George McGovern

NOTE: Senator George McGovern passed away Sunday, October 21, 2012.

Former Senator George McGovern (D-SD), 90, has entered a hospice near his home in South Dakota and, in his daughter's words, is nearing the end of his life. This man is a national treasure who has never received the full respect that he deserved. He was a B-24 bomber pilot who flew combat missions over Nazi Germany and a true hero in World War II. He was a minister, a history and political science professor, and a Congressman before becoming the first director of President Kennedy's Food for Peace program. Sen. McGovern has remained active in the fight against world hunger all of his life. He served two terms in the House and three in the Senate but is perhaps most remembered for his unsuccessful bid to prevent President Richard Nixon's re-election in 1972, running on a platform of ending the war, cutting defense, and granting amnesty to draft evaders. The 1972 election took place after what would become the Watergate scandal had broken but before the populace had awakened to it and before Nixon had been disgraced. Nixon won in a landslide. I remember during the campaign I was separated from my husband, whom I loved almost more than life itself. He told me I could come home if I promised to vote for Nixon and not McGovern, that he would have no McGovern supporters in his house. As much as I loved him, I had to say no. I cried for weeks, but he never knew this. But my vote was not for sale. 

McGovern is primarily remembered for his activism against the Viet Nam War and his work to end it, with many people forgetting even his bravery and heroism in WWII, and, in our polarized society, with some still holding his anti-war stance against him. He co-sponsored the McGovern-Hatfield Amendment to defense appropriation bills in 1970 and '71, which, had it succeeded, would have ended the war by cutting off funds. He addressed the Senate and said the following:

"Every Senator in this chamber is partly responsible for sending 50,000 young Americans to an early grave. This chamber reeks of blood. Every Senator here is partly responsible for that human wreckage at Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval and all across our land—young men without legs, or arms, or genitals, or faces or hopes. There are not very many of these blasted and broken boys who think this war is a glorious adventure. Do not talk to them about bugging out, or national honor or courage. It does not take any courage at all for a congressman, or a senator, or a president to wrap himself in the flag and say we are staying in Vietnam, because it is not our blood that is being shed. But we are responsible for those young men and their lives and their hopes. And if we do not end this damnable war those young men will some day curse us for our pitiful willingness to let the Executive carry the burden that the Constitution places on us." Afterward, a fellow senator told McGovern that he was offended. "That is what I meant to do," McGovern replied. 

Send your positive energy, your thoughts, your prayers or daimoku to this remarkable man as he makes this transition. We are losing a giant.

    NOTE: Senator George Stanley McGovern died Sunday, October 21, 2012.