whiskeytown
10-26-2002, 08:34 PM
I'd like to tell you guys about the first time (and only time) I met Paul Wellstone.
I was a very poor board operator for KSTP-AM 1500. (at the main talk station for Minneapolis/St. Paul in the midday shift for Barbara Carlson and Rush Limbaugh...:) -)A radio graduate, fairly right wing, working for a whacko host in the mornings...LOL
One day, Babs brought Senator Wellstone in for something...an interview, a bill he was sponsoring, I don't remember what....I was prone to wearing an army jacket and growing my hair out...thus making me an object of fear for more then the casual observer...LOL
I walk back to the coffee room, and Senator Wellstone was there waiting for the show with his staff....maybe he thought he saw an ally in the Right Wing bastion of talk radio (and I was/still border on the right side of the fence) - nevertheless...within a few seconds of making eye contact with a guy some have confused as being homeless, he comes right over and grabs my hand...
"Hi, I'm Paul...Paul Wellstone..."
What do you do...say "uh, Hi, Paul...I know...I'm yer board operator...LOL" - I think I said..something to the effect of , Hi, I'm Russ...Bab's board operator...LOL - but from that one point...I got the impression that if he knew I had never voted for him, he still would have come over and given me the introduction....
I have deeply admired him as a Senator, even when I didn't agree with him. In light of the more recent issues with Enron, Worldcom, etc, etc...perhaps he was more on target then I gave him credit for...Perhaps I was an undecided voter this year...I dunno.
I believe we have truly lost a great man and Senator...even though I disagreed with quite a bit.. (but hey...no one agrees one hundred percent with anyone...) - I deeply will miss his humane attitude...and my prayers are also with the family still surviving...all of MN grieves with them at this time...
I thought everyone here would enjoy that story, and my impressions of who I thought was a very good man...a very honest and passionate Senator (notice, I didn't say Politician) - and I will truly miss him very, very much....I feel like the U.S. Govt. is now a little less human again with his passing /forums/images/icons/frown.gif
Russ Brown "whiskeytown"
I was a very poor board operator for KSTP-AM 1500. (at the main talk station for Minneapolis/St. Paul in the midday shift for Barbara Carlson and Rush Limbaugh...:) -)A radio graduate, fairly right wing, working for a whacko host in the mornings...LOL
One day, Babs brought Senator Wellstone in for something...an interview, a bill he was sponsoring, I don't remember what....I was prone to wearing an army jacket and growing my hair out...thus making me an object of fear for more then the casual observer...LOL
I walk back to the coffee room, and Senator Wellstone was there waiting for the show with his staff....maybe he thought he saw an ally in the Right Wing bastion of talk radio (and I was/still border on the right side of the fence) - nevertheless...within a few seconds of making eye contact with a guy some have confused as being homeless, he comes right over and grabs my hand...
"Hi, I'm Paul...Paul Wellstone..."
What do you do...say "uh, Hi, Paul...I know...I'm yer board operator...LOL" - I think I said..something to the effect of , Hi, I'm Russ...Bab's board operator...LOL - but from that one point...I got the impression that if he knew I had never voted for him, he still would have come over and given me the introduction....
I have deeply admired him as a Senator, even when I didn't agree with him. In light of the more recent issues with Enron, Worldcom, etc, etc...perhaps he was more on target then I gave him credit for...Perhaps I was an undecided voter this year...I dunno.
I believe we have truly lost a great man and Senator...even though I disagreed with quite a bit.. (but hey...no one agrees one hundred percent with anyone...) - I deeply will miss his humane attitude...and my prayers are also with the family still surviving...all of MN grieves with them at this time...
I thought everyone here would enjoy that story, and my impressions of who I thought was a very good man...a very honest and passionate Senator (notice, I didn't say Politician) - and I will truly miss him very, very much....I feel like the U.S. Govt. is now a little less human again with his passing /forums/images/icons/frown.gif
Russ Brown "whiskeytown"