keep you focus on that in such an environment and yet, you did and you managed to do it, coming into retirement with not a bad thing to say about anyone in government. I really do love the integrity of that position. It was gorgeous watching your mind work. We’d figured out by late in the program that you were someone with a moral compass. You understand sacrifice so when you answered a question about the militarization of our police forces, I too it the best way. You said, “We should re-direct the resources to higher priority items. Gorgeous answer. When you’re a bureaucrat trying to do the job right, you don’t pontificate about grand moral and political issues, no you get practical; you try and do the job right and the way to do that is to make sure the resources go where they need to go. I’m a preacher, I never would have thought of that. I love it. I love you, Robert.

Sam