Last Thursday evening I attended the Wellstone Action meeting at 
River City Books to discuss former Senator Paul Wellstone’s book 
“The Conscience of a Liberal“. It was a sparsely attended meeting, but the discussion was vigorous. I was unfortunately late, having attended a meeting with folks from the DFL House Caucus about my campaign. I was a little surprised to see my counterpart, Rep. Ray Cox, at the meeting. As I entered the room, Tom Swift, the moderator, was talking about conditions of many workers today and cited the book ‘Nickled and Dimed‘ by 
Barbara Ehrenreich as a good explanation of how hard some people have to work to just barely make it. 
There was an effort to talk about Paul the man beyond the party partisan, perhaps to include Ray in the discussion, which lead to an expression of disappointment that the school board did not approve a request to name the new Middle School after Paul and Sheila Wellstone. There was some explanation offered about the process of naming a building, and Ray mentioned that as there was only one Middle School so that there is not a need to name it as there is with the multiple elementary schools.
Some asked what Wellstone Action hoped to accomplish, and if it was indeed nonpartisan. Tom indicated he believed it was nonpartisan. I added having been to a Wellstone training camp that that was my experience but that it seemed to be an effort to carry on the legacy that Wellstone began as a teacher. That legacy is offering his students hands-on experience in helping people become empowered through the political process and improving their lives for the better. Wellstone trained many students in this way who have gone to carry out this work. Much of it outlined in another book of his ‘How the Rural Poor Got Power‘ that is a case history of Organization for a Better Rice County. 
Patti Fritz, running for House District 26b is prominent in that book and a great example of living politics.
As the meeting closed the participants encouraged Tom to arrange for another meeting and have the topic be Health Care Reform.
In the meantime, there will be another meeting held by a different group on Monday night. Per Bill McGrath’s posting today, Betsy and Brian McMahon, PPG members who live in Faribault, are facilitating the discussion in the Buckham Memorial Library in downtown Faribault. It begins at 7 p.m.