I am privileged to have grown up in a time when leadership was incumbent on integrity and humanity. I remember, especially now, the senator from Minnesota, Hubert H. Humphrey. He was always representing the dignity of every individual and his heart and soul will forever be remembered as fundamentally sound and good. He taught like a professor, spoke like a gentleman, lived like a common citizen and he said these words:

“It is not a question of whether or not we can pile up more wealth, it is a question of whether or not we can live together, different creeds, different races, different cultures, different areas — not as homogenous people, but rather as a pluralistic society where we respect each other, try to understand each other and try to help each other.”

I believe that men and women in our world still understand this and still live and die for the meaning of those words.

He is also known to have said as only he could do, metaphorically consternating back in the day when tolerance was nondescript.

“It is the special blessing of this land that each generation of Americans has called its own cadence and written its own music and our greatest songs are still unsung.”

In our politics as usual these days, divisiveness and the oddly contentious debates are going nowhere and leading toward an unsettling future. So the memory of the senator from Minnesota still helps to shape our present when we recall his words. Truly, I think it is possible that national and local leadership can have lasting influence and always be a source of inspiration and guidance.

Pamela S. Slette

Albert Lea