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Dear List Members. I thought you would benefit from reading the honorary sentiments expressed by Bob Dolezal. >Date: Thu, 12 Jun 1997 18:09:33 -0700 (MST) >X-Sender: [log in to unmask] >To: [log in to unmask] >From: [log in to unmask] (robert l dolezal) >Subject: Mo's 75th > >Margaret - This will be on the editorial or op-ed page of the AZ Daily >Star this Sunday. > > Bob >To the editor: > >Morris K. Udall is seventy-five years old today. > >Mo is dying, of complications related to Parkinson's disease. He lies, >mute and unmoving, in a hospital bed. It is doubtful that he understands >much of what happens around him. > >In 1961, when Jack Kennedy asked Stew Udall to head-up Interior, younger >brother Mo won the special election and replaced Stew in the House. How >long ago was that? Well, a rent ad appeared in the STAR declaring "Colored >Welcome," the $87 billion federal budget was $3 billion in the red and the >Republicans were screaming for fiscal responsibility - and Mo was >thirty-nine. He spent about $8,000 on that campaign. He would remain in >office thirty years. > >While a youngster in St. David, his attitude toward life was affected by >the loss of an eye. It seemed to harden his resolve. He became an >all-conference basketball star - a scorer - at the U of A. In Washington, >he quickly led a band of freshmen in a revolutionary campaign to change the >seniority system - and he succeeded. He achieved power, without hurting >others. > >Mo is most remembered for his advocacy of Arizona issues - the CAP one of >the grandest - and the environment. He listened to all sides. He used his >power to help those without. > >No one ever bought his vote, or questioned his ethics. He was proud to be >named "Legislator of the Year" by a national nuclear coalition the same >year the Sierra Club gave him its "Caribou Button." > >He believed in government. "There is no civilization I know of where a >majority of the people own or could anticipate owning their own home - the >FHA was a real winner!" > >Mo came within a few thousand campaign dollars and a few votes - Carter >squeaked by in Wisconsin - from winning the 1976 Democrat presidential >nomination. > >Called "a national treasure," "an institution in his own time," and "one of >the great legislators of our time," many now call him America's "last true >statesman." > >I miss him. > > > > > Margaret Tuchman (55yrs, Dx 1980)- NJ-08540 [log in to unmask]