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H2O Man

(73,323 posts)
Sun Oct 21, 2012, 10:47 AM Oct 2012

George McGovern's Garden

….and I will leave
But the birds stay, singing
And my garden will stay,
With its green trees,
With its water well.
Many afternoons the skies will be
Blue and placid, and the bells
In the belfry will chime,
As they are chimming this very afternoon.
The people who have loved me
Will pass away, and the town
Will burst anew every year.
But my spirit will always wander
Nostalgic in the same recondite
Corner of my flowery garden.
-- Juan Ramon Jimerez; El Viaje Definitive (The Definitive Journey)

George McGovern created a beautiful garden here on earth. Now, upon his death, the news media will invest a small corner of their product to the man and his garden. But these reports pale in significance, to me, to the posts on DU:GD that tell of forum participants having cast their vote -- often, their first actual vote, and other times, in a grade school “mock” election -- for Senator McGovern.

Much of the corporate coverage will center upon his 1972 run against Nixon. Although it was an important part of his political career, I would advise against separating it from that career in its entirety. Indeed, it is best to view it in the context of not only McGovern’s pre- and post-1972 career, but more, as the result of the first actual “grass roots” campaign that led to a major party nomination. And add that it was against the active, wide-spread Watergate corruption of the Nixon administration.

Watergate was not, of course, a mere example of political corruption. It involved gross violations of the law, a severe threat to the Constitution, and the decay of the social fabric. Yes, Nixon won the election. And yes, McGovern’s fall campaign involved serious errors by both the candidate and his staff. These facts were part and parcel in 1972. But there was more -- much more -- and that is exactly why the ‘72 contest is generally lost in the current study of historic presidential campaigns.

That McGovern’s grass roots campaign won the democratic primaries is as important, as it is historic. That his grass roots campaign lost in November was not shocking -- no political party or movement tends to capture the White House on its first try. And that was compounded by the lack of energetic support from the Democratic Party machine for the McGovern campaign.

I will remember George McGovern for many reasons: his honesty (rare indeed at that level of politics), his passion, his optimism, and his compassion. These were what McGovern planted in his garden. The harvest is found in the assistance to the poor and needy in our society. The hungry fed, the naked clothed.

And it is still more: that harvest includes the wonderful, though saddened, comments that our friends in the Democratic Underground are expressing today. A part of this saddness is the recognition that just as “time” moves forward, our experiences -- including many of the most meaningful -- are now becoming the more distant past.

George McGovern lived for 90 years; in that time, he made a meaningful contribution to the Good Fight. He tended his garden in an honorable way ….not only far more so than Dick Nixon, but than almost any other politician of the past 100 years. We can keep that garden alive, by taking a small sprout from George’s garden, and nurturing it in our own. And that is the most important tribute we can pay to this honorable man.

Thank you,
H2O Man

27 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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George McGovern's Garden (Original Post) H2O Man Oct 2012 OP
... xchrom Oct 2012 #1
Thanks! H2O Man Oct 2012 #2
you bet. it was well said. nt xchrom Oct 2012 #3
You forgot to mention how active C.R.E.E.P. was in reelecting Nixon.... OldDem2012 Oct 2012 #4
CREEP was H2O Man Oct 2012 #11
"you weren`t afraid to face the devil... madrchsod Oct 2012 #5
Very good! H2O Man Oct 2012 #12
A beautiful post livetohike Oct 2012 #6
Thanks! H2O Man Oct 2012 #13
Rec--a fine tribute panader0 Oct 2012 #7
Thanks! H2O Man Oct 2012 #15
. lunatica Oct 2012 #8
Thank you. H2O Man Oct 2012 #16
Beautifully said, my dear H20 Man... CaliforniaPeggy Oct 2012 #9
Well, thank you! H2O Man Oct 2012 #19
Right on, H2O Man... immoderate Oct 2012 #10
Well said. H2O Man Oct 2012 #20
"...how very hard it can be to inhabit the earth..." immoderate Oct 2012 #22
Huge K & R!!! Zorra Oct 2012 #14
I worked with him for a few days during the campaign Liberal In Texas Oct 2012 #17
Lovely tribute for Senator McGovern. Raster Oct 2012 #18
Beautiful Waterman malaise Oct 2012 #21
kick kentuck Oct 2012 #23
Very appropriate....I think he would appreciate it....n/t Rowdyboy Oct 2012 #24
I voted for McGovern n 1972 burrowowl Oct 2012 #25
A beautiful tribute sabrina 1 Oct 2012 #26
K&R midnight Oct 2012 #27

OldDem2012

(3,526 posts)
4. You forgot to mention how active C.R.E.E.P. was in reelecting Nixon....
Sun Oct 21, 2012, 11:22 AM
Oct 2012

...they were as dirty back then as the GOP operatives are today. Watergate was just the tip of the entire crooked Nixon/GOP enterprise.

H2O Man

(73,323 posts)
11. CREEP was
Sun Oct 21, 2012, 01:18 PM
Oct 2012

a part of the Watergate crimes (thus, it was mentioned). "Watergate" is the name given to the wide-range of criminal activity uncovered, examined, and prosecuted -- in part -- by the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Elections (re: The Erving Watergate hearings), and by the numerous criminal prosecutions of the said creeps and other administration crooks.

Certainly, the entirety of the crimes remains unexamined. Just as one example, the Ehrlichman and John Paisley meetings at the White House in 8-1971, 5-73,and 4-74, have never been examined in a public forum that would expose their actual purposes.

madrchsod

(58,162 posts)
5. "you weren`t afraid to face the devil...
Sun Oct 21, 2012, 11:24 AM
Oct 2012

you were no stranger to the rain....

go rest high on that mountain

son your work on earth is done....

vince gill "go rest high on the mountain"

livetohike

(22,084 posts)
6. A beautiful post
Sun Oct 21, 2012, 11:25 AM
Oct 2012

and yes, George McGovern was my first Presidential vote. Let us not ever lose that idealism .

CaliforniaPeggy

(149,298 posts)
9. Beautifully said, my dear H20 Man...
Sun Oct 21, 2012, 11:37 AM
Oct 2012

What a great and lyrical tribute to this honorable man.

I thank you.

 

immoderate

(20,885 posts)
10. Right on, H2O Man...
Sun Oct 21, 2012, 01:09 PM
Oct 2012

I will always think of honesty when I consider the career of George McGovern, my first presidential vote. I cannot imagine any contemporary politician matching him.

He, with the help of the Vietnam war, helped my conversion from the misguided "Scranton Republican" I feigned being in the early sixties, partly to rebel against my family, to the anti-war radical I became in the late sixties, which also displeased my family. (My mother, in particular, a WWII vet herself, always "supported the troops." I didn't know about McGovern's war record at the time, to counter that.)

With McGovern, I felt I had "returned to the earth." Not just figuratively, but in a spiritual, environmental sense. It tuned me to the notion that we cannot survive as a species unless we can adopt a more humanistic attitude toward our place in existence.

Thanks for your tribute to the greatest presidential candidate of my lifetime.

--imm

H2O Man

(73,323 posts)
20. Well said.
Sun Oct 21, 2012, 08:55 PM
Oct 2012

Your third paragraph hit an interesting note with me. I had been out at my pond before I wrote the OP. That's where I engage in my daily routine of what, for lack of better words, might be described as prayer and meditation. I feed the birds and fish, and then try to recharge the old batteries ..... and try to find some balance in the on-going (I almost wrote "never-ending," which would not be correct!) struggles with health issues; family responsibilities; and trying to contribute to the Good Fight. And, of course, I was thinking about 1972, and my experiences then, as well as some powerful things that DUers had said about that time.

I thought about how very hard it can be to inhabit the earth, and be part of the world ("civilization&quot at the same time. So reading your comment brings a big smile to this old and wrinkled face! Thank you for that!

 

immoderate

(20,885 posts)
22. "...how very hard it can be to inhabit the earth..."
Sun Oct 21, 2012, 09:58 PM
Oct 2012

Made me think about my ongoing, long term debate with a Libertarian friend. He has an obsessive "hatred" of liberals, denies climate science, hates democracy, hopes that Romney can steal the election, all in the name of "rational thought."

We put up with a lot, don't we?

--imm

Liberal In Texas

(13,453 posts)
17. I worked with him for a few days during the campaign
Sun Oct 21, 2012, 07:00 PM
Oct 2012

making regional TV commercials. I though he was a nice, wonderful and smart guy. He would have made a great president and our country all the poorer that he wasn't elected, but the world is better because he was in it. RIP sir.

sabrina 1

(62,325 posts)
26. A beautiful tribute
Sun Oct 21, 2012, 11:52 PM
Oct 2012

He was a hero of WW11 something that always shocked his detractors on the Right whose image of a hero is guided by the fantasy character portrayed by Bush. A real fFighter Pilot who actually flew dangerous missions over Europe.

The Pilot's Creed

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds, – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless falls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor eer eagle flew –
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.


RIP Senator McGovern
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