Many thanks to the War Room for remembering Paul and Sheila Wellstone today…
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/10/25/remember_paul/index.html
I still remember coming back from lunch and my sister calling me to tell me that their plane had crashed. I got on the internet and started reading, the tears started immediately–I had someone working in the other room, a friend from Norway and she came in concerned that someone in my family had died.
And they might as well have been family.
Paul Wellstone was the first person I voted for who lived by his values and was actually able to get elected! He not only worked for the people of Minnesota, but for people throughout this nation. It hasn’t gotten lots of news, but the “rescue plan” was actually a rider attached to the Wellstone Mental Health Parity Act that Paul fought for when he was in the Senate and his family continued to work to get passed after his death. The banks may have gotten 700 million dollars, but we got a law saying that mental illness shall be treated the same as physical illness with no time lines and limits for treatment and cure.
I can’t remember how many times I met Paul, although I do remember the last time. He was in my town in Iowa campaigning for Bill Bradley. He was in a small room in a pizza place and as always he took the time to greet and meet each of us and let us ask many questions. He was a better representative for Bradley than Bradley himself–definitely more passionate!
I do remember that Paul would always ask where you were from and when I would tell him the name of my hometown in Minnesota, he would inevitably comment on our wrestling team–which was very good.
We were lucky to have him–but it was not long enough.
It’s ten days until election day. Go and do something to honor the Wellstones. Vote for change and progress and healthcare and economic recovery and the end of this war he never voted for and for the future of us all…Vote Obama.
