Former United States Senator Thomas Eagleton, a short-lived vice-presidential candidate, recently passed away. In his last days the Missouri Democrat wrote his own “final words” to be shared at a memorial. Former U.S. Representative Les AuCoin (now a professor and blogger), a friend of Eagleton's (and a friend of mine as well), posted the comments this week on BlueOregon:
I am most proud that the "Eagleton Amendment" was the legislative act that finally ended U.S. participation in the dreadful Vietnam War. I am proud of the original version of the War Powers Act, which, had it been enacted as the bill left the Senate, would have re-established the shared powers of the president and the Congress when our nation went to war. This is what our Founding Fathers envisioned.
I am proud that, when Sen. Muskie ran for president in 1972, he directed me to take over our Environmental Subcommittee, and we passed the first major Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. By Muskie's anointment, I was the first vice chairman for a standing committee in the Senate.
After leaving the Senate, I never missed being there - except for the debate on the nomination of Bork and the horrible, disastrous Iraq war. That war will go down in American history as one of our greatest blunders. It will be remembered, in part, as a curse to our Constitution when Attorney General John Ashcroft attempted to put a democratic face on torture. Vice President Richard Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld also will go down in history for their total lack of planning for post-war Iraq.
Eagleton has a record anyone could be proud of. What most people remember about the senator, of course, is that concerns about mental health treatment he had received drove him from the 1972 race for the White House. His legacy, however, will be that the controversy didn’t keep him from serving with distinction in the senate.
But what struck me most about his self-written eulogy were his thoughts on faith:
Finally, a word about the Catholic Church. This may seem to be a strange topic to be raised by me, but we are here in church, and this is my final word. I do not pretend to be the world's greatest Catholic. Nevertheless, I think the Catholic Church is a vital part of American life, conscience and thought. Just as our Constitution is a remarkable, living code of governance and made relevant to the time in which we live, so, too, the doctrine of the Catholic Church is a living code of moral behavior and belief which must be relevant to the time in which we live. Its timeliness relies upon its capacity to adapt.
I am a Pope John XXIII and an Archbishop John L. May Catholic, believing in what they said and what I believe they would have said had they lived longer.
The outreach of the Catholic Church from Pope Pius IX to Pope Pius XII was not the outreach of Pope John XXIII. It is John XXIII who made the Catholic Church relevant to the 20th century, and future popes must make it relevant to the 21st century. It was Archbishop May who made the Catholic Church relevant to the 20th century in St. Louis. In the era of a Christian right, we seem to have merged God's power into political power.
I am an optimist about death and believe there is a there there. Somehow, in some manner, I will be meeting my parents, my brother and my friends. Somehow, Bob Koster will be waiting for me to tell me where I can buy everything 10 percent off.
So go forth in love and peace - be kind to dogs - and vote Democratic.
Amen.
