Gaylord Nelson

[KeithE]

Here is a genuine hero. An environmentalist before it became fashionable and stayed one even when it has become unfashionable under W.

I heard of Sen. Nelson through my dad who grew up in the same small impoverished town (Clear Lake, WI). They went to the same one-room schoolhouse I remember dad saying and he was proud to be a friend. It appears (from the article) that Gaylord was 1 year older than my dad.

I further remember a rare argument between my parents over the budding environmental movement that Gaylord was certainly a major father figure for. It seemed my mother's main objection was the company that Sen. Nelson kept (those evil Vietnam protestors) in pulling together the first Earth Day. The mystique was that the early environmental movement was subversive & anti-American largely because the anti-Vietnam crowd were a bunch of hippies probably under the influence of pot. My dad would just say Gaylord wasn't that way at all and my mom would argue back that Gaylord was probably a communist sympathizer (she was a John Burch society supporter and avid listener to Stuart McBerny sp? - a radio preacher(?) who largely raled against creeping communism and the Civil Rights movement). Both my parents were also great people but I have come to trust my quiet dad's opinions more.

Anyway my dad was right here - Gaylord Nelson was a great American who sponsored/supported many of the 70's environmental laws that W is declaring null and void by Executive Order (not the constitutional way of legislative action) Over 400 relaxations of environmental law by Exec Order (read the archives by year by scrolling down a touch and it is on the left [no pun intended]).