Remembering Senator Paul Wellstone
A year ago this week, the senior Senator from
Minnesota, Paul Wellstone was killed in a plane crash, along with his wife,
daughter, several campaign workers, and the flight crew. He was approaching the
end of his re-election campaign and decided to attend the funeral of a friend in
northern Minnesota.
It seemed that
people either loved or hated Wellstone, reminiscent of the feelings many of my
parent’s generation had about Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I realize that
hate is a strong word, but I thought about it and decided it was the right
word.
The reasons for hating Senator
Wellstone were (and very sad to say,
are):
He was a
politician.
He was a
liberal.
He was an inveterate
optimist.
He was
Jewish.
He was
balding.
He was
short.
He was a former amateur
wrestler.
He was a former college
professor.
He was enthusiastic about
damn near everything.
He enjoyed
being with people.
He liked the give
and take of the debate.
He stood up
for what he believed in.
He never
gave up.
Like Roosevelt, he was
“a happy warrior,” and like it or not, we are the better for having
had both of them pass through and affect our lives.
It appears that we live in a
country where debate has two colors – black and white. No room for gray,
for complexity, for subtlety. Maybe one day we’ll realize that our lives
are not thirty second tv commercials, that we need to think about the issues
facing our families and our country, and that we need more than another
“suit” to pour the clichés of the day into our ears in the
perpetual search for our
vote.
Wellstone was an original, and
we are still searching for his successor. Sad to say, it looks like it’ll
be a while.
Posted: Mon - November 24, 2003 at 04:49 PM