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Probably Not Resting in Peace: Paul Wellstone
Four years ago came the awful news that Paul Wellstone had died in a plane crash with his wife, daughter, and three campaign staffers. It was a rough campaign season, the first midterm elections after Bush vs. Gore and 9/11, and he had been the only Democrat Senator in a close election to vote against the Iraq war resolution. For that alone he deserves to be remembered, but I am afraid sometimes of how thoroughly he seems forgotten. For all that I was pretty upset when he died, I must admit I have slowly stopped thinking of much of his work.
I first learned about Wellstone my freshman year at Berkeley, from my classmate Paul Hogarth. Paul is so devoted to his progressive ideology that he sometimes makes me feel like a stodgy conservative, and while I have disagreed with him on many occasions, I greatly admire the dedication with which he pursues his ideals--it's pretty astonishing to look back on our ten-year acquaintance and see how clearly he has stuck to his path compared to the rest of us. He ran the Paul Wellstone for President website, and when I heard the news of Wellstone's death, my first thought was to offer my condolences to Hogarth. Here he offers some of his memories of that day and the Senator.
Comments (3)
i lived in minneapolis when paul wellstone and his family died in the plane crash, and was very upset as well. he was one of few politicians that voted his conscience and his death was a great loss to this country.
after reading this post i realized that yesterday was his four-year death anniversary...i too had forgotten, so thanks for the reminder.
Posted on Oct-26-2006 | Link
In Minnesota Wellstone is still a presence. His family has set up a training school for activists and you will run into its graduates all over the place.
One of the reason for Wellstone's success was hard work and accessibility. I'm not a big Kerry-hater, but Wellstone wasn't someone who was always going off on ski and windsurf vacations, and he wasn't intimidating and standoffish.
He also had a respect for people in general, and a capacity for positive thinking, which I have almost entirely lost.
Posted on Nov-09-2006 | Link
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Posted on Jan-02-2012 | Link