Where Have You Gone Henry Bellmon? Our State Turns Its Lonely Eyes to You.

I loved the times, when as a child, the family would sit in my grandparents’ living room. It was customarily after a holiday get-together. Dinner dished had been washed and put away. Grandma often passed a box of homemade candy and talk would go to “back in the day”.
*
Ancestor stories and legends from days gone by were told with relish and glowing descriptors. We knew every one by heart, but loved to hear them again: the times Grandpa and Uncle Melvin would stir up a skunk’s nest every time they didn’t want to go to school, the day Great Grandfather Jackman caught Grandpa and Uncle Melvin running around the yard in the schoolmarm’s bloomers, or the time Grandfather saw Teddy Roosevelt and got to shake the President’s hand.
*
We also heard great stories of steadfast men and women who took courageous stands for the right, whether it was popular or not. People who suffered hardship, personal loss and ridicule because they stood for the right, not the popular. As my family was keen on honesty, the stories never became exaggerated or changed. We knew they were stories to believe.
*
At he end of the evening, Grandfather or Grandmother would bring the benediction with the blessing, “Well, those were the days. We could sure use people like that today”.
*
I felt that way when I heard the sad news that former Governor and Senator, Henry Bellmon had lost a courageous fight with Parkinson’s disease. Henry Bellmon was just plain good. He was a statesman, not a politician and refused to walk in the sewer of back room politics. He was polite, forthright, honest and always tried to do what he felt was right. He refused to settle for political expedience when his morals demanded thee right decision. Shunning the hardliners he took difficult stands in voting to return the Panama Canal to Panama and pushing through monumental Public Education legislation which stands yet today as the Legislature’s historical public education high watermark.
*
Uppermost, Governor Bellmon was a man of deep spiritual faith. Refusing to wear his religion on his sleeve, his beliefs were never prostituted for political gain. Simply put, he lived his values, he didn’t pimp them for votes.
*
Naturally these traits, his moderate views, private religious values and sincere personal respect for philosophical opponents alienated him from his own party. Aborted by right-wing fanatics, he was shunned by those who had so much to learn. It sad that Democrats are in no position to cast stones across the aisle.
*
Saddest of all is that Henry Bellmon’s life takes its place among the ancestor stories of great statesmen, “Back in the day.” Mr. Bellmon, we already miss you.