Mail this PageAs suspected by almost everyone who heard the news, the small plane crash that killed Minnesota Senator Wellstone was
hardly an accident. Bombs set to go off when the landing gear is readied can be counted on to be unavoidable as the plane
must surely land someplace, being unable to refuel in the air. Wellstone was the only Senator up for election who opposed
Bush on his war mongering demands. His assassination, coming on the heels of a visit to the state by Bush to raise support
for his Republican lackey, the hope for recouping Minnesota for the Republicans, which visit failed to muster the needed
support, it is no surprise that more drastic measures were taken. The year earlier several Democratic senators, including the
majority leader Dausche, had the CIA version of Anthrax delivered to their suites. Yet in spite of knowing which Utah lab
produced that strain, the FBI has been directed to harass a Maryland scientist, and no arrests have been made. The Bush
Administration views the slim Democratic majority in the Senate as the major stumbling block between themselves and
total control of the US, and thence, due to military superiority, the world. The Supreme Court, as the 2000 Presidential
election showed, is clearly already in hand.
What will come as a surprise to those grieving the beloved Wellstone, a man so strongly Service-to-Others and courageous
that no one who encountered him in person was left untouched, is that he knew this was to occur, as did his wife and all
others on the plane, and that they were in agreement with the outcome. Some messages, some legacies, are stronger in death
than in life. Too often, strong individuals are looked to as saviors, as parents, as leaders who should arrange all for those in
need, as combatants who should fight the fight and bear the bruises alone, protecting the timid and hesitant. In his absence,
there is a void which shouts from the darkness to be filled. Stand up for what is right, what you want to accomplish,
countering oppression and lies. Where Wellstone's assassination was to be a warning to any Democrat not falling dutifully
in line in the Congress, the opposite will be the result. Voters passive about the flow of events and business as usual will
suddenly put all aside to go to the polls. The elected, many of whom personally knew and were touched by Wellstone, will
find their courage in the silent rage that is consuming them. Thus, in death, he becomes not the small man in stature he was
in life, but the giant he was in his soul.