Write Your Epitaph NOW!

Remembering Senator George S. McGovern 

1922-2012

 There can be no doubt that in his half century career in the public arena, George McGovern never gave up on his principles or determination to call this nation to a higher plan.  America will be better because of him.   Sen. Bob Dole

 Each of us has the opportunity to begin to write an epitaph before we "get that way."  Do we know what we live for--who we live for--and does our life show that forth?  

We saw that quality in George S. McGovern. His death holds up a standard of integrity which I find lacking in the current campaign--or at least, it is a standard that he upheld which others now struggle to maintain. As one pundit observed, no candidate has shown one ounce of humility.  Not so McGovern, though he lost by a landslide to Nixon, he did not spend a lifetime smearing Nixon after he resigned from office. The resignation said enough.  Years later, he attended the funeral of Pat Nixon, and when asked why he would come, he said that life is not about campaigning.  

Even in declining years, McGovern dedicated himself to his original mission to eliminate hunger in the world.  He began as JFK’s appointee of the Food for Peace program and ended as recipient of the World Food Prize.  

George McGovern fed the nation in many ways as a statesman.  I shall never forget his concession to Nixon in 1972 as he parted with these words from Yeats: 

Think where man’s glory begins and ends,

And say my glory was I had such friends.

The lesson from George McGovern is that lived his epitaph before he even died.  That’s purpose and integrity.