commentaries

A seven-foot statue of a person with the character and accomplishments detailed in the article is hardly larger than life.

"It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped." HHH He was the best of us. We need him now!

Lori your last line in this column; I think expresses the warmth and optimism that any remembrance of HHH would naturally, very naturally engender. Unfortunately I think that sentence of optimism was written with the inner glow from those commemoration festivities. Humphrey served at a time that everyone came to the conclusion that Joe McCarthy was a hideous abuse of the weakness of an open society with supposed safe guards on freedom of speech which are trumped by callous fear mongering. We now have people on talk radio and cable TV that are congratulatory about the ability of one of their own to spin a scary story. Ann Coulter started a movement a few years back that everyone of the likes of Rush Limbaugh and his mini me Sean Hannity, Beck and the hundreds of lesser right wing blathers defending McCarthy as correct. Now we see the same tactics with Moslems and the mouth breathers and droolers all applaud. In an era that people do not read and contemplate what is being said by politicians directly; but are emotively motivated by skilled advertising, and the politicians on the right are all just a cumulative voting block for self-serving shill like Grover Nordquist a Humphrey would find no takers of his friendship in today’s GOP; because they would naturally assume he was as duplicitous and cowardly as are they.

I met Hubert Humphrey in the 70's as well as Paul Wellstone at the Minnesota State Fiar. I really liked these guys personally but wish they weren't so liberal.

Hi chickfila ... I appreciate your comment. I want you to consider why you instinctively liked them. I submit it is becasue their liberal world view made them open and approachable and willing to work for you or any other citizen; because they were all about sticking up for the average citizen taxpayer, veterans benefits and education as well as access to medical care. We have many people living at the margins of society and both Wellstone and Humphrey knew what all who eschew a more liberal appreciation of our world and society know that "there but for the grace of God, go I". That is why you liked them. If you met Franken of Obama you would instinctively understand that same motivation is present. Liberalism is just recognition of the reality of an ever changing world and a twofold approach of preventing damage from the changes and to maintain the society’s common interests. Look up liberalism on Wikipedia and you will see why despite the label of liberal, they shared your values. The right wing radio hosts have been very effective for 20 years using vague labels and letting their listeners put whatever prejudice they might preserve in with that label and those are broadly inaccurate to reality.

Minnesota's favorite sons, Humphrey, Mondale, and Wellstone were good men, but each didn't get to the presidency to demonstrate their full potential because of factors beyond their control: Humphrey was Johnson's vice president and supported the Viet Nam war for a long time; Mondale was vice president under Carter whose administration saw hyperinflation and the Iran hostage crisis, and Wellstone's life was cut short in 2002 when the plane he was in crashed.