OPINION & EDITORIAL
Wellstone’s service was appropriate
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by Emily Rumsey
Monday, November 4, 2002
The theme of Minnesota’s memorial service for the Wellstones and staff was “Stand Up, Keep Fighting.” I intend to do just that for those of the 20,000 attending Wellstone supporters who thought the service was not only appropriate, but also sensitive, invigorating, and necessary.
I drove eight hours in one day so that I could personally attend the ceremony, and I subsequently say that the media backlash against that spirited Tuesday night speaks the voice of people who obviously did not sit in the same room as me.
The service lasted for over four hours and did not “almost immediately [turn] into a large political rally,” as Matt Modell stated in his recent opinion column. The unofficial campaign moments spanned 15 minutes of the evening (or less) and began after the service was over two hours underway.
This element of the memorial was not for the Democrats nationally and not for the DFL of Minnesota and not for Walter Mondale; these fiery moments of political vigor were for Paul Wellstone, for Sheila Wellstone and for the four other people in that plane who fought for Wellstone’s seat in the Senate.
Modell stated that Wellstone “would have been ashamed” of the rally. Aside from the fact that I believe it is dangerous to guess the psychology of deceased strangers, I am going to have to disagree.
My mother, who was a friend of the Wellstones, spoke to the senator for the last time only a few months ago when he called our house. He ended the conversation by stressing how important it was to the people and progress of Minnesota that his voice not fall flat to a conservative senator.
How better to pay tribute to the Wellstone legacy than to make sure that his voice not fall flat? My best guess tells me that he would have been very proud of the way Tuesday night unfolded.
I would also like to point out that this was not the sole service for any of the crash victims. The families and communities of each person who died held private services for their loved ones. The opportunity for solemnity belonged there, not the public gathering.
Thousands of Minnesotans genuinely mourn the loss of these lives, but they are likewise terrified to see Wellstone and the political vehicle behind him stop representing their own views and dreams.
Paul and Sheila Wellstone wanted nothing more than to do just this — to seek the justice for which their constituents screamed — and many more than those 20,000 people who cheered in their names believed in their power as well.
The Wellstones wanted to win the upcoming Nov. 5 election for Minnesota and the nation at large, and Marcia, Mary, Tom and Will wanted to see that win just as much. The six people who died in the name of this goal deserve to see some shred of its fruition — the election of a replacement DFL voice — to commemorate their work, their lives and their fatal sacrifices for the campaign.
The evening was indeed a tribute and was as far from Modell’s claims of “disgraceful” as can be. The short moments of “rallying” peppered a unique public gathering that did much more than breathe our typical political bullshit into the air.
It honored our lost by instilling hope that their message will come through the cracks somehow, as long as Minnesotans still believe in the power of Wellstone’s grassroots tradition.
Let’s not forget either that even if Norm Coleman does lose a few votes to sympathy or a few votes to people who watched the “free” television campaigning, he will only lose the election that he was predicted to lose anyway.
Mark and David Wellstone are the brothers who helped organize Tuesday’s events, and when all is said and done, they lost their father, mother and sister in one swooping day. I would rather just lose an election.
They are the victims now, along with others who lost family and friends that day; the plane crash is over, the smoldering rubble gone. They wanted that service to pay tribute, to honor, to remember, to love and to elect the voice of the people who died.
Mark and David Wellstone, therefore, knew what they were doing when they spoke on behalf of their family and when they chose other speakers who would do the same.
I was on Wellstone’s campaign in 1996. A Wellstone 2002 sign sits in my window back in St. Paul. I am now on the Wellstone Memorial campaign: I stand for every word that I heard this past Tuesday night, and I hope that Minnesotans will vote for those words next Tuesday, on the day where Wellstone’s voice can still be won.
Emily Rumsey (ekrumsey@wisc.edu) is a senior majoring in English and communication arts.
