Do I know how my parents felt? I think I am beginning to grasp the feeling of having someone you could honestly, unabashedly and emotionally embrace as a true leader, and then watch as he is taken from you before his time. Is this what it felt like for them, when Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. were taken out in a matter of months? Paul Wellstone was a hero, pure and simple. He was not murdered, we assume, like those hallowed 1960's leaders, but he came to his death too soon, nonetheless. He was a Senator and true politician for only 12 years. A political baby.

Paul Wellstone did not have the societal impact of Martin Luther King, but who else has? And despite his brief flirtation with running for the office, Paul Wellstone was never going to be President like Bobby Kennedy had a chance to be. He was either too liberal, too middle-class, too Jewish, too short or just too honest for that. But really, who cares? He was a member of a 100-person club that decides many things about the way we all live. He may have at times been a voice in the wilderness, but he was my voice. And now he is gone.

There are those on the left and right who criticized Wellstone either for not being an effective legislator or for not bringing the party back to its liberal ideals. That's like saying Louis Brandeis and Oliver Wendell Holmes were not effective Supreme Court justices because they were constantly writing dissenting opinions. Wellstone was a voice, and although many may not realize it, he was quite effective at his job and getting better all the time.

Ask Macalester students about the horrendous Bankruptcy Bill in the Senate. Nine out of ten will have no clue what it means, yet everyone should. It would eliminate virtually all protections for those in dire financial straits (such as college students with too much credit card debt to pay the bills). Instead of giving people help, the government will let credit card companies and their friends assume crushing control of people's lives. No one knows about the bill except for the credit card companies and the politicians who just bought new beach houses courtesy of MBNA and First USA.

Yet the morally bankrupt, bipartisan Bankruptcy Bill has been clogged up in the Senate for a few years now. Why? Because Paul Wellstone alone used every guerilla legislative tactic possible to do so. He gets no credit for this except in political circles. Even if he personally stopped the law for just two years, he should be a hero to scores of Americans. He cared about people down on their luck while the rest of the Senate looked the other way. And although he does not have a huge legacy of bills we can look back on, look at the climate in which he served. He himself said the majority of his work was simply stopping the march of this country further and further to the right. He was a Senator who apparently showed up at the Capitol after hours just to get to know the janitors who cleaned the hallowed halls. He stood only five foot five yet was so much taller in life.

We talk about the rarity of voting your conscience, yet for Wellstone it was a shock the few times he did not (Patriot Act, Defense of Marriage Act). He refused to accept the Senate tradition of not actually recording votes when its known a bill will pass easily. Twice there were times before an election when the political wisdom said he could not vote his conscience, but he did anyway by voting against Welfare Reform in 1996 and against the impending war in Iraq a few weeks ago. Each time, he was the only vulnerable Senator to do so. He knew that he was defined by doing what was right.

Even as I write this, watching old interviews with him, he energizes me. One of the few times I met him was at a political fundraiser in Philly right around college selection time. During the mandatory handshakes my dad mentioned to him that I was looking at Carleton and Macalester. He turned as he was walking away and mentioned we should talk colleges, which is what every politician would say. The difference is that ten minutes later he found me, and he, Sheila Wellstone and I discussed where I should go. He asked me what I was looking for in a school, where I was from, what I wanted to do in life. He recommended Macalester. The man was at a fundraiser to run for President, and took ten minutes of his time to talk to a 17-year-old kid about colleges. Who else would do that?

Paul Wellstone was simply a decent, honest man. He had a wife he loved and who shared his passions. He had a daughter who took a semester off from teaching at a public school to campaign for him, including multiple trips to Macalester. And he had us. True believers. Who replaces him? Who gets the total trust I had in him to do the right thing, the just thing? Do I know how my parents felt?

Rest in peace, Senator Wellstone. Millions of Americans will miss your presence, whether they have heard your name or not.