Editor,
In my office a phone message waited. It was my mother calling from Minnesota, in tears. "There's been a terrible tragedy . . ." she began and could go no further. This is how I found out my friend and teacher was dead.
I knew Paul Wellstone, the Minnesota senator killed in a plane crash last Friday. Before he was a senator, he was my professor at Carleton College. He was a wonderful teacher, one who taught me to ask questions and to believe in the power of our democratic process. He taught me that passion and love for peace and justice could make a difference in the world, and then he proved it by running for office, winning and working tirelessly for the poor, the environment, mental health coverage, veterans - for so many groups and issues which are so often forgotten.
Paul inspired people. I went door to door for him in 1990. Have you ever done this? People slam their doors in your face. They hide behind window curtains. It's incredibly disheartening, but I did it because I believed in Paul.
He won that election, defeating an incumbent who outspent him seven to one. This year, he was in a race where his lead increased when he was the only senator in a tight contest to vote against the resolution to authorize force against Iraq. People always wish for a courageous politician; they recognized they had one in Paul Wellstone.
You could disagree with him, and many did, but you could not debate his courage in standing up for what he believed. You could not debate his belief in the democratic process that makes our country great.
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If you ever heard him give a speech, you had chills up and down your spine and probably tears running down your cheeks. These days, many of us don't bother to vote. If you'd known Paul, you would vote.
In New Mexico, I'm far from my Minnesota home, where my family and friends mourn because they know we have lost a special man. I wish I could be home to cry with my state. I wish I could have brought Paul to UNM and shared him with you. I wish you could have known him as I did. Most of my students and many of my colleagues never heard of Paul Wellstone before his death. I don't know if our country knows what a great man it just lost.
I do.
"It's not about making a living," he used to tell me. "It's about making a life."
I'm making a life now, Paul, down here in Albuquerque, trying to become the kind of teacher you were for me. The best kind - the kind that inspires you to believe you can make a difference, to live your life in agreement with your beliefs, to cry when you lost a friend and hero.
Paul Bogard
UNM graduate student
