I did make it to Sentor Paul Wellstone's memorial service on Tuesday night, October 29. I dropped Paul and the kids off at home and drove right back, driving towards the University of Minnesota campus. I don't know the U of M campus well enough to know where the Williams Arena is, but I was correct in thinking I'd figure it out when I got there. I was shocked that surface parking was pretty easily available.
I followed the crowd to the older-looking college athletic arena. Mounted police and police and guards on foot were everywhere. Several were shooing us away from the main entrance. It had just been officially declared full as I got there, before 5:30, for a service scheduled to start at 6:30.
The guards were saying there was some kind of over-flow room set up with tv's for everyone else to watch.Lucky for me, someone near me declared that if they'd wanted to watch Senator Wellstone's memorial service on TV, they would have stayed home. She just pulled open a side door to the arena, it was unlocked and un guarded. About 25 of us or more just ran in , ran up a stairwell, opened another door, and found ourselves on a balcony behind the top of the main floor bleachers, with a perfect view of the floor.
So much for increased security and bag checks!
Venon Bellcourt, who happens to be other idol of mine, was announcing songs played by a Red Lake band drum group, from a Northern Minnesota reservation. I remembered standing outside the Minneapolis Metrodome one winter day in about 1991 when the Super Bowl was in Minneapolis. I was part of a crowd gathered to protest Washington DC's poor choice of team name and logo, Vernon Bellcourt was announcing then, too! Then the crowd had hushed to listen to a little guy I'd never seen before, it took me a few minutes to recognize he was the guy we'd just elected to the Senate, speaking as emphatically as if he were still campaigning! Paul Wellstone showed up to events all over the state, all the time. That was one of the great things about him. Now Vernon Bellecourt was speaking at Paul Wellston's funeral :(
Larry Long, a lefty-folk singer sang. Sounds of Blackness sang, and as they sang , tv monitors started showing close-ups of celebraties being ushered to a special VIP section to my lower far left. I'm pretty sure that's where they were, I need to get new glasses.
The crowd applauded and cheered when it showed Jessie Jackson. It was good to see everyone so happy, after being so sad. They burst in to a standing ovation when the tv monitors showed Senator Hillary Clinton and former President Bill. Suddenly it was like people were paying more attention to the tv monitors than to the larger event. If I'd wanted to watch this thing on TV, I would have stayed home. It was like mass-rock-star sighting! I was afriad girls were going to start throwing panties! Al Gore, more cheering! Walter Mondale "Fritz! Fritz! Fritz!" The monitor showed a close up of Governor Jesse Ventura being seated. Half the crowd booed, half cheered. The cheers took over. The news only reports the booing part.
Then the monitor showed and old man I didn't know and the crowd booed! Loudly. Not just a few people, it was like a mass-booing hysteria! Imagine coming to a co-worker's funeral, and having the other people there boo you when you walked in the door. Later I was informed that that was Trent Lott. I'm sorry, but you have every other minute of every other day to boo Trent Lott. But at a funeral? Paul Wellstone would have been appalled!
Each of the people who died in the accident (except the 2 pilots for some reason?) was represented by a family member or close friend who told amusing anicdotes about that person. Much appreciated, becase I didn't know anything about most of them, and very little abour Mrs. Wellstone. The women's shelter that she founded has been re-named the Sheila Wellstone Center. More cheering. It was good to hear.
Then Senator Wellstone was represented by an assistant of his, who started out talking about Paul, but ened up calling on a specific senator, by name, and telling him how he should vote. I guessed at the time that there was a valid reason for that, but I was wrong. Reading about it later, it was just a spiteful act of public humiliation. Sad. Paul Wellstone would not have condoned it, even if later on he would have gone home and laughed his ass off about it!
Later I found out that even that over-flow room was filled to capacity and some people had to spend hours standing outside watching it all on some kind of jumbo-tron.
The papers are all complaining about how it became a political rally, and how Paul Wellstone's grown sons and some others included calls to support Paul Wellstone's causes and support his then-unnamed Democrat-replacement when we vote in a week. Well, memorial services for incombent, campaigning sentors have very little precident, so there's really no known protocol preventing people from including one's political goals from those other aspects of the legacy of the deceased.
I owe Trent Lott a letter of apology as a Minnesotan, a Wellstone supporter and memorial service attendee, for the treatment he received that night. Then if I can compose a real letter of complaint against his actual policies, I'll call or mail him about it, as opposed to publicly insulting him at a funeral.
It's been interesting to read about the memorial service in the paper, and listen to people complain about it on the radio. TV and Radio stations are being criticized for broadcasting it, as it provided un-equal campaing time for the democratic party. But the memorial service for an active US Senator is newsworthy, and appropriate for broadcast, so I've written a few broadcasters who I'm aware have been particularly criticized, to tell them so.
I loved Senator Paul Wellstone so much, this just hurt! I can't remember being so thrilled with any politician who was currently in office, that I would rave about him in my spare time, the way I did with him, so frequently. I've seen him at several events, some of which were his own fund-raisers of course. He certainly got around. I'd have preferred Alan Page over Walter Mondale for our new Democrat candidate, but no one asked me, and they were in a real hurry.
Some Minnesotans had already voted for Paul Wellstone on their absentee ballots, and the Democratic Party is suing, I don't know, SOMEONE, because in Minnesota, votes for deceased candidates are invalid. So if someone voted for Norm Coleman on their absentee ballot, their vote counted, but if they voted for Paul Wellstone , then their vote is not counted at all! So the only MN absentee ballots, completed and returned so far, that will be counted will be those for Norm Coleman (aka Mayor Quimby).
It will be interesting to see how this one will turn out!
Love Kathy
I followed the crowd to the older-looking college athletic arena. Mounted police and police and guards on foot were everywhere. Several were shooing us away from the main entrance. It had just been officially declared full as I got there, before 5:30, for a service scheduled to start at 6:30.
The guards were saying there was some kind of over-flow room set up with tv's for everyone else to watch.Lucky for me, someone near me declared that if they'd wanted to watch Senator Wellstone's memorial service on TV, they would have stayed home. She just pulled open a side door to the arena, it was unlocked and un guarded. About 25 of us or more just ran in , ran up a stairwell, opened another door, and found ourselves on a balcony behind the top of the main floor bleachers, with a perfect view of the floor.
So much for increased security and bag checks!
Venon Bellcourt, who happens to be other idol of mine, was announcing songs played by a Red Lake band drum group, from a Northern Minnesota reservation. I remembered standing outside the Minneapolis Metrodome one winter day in about 1991 when the Super Bowl was in Minneapolis. I was part of a crowd gathered to protest Washington DC's poor choice of team name and logo, Vernon Bellcourt was announcing then, too! Then the crowd had hushed to listen to a little guy I'd never seen before, it took me a few minutes to recognize he was the guy we'd just elected to the Senate, speaking as emphatically as if he were still campaigning! Paul Wellstone showed up to events all over the state, all the time. That was one of the great things about him. Now Vernon Bellecourt was speaking at Paul Wellston's funeral :(
Larry Long, a lefty-folk singer sang. Sounds of Blackness sang, and as they sang , tv monitors started showing close-ups of celebraties being ushered to a special VIP section to my lower far left. I'm pretty sure that's where they were, I need to get new glasses.
The crowd applauded and cheered when it showed Jessie Jackson. It was good to see everyone so happy, after being so sad. They burst in to a standing ovation when the tv monitors showed Senator Hillary Clinton and former President Bill. Suddenly it was like people were paying more attention to the tv monitors than to the larger event. If I'd wanted to watch this thing on TV, I would have stayed home. It was like mass-rock-star sighting! I was afriad girls were going to start throwing panties! Al Gore, more cheering! Walter Mondale "Fritz! Fritz! Fritz!" The monitor showed a close up of Governor Jesse Ventura being seated. Half the crowd booed, half cheered. The cheers took over. The news only reports the booing part.
Then the monitor showed and old man I didn't know and the crowd booed! Loudly. Not just a few people, it was like a mass-booing hysteria! Imagine coming to a co-worker's funeral, and having the other people there boo you when you walked in the door. Later I was informed that that was Trent Lott. I'm sorry, but you have every other minute of every other day to boo Trent Lott. But at a funeral? Paul Wellstone would have been appalled!
Each of the people who died in the accident (except the 2 pilots for some reason?) was represented by a family member or close friend who told amusing anicdotes about that person. Much appreciated, becase I didn't know anything about most of them, and very little abour Mrs. Wellstone. The women's shelter that she founded has been re-named the Sheila Wellstone Center. More cheering. It was good to hear.
Then Senator Wellstone was represented by an assistant of his, who started out talking about Paul, but ened up calling on a specific senator, by name, and telling him how he should vote. I guessed at the time that there was a valid reason for that, but I was wrong. Reading about it later, it was just a spiteful act of public humiliation. Sad. Paul Wellstone would not have condoned it, even if later on he would have gone home and laughed his ass off about it!
Later I found out that even that over-flow room was filled to capacity and some people had to spend hours standing outside watching it all on some kind of jumbo-tron.
The papers are all complaining about how it became a political rally, and how Paul Wellstone's grown sons and some others included calls to support Paul Wellstone's causes and support his then-unnamed Democrat-replacement when we vote in a week. Well, memorial services for incombent, campaigning sentors have very little precident, so there's really no known protocol preventing people from including one's political goals from those other aspects of the legacy of the deceased.
I owe Trent Lott a letter of apology as a Minnesotan, a Wellstone supporter and memorial service attendee, for the treatment he received that night. Then if I can compose a real letter of complaint against his actual policies, I'll call or mail him about it, as opposed to publicly insulting him at a funeral.
It's been interesting to read about the memorial service in the paper, and listen to people complain about it on the radio. TV and Radio stations are being criticized for broadcasting it, as it provided un-equal campaing time for the democratic party. But the memorial service for an active US Senator is newsworthy, and appropriate for broadcast, so I've written a few broadcasters who I'm aware have been particularly criticized, to tell them so.
I loved Senator Paul Wellstone so much, this just hurt! I can't remember being so thrilled with any politician who was currently in office, that I would rave about him in my spare time, the way I did with him, so frequently. I've seen him at several events, some of which were his own fund-raisers of course. He certainly got around. I'd have preferred Alan Page over Walter Mondale for our new Democrat candidate, but no one asked me, and they were in a real hurry.
Some Minnesotans had already voted for Paul Wellstone on their absentee ballots, and the Democratic Party is suing, I don't know, SOMEONE, because in Minnesota, votes for deceased candidates are invalid. So if someone voted for Norm Coleman on their absentee ballot, their vote counted, but if they voted for Paul Wellstone , then their vote is not counted at all! So the only MN absentee ballots, completed and returned so far, that will be counted will be those for Norm Coleman (aka Mayor Quimby).
It will be interesting to see how this one will turn out!
Love Kathy
