Steve Everhart in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

I haven’t posted about the topic here since the initial post, but it’s been constantly in mind. What happened in Iraq on Thursday has left me with a stomach ache that hasn’t gone away since I first learned the news.

Here’s the Atlanta Journal-Constitution with ANOTHER STORY on Steve. It includes a picture of him in protective gear, presumably from earlier this week in Iraq (I don’t know that he ever had to wear any anywhere else).

The opening paragraphs run as follows:

“Swashbuckling economist Stephen Everhart never shied away from an adventure. But according to friend and fellow Georgia State University alum Joey Smith, Everhart sounded a bit nervous earlier this year as he discussed his next challenge.”

He did seem a bit nervous about the Iraq trip. That’s fair to say.

Steve was great company last Saturday night at the party, just hours before he left for Baghdad. For lack of a better word, it was Steve at his “coolest,” and it was even more wonderful speaking with him than usual. He was always very friendly and had a way of making everyone feel appreciated, not judged. On top of that, he was also a great listener.

On most days he was always dressed up in the way that international finance experts are always dressed up, but on Saturday he was in casual clothing and joking around even more than usual (he was always witty). Steve did seem nervous about the upcoming trip, fully aware of the risks, but he told me he felt a certain responsibility towards Iraq because of how badly things have gone there, and he hadn’t wanted to refuse the opportunity. It also sounded like they were almost in disbelief that he was actually willing to come.

I for one never seriously considered that anything bad would happen this time. Instead, I sort of assumed that they wouldn’t be bringing an academic consultant in yet unless he was being kept within the innermost security zones (to the extent that such things even exist in Baghdad).

And I was very much looking forward to seeing him in late August and hearing about Iraq.

Here’s a quote from someone who knew him at Georgia State:

“Mary Beth Walker, dean of the GSU’s School of Policy Studies, told the Associated Press Everhart was a ‘hard worker’ with a sturdy sense of humor. ‘Steve was just an extremely impressive person — confident, outgoing and adventurous,’ Smith said.”

Every adjective in that passage hits the nail on the head. That’s the Steve Everhart I knew too.

Here’s what a very sad colleague told me yesterday by email:

“I just read the President’s message about Steve Everhart and was utterly shocked. I noticed you share this sad news in your blog. I sat on an accreditation committee with him, and he was great to work with, very active but also extremely friendly.”

He was absolutely a great fellow committee member, a team player but not a softie.

These are the saddest days in quite some time.

Chicago

It’s not that I can’t live without email for 16 hours. (Really, I can.) It’s that there’s always a horrific amount of email to deal with after that long a period.

Chicago’s usually a fine city for a quick stopover, but not if you have big luggage like I do at the moment. Union Station does have lockers, but they’re often full, and on a summer Saturday like today there’s no chance of getting one, especially since a whole Boy Scout troupe entered the area just before I did. I didn’t even bother trying.

But it’s a lovely morning in Chicago, and the final train of this trip is coming up soon.

Incidentally, Amtrak is on the whole an underrated company. Well-travelled Americans are used to moaning and lamenting concerning the way we’ve dismantled our national rail system in favor of an infinite car/truck orgy. Fair enough; there’s a serious point there. But in the process, we fail to notice an obvious fact: Amtrak trains are actually nicer and more comfortable than European or, I daresay, even Japanese trains. Not as fast or reliable, but more comfortable.

Granted, those countries have much better coverage and more frequent trains. But I still say our trains are nicer, few though they are.

The onboard service with Amtrak is generally pretty good (though once in awhile the semi-crude attitude is what you’d expect to find in a rural bowling alley). What’s usually much worse is the in-station service. In Chicago the Amtrak people are often rude and snippy, though it was even worse in Providence. The recurrent corporate pattern at the station level seems to be people who very brusquely tell you to do something, then even when you do it they subject you to a long speech about why you were wrong not already to have realize a priori that what you had done the first time was the most stupid thing ever done on the planet.