Two Birthdays

The following is from local Democratic activist Bud Lewis:

October 22, 1966, a date that is difficult to forget…two really life changing events took place late that night and they well forever be entwine in my being.

It had been a long afternoon and evening in the hospital in that small north east South Dakota town. We were waiting for the birth of our second child and the days leading up to this day were difficult. The doctor that we had gone to was out of town for a while and his associate had recommended that we induce labor. That had not worked and when our doctor returned he was upset. “Babies vell come when they are damn good and ready!” he said. He should have known…he had delivered two brothers and a sister of mine. He was Jewish and perhaps the best doctor that I ever knew.

As a child in that town during World War II there was some question in that town about a “Jew” being there. My dad had struggled with the prejudice and hatred of that community but had persisted and protected and supported a man that was to become his life long friend. Many children were delivered, many lives were saved and many illness’ were cured buy this healer. All were done, as I recall, with the faith of a human with pride and dignity.

As I sat in the waiting room for the “event” to happen, the time sped by and the night deepened. My son was staying with friends at home while we waited. I felt the presence rather than seeing the man enter and sit near me. It was when he spoke that I looked up and saw a tall handsome man of dignity looking at me with concern on his face. He asked if some one was ill and my answer was that we were excited about the birth of the second child. He nodded knowingly and smiled. He related that he was there because his aged mother was not going to live through the night, so he wised to share the last few moments with her. I did not know what to say, but he said, in the word of a popular song of the day “there will be one child born to carry on!” “I guess that that one child will be yours.”

We talked of his parent’s life as minister and wife in the various communities of South Dakota and there were many common paths that our lives had taken. I too, had grown up in a minister’s house and they had also served churches in South Dakota. I was greatly impressed by the compassion of this man, of his background and his wisdom.

Naturally talked turned to politics. He asked me for my opinion of things and I sensed that he really listened. I proudly proclaimed “I am a conservative!” His response changed my life forever. He looked deeply into my eyes and said, without hesitation “Yes, I can see that you conserve the rights of all people, the freedoms that have been won, you conserve the dignity of all people and their right to live the way that they see fit. I see that you would fight for the rights of the poor and oppressed, and that you conserve the right of all to be successful.”

“But you are NOT a regressive conservative, resisting change, stepping on the dignity of others because they are different than you. You believe that all people are equal, not that some are more equal than others, and above all else you believe in conserving the rights and dignity of every person, regardless of circumstance.”

The nurse called then, “Senator McGovern, you should come. Your mother is asking for you. It may be the time!” I shook his hand and felt a special strength in him that I had never known in another person. The other nurse called me at that time, almost 12:00, “Bud, come and see your daughter, she is beautiful!” She was and is.

I followed the path that man took over the next twenty years and regardless of the smears and assignations on his character I never saw him lose that dignity he showed me that late night. I have never forgotten those lessons, never lost my respect for the dignity of all people, and never lost the respect and awe I felt for that man. I raged with anger as a young man when the things were said to belittle him. Yet if I saw him on TV or in person, I saw the dignity that he taught me that night so long ago.

My beautiful daughter will turn 40 this October 22, 2006. Many things have happened and many things have changed. She has given me two beautiful grandchildren, smiles that melt my heart and a hug once in a while that give me happiness.

Not so with the lessons taught by the Senator. They have shared pain and sorrow, disappointment and discouragement, frustration and sadness. But you cannot have one with out the other, you cannot understand how important that hug is unless you know the pain that others feel with they are denied the essence of America, the right to their dignity. In many ways it is worse today than back then, but there will always be the hope of better because of him.

Bud Lewis