Wellstone Action!

posted by Jeff Blodgett

MAY 23, 2008

Acceptance of Posthumous Distinguished Minnesotan Award at 2007 Bemidji State University Commencement Ceremony

I am humbled and honored to be here, on behalf of the family and friends of Senator Paul and Sheila Wellstone, to accept distinguished Minnesotan award being bestowed on the Wellstones.

There are a lot of things to say about Paul and Sheila Wellstone-don't worry, I'm not going to say them all. Since we are here for you, class of 2007, there are two things I think you should know about them and should consider as you go off from here. The first is having the courage of your convictions and the second is being and staying involved in public life.

An essential thing about Senator Wellstone was that he was a very different sort of politician. Whether you agreed or disagreed with him, you knew that he said what he believed, believed what he said, and always told the voters where he stood. He operated from deep-seated principles. In short, he had the courage of his convictions. So despite being controversial at times with is positions on issues, majorities of voters in Minnesota twice elected him to the U.S. Senate because people like their elected officials to stand up for what they believe.

There is no better example of this different way of operating than his very last vote of consequence as a U.S. Senator in October 2002-just weeks before he died and one month before Election Day when he was hoping for a third term as Senator. This vote was whether to give President Bush authority to go to war with Iraq.

To understand this vote you need the context: 1 year after 9/11; Wellstone in a very close re-election campaign. There was immense pressure by his friends and colleagues in Washington to vote for this resolution. They told him you can't buck the President when he was so strong politically after 9/11. They told him he'd be accused of being weak on terrorism. They told him he would lose if he voted for it.

But for Wellstone, the questions he faced about war and peace were the most serious questions of all since they can literally be about life and death. And he was deeply troubled about what he viewed as a rush to war and a go-it-alone approach without our allies that was sure to backfire. So he set politics aside and was one of only 20(?) to vote no-and the only Senator in a close election that year to vote against it.

I tell you this story because when it comes to the phrase courage of your convictions-the operative word is courage. Because it can be extraordinarily hard at times to stand up for what you believe. To do the right thing is not always easy. It can mean flying in the face of conventional wisdom; it can mean going it alone; it can be risky. In Wellstone's case, he was possibly risking his U.S. Senate seat. So sticking to your guns can be hard and scary, but it is the right way to operate as an elected official on matters of principle, and it is the right way to live your life.

The second point about the Wellstones has to do with the importance of being involved in the public life of your community, your state and your country. To the Wellstones, democracy was not a spectator sport. They believed the health of our country depends on the active involvement of its citizens. And this extends to caring about politics. We can be very cynical today about politics and politicians, but politics is the working machinery of our democracy, and if we turn our backs on politics we turn our backs on the very thing that makes our country the greatest democracy in the world.

So for you graduates, this suggests you find your role in public life as you go out and create your future. So that means at the very least vote regularly, that means supporting causes you believe in and working on issues you care about, and for some of you, it means running for and serving in elected office.

I'll leave you with a favorite Wellstone quote, often given at the many commencement addresses he gave:

"The future will not belong to those who sit on the sidelines. The future will not belong to the cynics. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

Graduates, good luck and believe in your dreams.