|
Check the new
WhoseFlorida
for updates
By Monica Friedlander
For more than a year they've
been telling us what we're supposed to think, what we're supposed to
feel, what we're allowed to believe in as Americans. And now, while we
grieve the loss of one of our best, they have the chutzpah to dictate
to us how we're allowed to mourn?!
And to punish us for not
doing even that by their rulebook, the holier-than-thou governor of
Minnesota is going back on his word and will not appoint a Democrat in
Wellstone's stead. That is a slap in the face of Paul Wellstone, his
family, Minnesotans, and other good people nationwide still grieving.
How dare he and the Republicans take advantage of our grief and berate
us for how we choose to express our sorrow?
No, we will not apologize
for remembering Paul Wellstone by exhorting his ideals, crying out for
justice, and reminding people of the cause for which this man gave his
life. This is how Paul Wellstone's family chose to celebrate his life.
How dare they stand in judgment? How dare they sit in their ivory
towers and self-righteously tell us that we have no right to invoke
the cause championed by the man we mourn?
That, while the unelected
Republican president campaigns for Wellstone's opponent at taxpayers'
expense in Air Force One. That, while Newt Gingrich not only attacked
Walter Mondale before he even decided whether to run, but shamelessly
lied about his record and his stands.
They, whose leader has taken
the reigns of government not by popular vote but by appointment by a
partisan Supreme Court, have the nerve to tell us that we're too
partisan!
They, who stand to gain from
this tragedy, have the nerve tell two grieving sons who lost their
parents and sister how to remember their loved ones!
And they, who have called
Wellstone unpatriotic for daring to vote his conscience, are striking
back at his memory by attacking a memorial service!
Republicans control every
branch of government but the Senate. They rule with an iron fist,
allowing no dissent, putting our Constitution through the shredder,
intimidating people from voting, and starting wars in our name. Don't
Democrats have a right, on the occasion of this devastating tragedy,
to came together under one roof and remind us that this is not what
Paul Wellstone stood for?
Wellstone's friends and
family, overcome by grief and emotion, asked but one thing: that we
continue his legacy, and that we win one more election for Paul. How
many times have Republicans asked people to win one "for the
Gipper"? And now, in our hour of grief, we are demonized for
asking Democrats to win one for Paul.
Yes, the public memorial
service for Paul Wellstone resembled a rally. Few would deny that.
Paul Wellstone wouldn't have had it any other way. Maybe emotions ran
higher than they do at most memorials. But we are not living
normal times and this was not a memorial like all others.
Every person in that crowd
hurt desperately, not just for the loss of those they loved, but for
having lost their voice in Congress, for having lost someone to stand
up for them, for having lost their senator only two years after their
vote for president was voided.
There was real pain and
anger in that hall -- despair almost at times. These were real
feelings. How dare they put us down for hurting? It was one of our
heroes who died. Can't they show Paul Wellstone enough respect to
allow his friends, family and supporters to mourn their way?
Tuesday night's event was a
time for those who loved and respected Paul Wellstone to come together
and be themselves. This was one event that could not be orchestrated
or ruined by Republicans. So much so that the family asked that Vice
President Cheney stay away. This was not the GOP's event, and no one
asked their opinion on how to run it.
The Republicans stand to
benefit from Wellstone's death by having this resounding voice for
reason and common sense silenced. They didn't wait until Wellstone was
in his grave to start attacking his successor. And they have the nerve
to tell us there's only ONE proper way to mourn?
They tell us all this was
inappropriate. We ask: TO WHOM?
Tens of thousands of people
came to pay their respects. None but a handful who never understood
what Paul Wellstone was all about found anything disrespectful about
the memorial. They had one last chance to recall his ideals and share
the stage with the Democratic Party's best, those whom Wellstone most
admired: Gore, Kennedy, Clinton, Harkin, Mondale, and others who
championed his ideals.
To Ventura, and the
Republicans, and the media who stand in ruthless judgment, to them all
we now say unequivocally and unapologetically: We will mourn any way
we like. In Paul Wellstone's name we will continue to fight his fight.
And yes, in his name we will ask voters to elect other people like
him, who stand up for the old and the poor and the sick and the
disenfranchised. Those who try to deny us our right to mourn sure as
hell will not.
In Paul Wellstone's name, we
will, as his friends asked us, stand up and keep fighting.
http://www.buzzflash.com/buzzscripts/buzz.dll/sub2
Why some folks are upsetThe Wellstone funeral Election 2002: Rally timeMolly Ivins 10.28.02 - SAN FRANCISCO -- He was the rarest of all rare breeds -- a mensch from Minnesota. But this is not a column about Paul Wellstone. No one has to wonder for a minute what he would have wanted, "What would Wellstone do?" The answer all but roars back, "Don't mourn, organize!"
The contrast between Paul's passionate populism and
this dreary mid-term election is as sad as his death. There's many a
contest between political pygmies this year -- we're down to seeds
and stems again --- but even in proud Texas we have to admit that
this year's palm for nose-holding voting must go to California. Not
to overstate, two of the most titanically unattractive candidates in
the history of time -- Gray Davis and Bill Simon -- are vying for
the governorship. A new nadir in modern politics. How we got from
the Lincoln-Douglas debates to this -- or what we ever did to
deserve it -- is unclear. The debate between Davis and Simon raised
the always-timely question: Is God punishing us?
Naturally, when it comes to voting, we in Texas are
accustomed to discerning that fine hair's breadth worth of
difference that makes one hopeless dipstick slightly less awful than
the other. But it does raise the question: Why bother?
One sorry excuse for a decent, fighting people's pol
or the other; what difference does it make?
Oh, just that your life is at stake.
What stuns me most about contemporary politics is not
even that the system has been so badly corrupted by money. It is
that so few people get the connection between their lives and what
the bozos do in Washington and our state capitols. "I'm just
not interested in politics." "They're all crooks."
"Nothing I can do about it, I'm just one person. I can't buy
influence."
Politics is not a picture on a wall or a television
sitcom you can decide you don't much care for. Is the person who
prescribes your eyeglasses qualified to do so? How deep will you be
buried when you die? What textbooks are your children learning from
at school? What will happen if you become seriously ill? Is the meat
you're eating tainted? Will you be able to afford to go to college
or to send your kids? Would you like a vacation? Expect to retire
before you die? Can you find a job? Drive a car? Afford insurance?
Is your credit card company or your banker or your broker ripping
you off? It's all politics, Bubba. You don't get to opt out for lack
of interest.
In this putrid election season, every television ad
seems to announce that the other guy sucks eggs, runs on all fours,
molests small children and has the brain of an adolescent pissant.
It's tempting to join the "pox on both their houses"
crowd. They're close to right, but they're still wrong.
Here's the good news: All of this can actually be
fixed. By me, you, us -- no kidding, no bull. Nothing you can do
about it? Just one person? As an American at this time, you have
more political power than 99 percent of all the people who have ever
lived on earth. And should you round up four friends who don't
usually vote, you'll have four times that much political power. Why
throw that away?
And you have other kinds of power as well. Hundreds
of thousands of Americans demonstrated against war in Iraq Saturday.
I don't know why the mainstream media are so allergic to reporting
this, but the turnout was stunning. In San Francisco, middle-aged
protesters with gray ponytails mixed with punk kids with orange hair
and earrings in their eyebrows and with suburban families toting
toddlers. The old coots griped about their feet and about having to
listen to speeches through a bad sound system again (digital sound
has not yet made it to the peace movement). But the kids were, like,
totally awed. They had not, in their young lives, ever seen anything
like tens of thousands of Americans peacefully exercising their
right to assemble and to petition their government for redress of
grievances. The creativity and humor of the signs was fabulous,
though often impolite. A grand exercise in citizenship.
And will it make any difference? Does the Bush
administration care that 40 percent of Americans are opposed to this
war and that almost all of us have doubts about it? Politicians are
much more sensitive creatures than is generally assumed. In
political science circles, the technical term we use for this is
"goosey." Pols not only listen to public opinion, they
usually overreact to it.
The Bush administration has announced this grand
imperial plan, the "National Security Strategy of the United
States," under which America is to dominate the world forever,
and we'll attack any country that doesn't agree with us. Frankly,
it's nutty. But they made a big mistake. They forgot to run it by
the people first.
Molly Ivins © 2002 Creators
Syndicate
URL:
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=13993&CFID=3327634&CFTOKE
Minnesota's real wrestler St. Petersburg Times, published November 2, 2002 Top Home Check the new WhoseFlorida for updates
|