Tactical Media: Untold US political affairs
U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone (Democrat- Minnesota) was killed last week in a small plane crash in a rural area of the state
The cause of the crash is unknown.
It has been raining, possibly sleet, in the 30s Fahrenheit, reported a contributor
to Nettime
There are a few things of mention that are not making it into the local and national media yet which are circulating in decentralized networks which are worth mentioning, he says today.
So far there has been confusion surrounding the
crash of the small plane carrying the Senator, his
wife, daughter, three campaign staff, and two pilots.
What is emphasized is that there was an intense fire
right after the crash, that they were expecting to find a flight data recorder, which was not present on this flight, and that the plane made a strange turn roughly two miles from the rural airport landing, thus the wreckage was not facing the runway, as it would if it were approaching to land.
The Federal transportation and safety workers have been investigating the crash site, and have yet to issue any strong indication of why the plane crashed.
A comment from a local pilot underplays the roll of the slight amount of sleet, and the issue of de-icing the wings on the plane, as if it were not a credible reason for the crash.
The major point is that it may
take weeks and months to know why the plane crashed,
and an after-crash intense fire, in a wet and icy bog, may have devastated potential evidence.
What is not mentioned is mischief, sabotage, and other
forms of crash scenarios.
Once, on a radio call-in show,
such a hypothesis was mentioned and quickly disregarded as completely absurd from a local public radio host.
Word online is also circulating with speculation of a confusion about the facts of the crash, and why the possibility of an assassination politics is not being considered in the ongoing investigation, to set minds at ease that at least it is being looked at in depth, until the conclusive cause is found, as the people need to know, and trust, their government.
Questions
This is not to say that people believe the crash was intentional, only that it is a question needing to be addressed, such as knowing that the airport of the plane's departure, its flight records, people on or near the airport prior to the flight, are looked at extensively in case there was 'terrorist' or other sabotage involved.
If these things are not looked into, evidence could be lost, or public speculation and distrust could grow to levels that would
demand the investigation fully resolve this open question.
On another note, there is a public memorial tonight that
is happening at the University of Minnesota's Williams Arena, which has dignitaries including former Presidents Carter and Clinton, and Vice President Gore attending, as well as many US Senators.
Vice President Cheney, and the
President of the United States, George W. Bush, are not
attending the services-- Yet, within these next six days,
President Bush will be in Minnesota two different times
to stump for the Republican senate nominee during what is
eerily like two other recent elections, the voting fiasco
of the last presidential elections, and the race won by
a senator killed in a small plane prior to an election.
That the President of the United States can campaign two times in the next 6 days in this state, for the Republican
senate candidate, and blithely not attend the memorial of
a U.S. Senator is hard to put into perspective, beyond a
political ruthlessness that transforms democracy into tragedy.
The Republican candidate also swore not to campaign during
the days after the horrific plane crash, of great loss to
the state, and did so for one day, when a political ad on
the television had the challenging candidate's mother with her son, sitting at a table, disparaging Senator Wellstone who was killed a day or two before, mentioning him as 'that other guy' who wanted to harm the candidate's
mother by way of robbing her of her social security.
Maybe it was a mistake, and yet there was no widely available public retraction or
recognition that this previous television advertisement was
a complete mistake, and damaging to public civility.
It was then taken up by Republicans on Sunday morning political TV
roundtable shows, with political spin powered by the federal Republican political committees trying to stop an unstoppable momentum in rejection of politics as usual.
That is, Walter Mondale, a well-respected former Senator,
Vice President in the Carter Administration, and Ambassador to Japan, who has brought people into a sense of unity, after the breaking apart of the fragile peace and chaos of fate.
It is now official that Mr. Mondale will take on the job to bring Minnesota back into the fray, and the only thing that
can try (in vain) to stop it would be a massive voter fraud issue, as are mysteriously appearing in two adjacent states.
One thing is certain, Minnesotan's are not going to lose their Senator and also accept an inconclusive election, especially if a surprise victory goes to the statistically unlikely candidate, no matter what may happen elsewhere.
Good news?
The good news, besides a phoenix rising, the chanting of
songs, the momentum of people who deeply believe and desire democratic governance, and representers who can carry dreams onward, upward, is that of the Wellstone family grave, in the
most beautiful of locations at the Lakewood Cemetery in South Minneapolis, hovering above Lake Calhoun, one in the chain of city lakes and a part of the legendary parkway system here.
On the afternoon of the public memorial, where many thousands will be gathering, at the cemetery on the day after the burial of Senator Paul Wellstone, and his wife and daughter, it is strangely alone in a most magical time, space, and place.
If one is to convey the general effect, it is to encounter freshly
dug earth, with some sod unrolled around the family grave. A humble bouquet of flowers sits atop the soil, unmarked, and from here, one finds oneself within one of the most beautiful of settings from which to contemplate how spectacular life is.
Trees, small animals, a beautiful lake, light, sun, wind, and a sense of peace and a civic scale extending across the lake, mirroring the sky in the waters, bringing the worlds together.
Thus, with the trees reaching up, the dirt so rich as its new
residents, brings a sense of completeness to the public mission for democratic action, at any and all costs- to do what is right, and then, to rest. In peace.
Courtesy of Nettime.org
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