The brilliance, integrity and humanity of US Senator Paul Sarbanes

US Senator Paul Sarbanes, who passed away at the age of 87 on December 6, is a major reason we Hellenes are held in such high regard in the United States. The powerfully positive impression he made for decades on hundreds of influential American policymakers and opinion leaders is unsurpassed.

In 1971, before Paul arrived in Washington, DC, Greeks were held in a different regard. For instance, the protective covenants against Greeks buying into neighborhoods prohibited millionaire Bill Calomiris from buying a house in Washington's Spring Valley. Sarbanes arrived in the US House of Representatives with a bang. The Judiciary Committee chose him, then barely out of his 30s, from among their 38 seasoned committee members to draft the articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon.

The genius that propelled him from a small town on Maryland's Eastern Shore through...