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© 2002-2004 WackyMonkey.org
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - Last night there was a memorial service for the late Senator
Paul
Wellstone and the others killed in the plane crash last Friday. It was held
at Williams Arena on the University of Minnesota campus. Twenty-thousand
people were inside,
and many more out in the night chill watching on "jumbo-trons" or whatever.
I assume not many people were watching C-Span in the middle of the night, so
I will recap some highlights (like it or not).
Preface: Wellstone was my favorite senator even before I moved to
Minnesota. He had the guts to admit he was a liberal, or even a progressive
(not dirty words for him). He opposed the Gulf War, voted against welfare
"reform" (even though many said it would cost him reelection--guess what, it
didn't), opposed giving billions of dollars to the Colombian military (he
actually visited Colombia to research where the dough would go), and fought
against international trafficking of women and children. He was followed in
excellence, in my mind, by Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)--not only because
Harkin's staff helped expedite the visas for my wife and step-daughter, but
because Harkin has also been fairly liberal himself.
The memorial was upbeat from the start, with soul music and
inspirational speeches by friends and family of the campaign workers and
advisers and the bodyguard who were killed. Then the surviving Wellstone
sons spoke. They were positive and upbeat, mostly reflecting on memories of
their mom, dad, and sister.
A former Saint Paul mayor moderated the event, and he commented that
everyone knew who should "wrap up" the service. A few days before, Tom
Harkin had stepped up to a nest of microphones to give a press conference on
Wellstone's death, and before he could say anything, he lost it, breaking
down into convulsive sobbing.
Now Harkin bowed his head in concentration as the cameras pointed to
him. He rose to the podium amidst the applause, which was coming from the
likes of Pres. Clinton, Senators Kennedy, Daschle, Rodham-Clinton, Lieberman,
even Lott and Domenici, plus Walter Mondale,
Jesse Jackson and Al Gore. (Jesse Ventura was booed
when he entered the arena--he looked pretty pissed about that, as you can
imagine--and had already left because the speeches were getting too "partisan."
He later said that he felt "violated.")
Harkin was composed. He spoke in a natural way about the first time he
met Wellstone, how short and disheveled he seemed the first time Harkin saw
him, at a meeting with farmers in Austin, Minnesota, about the
Harkin-Gephardt Bill to save the family farmers. This was in the middle of
the Reagan years, and I remember how in the mid 1980s a farmer in a small
Iowa town who was having his farm foreclosed killed some people, including
his banker and I believe his family, and then himself. Harkin said, "As the
senator, they had me speak last. Right before me, they brought up this
little guy..." (Laughter) "He was wearing a t-shirt, and he had long curly
hair. But he spoke with passion. Later, I told my staff, Don't you ever
put me on the podium after that guy again."
The joke about Wellstone in 1990 was that he was the only one who got a
raise by being elected to the Senate. They apparently had to buy him some
suits.
He related the story that Wellstone had often told him, about one of
his first speeches on the senate floor. After giving it, Senator Ernest
Hollings came up to him and in his southern drawl said, "'You reminded me of
Hubert Humphrey.'"
"Paul swelled with pride. Then the senior senator added, 'You talk too
much.'" (Laughter.)
Harkin continued: "He was able to bring people together:
environmentalists and labor, Republicans and Democrats--he even brought
Minnesotans and Iowans together!" (Laughter.)
"He was my best friend in the Senate, and he was one of those rare
people who many thought of as their best friend.
"Sometimes, he even disagreed with his friends, on war, on welfare.
But when he did, he was the mirror we looked into to search our own souls."
Then came the fire. Harkin rallied the crowd with comments on domestic
abuse and domestic violence, world peace, ending discrimination based on
race, color, religion, or sexual orientation: "Are we going to fight for
social justice and economic justice, for Paul? Say yes!" And the crowd
roared, "YES!" "For Paul, are we going to fight to end domestic violence
against women and children? Say yes!" "YES!" "For Paul, are we going to
fight for better wages for those who mop our floors, clean our bathrooms,
care for our elderly, those who have been left on the roadside of life? Say
yes!" "YES!"