{"id":799,"date":"2012-10-21T09:00:30","date_gmt":"2012-10-21T13:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/?p=799"},"modified":"2012-10-21T19:48:38","modified_gmt":"2012-10-21T23:48:38","slug":"we-are-at-a-crossroads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/?p=799","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe are at a crossroads\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

McGovern as Food for Peace director in 1961, with President John F. Kennedy.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI always thought of myself as a good old South Dakota boy who grew up here on the prairie,\u201d he said in an interview for this obituary in 2005 in his home in Mitchell. \u201cMy dad was a Methodist minister. I went off to war. I have been married to the same woman forever. I\u2019m what a normal, healthy, ideal American should be like.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Along with fellow Senators Gaylord Nelson and Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern was at the heart of an era in US politics dominated by Midwestern progressives. I grew up in that era, and that region. I have a yellowed copy of a 2003 Los Angeles Times op-ed<\/a> posted on a bulletin board in my office, and have drawn on it for inspiration during my two election campaigns, and throughout the past five-plus years of holding elected office.<\/p>\n

“Give me a presidential candidate who speaks the truth as he sees it and I’ll show you a candidate whose campaign, win or lose, will be good for the nation.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

This year’s presidential election campaign \u2013 and politics in general in this country right now \u2013 is sadly lacking of the common decency and honest human compassion of George McGovern. America has lost a great, wise voice with his passing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are at a crossroads,\u201d he wrote, \u201cover how the federal government in Washington and state legislatures and city councils across the land allocate their financial resources. Which fork we take will say a lot about Americans and our values.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A wonderful NY Times obituary (from which the first and last quotes above come) can be read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rest in peace, Senator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McGovern as Food for Peace director in 1961, with President John F. Kennedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always thought of myself as a good old South Dakota boy who grew up here on the prairie,\u201d he said in an interview for this obituary in 2005 in his home in Mitchell. \u201cMy dad was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[26,185,184],"tags":[198],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2nL7w-cT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=799"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":806,"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799\/revisions\/806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northbyram.org\/highlands\/newsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}