A River Between

This evening I hosted our Northfield People for Peace and Goodwill (PPG) meeting, where we showed the movie, Wellstone!. It’s a great testament to the life of Paul Wellstone and the efforts for peace and justice that have been happening since his first days in the US Senate in 1991. It’s no wonder that I feel Northfield is an epicenter in the nation for peace and social change. Paul Wellstone lived in Northfield for 12 years, teaching at Carleton College before he ever ran for the US Senate.

One of the most inspiring things that I gained from this film came from words that Paul gave in one of his speeches.

“People ask me, ‘Paul, why are you so on fire with all the things you believe in? Why so much fire?’, and I tell them,”Because in this nation we are faced with mountains and mountains of ice!”

It was refreshing for me to see how Wellstone’s career was filled with both triumph and times of great scrutiny. He did things that sometimes created a lot of political fallout, because he placed himself on the line for the things he believed.

It was ironic that one of the first speeches he gave on the Senate floor, and one of his last, were both in opposition to out invasion of Iraq. He was the ONLY Democrat in to stand opposed to the Bush administration’s plan to invade. He spoke from his heart, his polls spiked in Minnesota, and then he tragically died on October 25, 2002.

Not only did Wellstone’s replacement, Walter Mondale, lose to Norm Coleman, but the Democrats lost their majority of seats in the US Senate. I can’t help but wonder what things would be like now, were we able to turn back the clock and prevent the plane crash that took the lives of Paul and Shiela, their daughter, and five staff members from the Wellstone Campaign.

Paul Wellstone’s life was a testament to action, and a government for the people, by the people. I remember the day he died, working in Rochester at the Mayo Clinic. I remember how one of my co-workers flatly and almost pleasingly stated “Wellstone’s dead.” I spoke to my team lead that I was incredibly upset, and that I wanted to leave early. He granted my request but said simply “Oh, I guess I’m just not as sensitive to this event.”

A US Senator, from your own state, dead. Some divisions go deeper than others I guess. All the more reason to carry on the work, and “carry it forward.” I will admit that there are times as an activist where I feel very empowered, and there are times that I feel incredibly defeated, beaten down, and without hope. Some days I feel that I’m facing overwhelming mountains of ice in front of me. Films like this one give me a lot more hope to carry on!

Message of hope
Originally uploaded by holisticgeek