The hero of my novel worked for a U.S. Senator from Nevada loosely based on Paul Wellstone. I had initially named the fictional senator David Paul, but that didn't sound right. Monday night, I decided to name him Paul Davidson.
Wellstone was killed in a plane crash a little less than five years ago. It was October, 2002, and he was in the closing days of a tough re-election battle.
Before Wellstone's death, he had begun to pull away from his opponent, Norm Coleman, in the polls. This came as a surprise to many because Wellstone had voted against the Iraq War Resolution, a vote which many assumed would cost him his election. Instead, it appeared to rally his campaign, even though at that time the war was popular with both Republicans and Democrats alike.
Wellstone was and will probably always be my political hero because he was not only capable of speaking truth to power, but he was capable of gaining -- and using -- power to advance the causes he believed to be true.
I still remember the day he died. My boss -- one of Wellstone's senatorial colleagues -- called me. It was a Friday and I was working from home. My boss was at home as well and had just seen the news on the television. She was in tears. I was speechless. After we ended our conversation, I called my Uncle Roger, who had taken a course from Wellstone at Carleton years ago, to tell him the news. I started crying. I don't cry very often. In fact, I can only think of five times that I have cried in the last fifteen years. I certainly can't think of another political leader who has in life or death moved me to tears. Fortunately, I managed to hear Roger invite me to his house for dinner, and that evening we reminisced about Wellstone's career.
I think of Paul Wellstone often. His death is still one of the saddest events in our nation's political history, but his life and career and is one of its most uplifting and encouraging stories.
This is a perilous time for our nation; our current leadership has weakened our country in ways that I never could have imagined possible. Whenever I start to think that things are just so screwed up that there's no way out, whenever I start to think that there is no way that we can ever overcome the powerful inertia of our political system, I try to think about Paul Wellstone and his career.
It can be done.
© Jed Lewison