My praise of George McGovern

   With the death today of George McGovern, the former U.S. senator from South Dakota and a Democratic presidential nominee, I remember fondly that I was one of the 18-year-olds in 1972 who first got the right to vote in a presidential election and I cast my first vote for McGovern. It was a proud moment for me that has never diminished over the years.

   Well, that was also the year of the Nixon landslide, though two years later Nixon would resign in disgrace. But the initial election victory of the criminal (Nixon) over the decent man (McGovern) taught me a lot at that young age. It taught me that the American majority is not always correct. It taught me that bad can win over good but that good has a greater, longer role which usually leads to vindication (as it did with McGovern). It taught me that I should follow my beliefs, based on a lot of reading and research, which often are contrary to notions of the crowd. And it means, to the woe of some of my friends at places like Facebook who prefer less political and social-issues talk, that if there's a forum, I can't self-impose silence over issues or matters that I care about.

   Look, I went through a time when a criminal defeated an honorable and decent man and my nation was at stake. It would be horrible to not speak up.