Hello,
I'll preface this post by saying that I did not
have the honor of working closely with the Senator
Wellstone, though I have had the privilege of working
closely with several of his Aides.
If the case of Mr. Lopez were an isolated instance,
that would be one matter. Unfortunately, this is not
an isolated instance. Willie Dominguez (RT's Community
Liaison bailed in protest), Gente has not endorsed
RT...more than a few Latino community members seem
far from satisfied with RT's performance--witness the
PCRC review several weeks ago (not attended by RT)
when more than one Latino Community leader appeared
to express dissatisfaction. Then we have the case
of Officer Veliz...obviously less than satisfied.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and throw the
idea out that, perhaps, Senator Wellstone would have
chosen to deal with such friction in the community
by taking the matter head on...not avoiding a conflict
(and consequent resolution) at all costs. I'm gonna
risk it and say Senator Wellstone would have stepped
up and addressed the breakdown in the PCRC process
and Federal Mediation. We could always ask Reverend
Bethel, Mark Anderson, and the rest of the PCRC
leadership their views...but we all know that would
be unfavorable to RT---and that, apparently, is
why the Strib will not be printing their joint
article on the issue. BTW: Mark is a former Policy
Aide to Senator Wellstone...you could call him and
ask him how HE views the process as is...oh yes,
that's right, he wrote that pesky article, "The Mayor
and Mediation". Again, I'll go out on a limb and
say that the Mayor's role in this and related matters
is about as far as you can possibly get from the
legacy of Paul Wellstone.
On another un-Wellstonian note: Three former Senior
Policy Aides to Paul Wellstone went out of their way
to help me and other vets to put on our September
24th Vets Forum---another one RT missed, but
Mclaughlin
didn't...nor did Natalie Johnson-Lee, by the way. Now
I do know Paul Wellstone's record on vets affairs
and I am pretty sure he would have made the effort
to at least put in an appearance.
Senator Wellstone rolled up his sleeves and got
down into it with the people...he didn't make excuses,
he cared...he showed up. That is a fairly stark
difference as far as I'm concerned.
Guy Gambill
(Uptown)
"I read Nikki Carlson's post with sadness. Invoking
the name and memory of Paul Wellstone to suggest that
Mayor Rybak is less than honorable in his failure to
endorse Mr. Lopez - for whatever reason - is
disrespectful.
Like many on this list, I loved and adored Paul
Wellstone. I had the privilege to work very closely
with him and I learned a lesson or two from him as
well. One lesson Paul taught me was that one must
respect the decision of others, particularly in
politics, regardless of whether you agree with
that decision. The suggestion that Ms. Carlson is
making that the Mayor is somehow unWellstone-like
because he didn't support an underdog candidate and
therefore was against bringing people together is
contrary to the kind of politics Paul believed in.
Clearly, Ms. Carlson wasn't listening close enough or
didn't understand what Paul was teaching all of us.
I agree that Mr Wagenius' comments were idiotic and
full of naive bravado. Even Paul had a few staff
members like that over the years. I also agree that
it was rude for the Mayor not to return Ms. Carlson's
phone calls. But, Ms. Carlson is making a troubling
leap from Mr. Wagenius' idiot comments to the
lessons of Paul Wellstone to indict Mayor Rybak.
Clearly, Ms Carlson is entitled to her opinion and I
respect her right to express it. My hope is that she
is more careful when invoking Paul Wellstone's name
when criticizing the Mayor."
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