Jo Cox: A Memory

Three weeks ago, British Member of Parliament Jo Cox hosted my students and me for dinner in London. She was witty, warm, gracious, singularly insightful with her comments, and unfailingly generous with her time. And now she is dead, murdered yesterday by a deranged constituent in her district, just outside Leeds.

I had not known her previously, but our mutual friend, my fellow professor John Bew, had arranged for her to have dinner with our class of University of Texas-Austin undergraduates during our four-week course in London, which focused on the British-American relationship and world order. (Read John’s moving tribute to her here). At the dinner, she spoke eloquently about the need for Britain to show moral leadership and principled international engagement in its foreign policy. She was particularly emphatic on the Syrian crisis, drawing on her past humanitarian work with Oxfam and other international aid groups. Before arriving at the dinner, she told us, she had just finished authoring a column for theTimes of London on the need for the United States and Britain to intervene forcefully in Syria, specifically to protect the civilian populations under assault and integrate force with diplomacy in negotiating a peace settlement.

To the British political class she was a rising star, already identified by many as a potential future foreign secretary (in John’s poignant words, “the best foreign secretary Britain never had”). To my students, she was also an ebullient and engaging speaker, sharing candidly her background and the trials and joys of politics. After the dinner, several of them commented on how accessible, humble, and inspiring they found her — traits all too rare in political leaders these days, on both sides of the Atlantic. Despite the late hour, she stayed long after dinner for individual discussions and answered countless additional questions.

It was a memorable evening. Little did we know that just three weeks later she would be gone. Her death is an unfathomable loss, for the many oppressed and suffering people around the world for whom she had labored, for her country, for Parliament, for the Labor Party, for her many friends, and especially for her husband and two young children.

With the Orlando terrorist attack and now Jo Cox’s murder, the past week has been ghastly, full of horror and heartbreak. Those whom we love, whom we admire — and sadly, whom we take for granted — can be taken from us in a sudden and all too cruel way. For those of us who remain, the words of the psalmist echo with conviction: “teach us to number our days…”

Photo credit: DAN KITWOOD/Getty Images