Lynch at Large

I well recall registering to vote for my first election, 22 years old at the time, at the Cascade County Courthouse in Great Falls, Montana. The proudest vote I have ever cast as an American citizen was for a hero and a patriot, George McGovern.

Today, I am still so honored to have been given the opportunity to vote for a practical politician, seasoned by war, and still married to the only woman he ever dated, and endued with a true love for people.

When such an icon of greed and corruption as Dick Cheney dares rise to verbally assault such a fine gentleman, it is heartening to see that Sen. McGovern has not lost his fire.

In the war of my youth, World War II, I volunteered for military service at the age of 19 and flew 35 combat missions, winning the Distinguished Flying Cross as the pilot of a B-24 bomber. By contrast, in the war of his youth, the Vietnam War, Cheney got five deferments and has never seen a day of combat — a record matched by President Bush.

Cheney charged that today's Democrats don't appreciate the terrorist danger when they move to end U.S. involvement in the Iraq war. The fact is that Bush and Cheney misled the public when they implied that Iraq was involved in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks. That was the work of Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda team. Cheney and Bush blew the effort to trap Bin Laden in Afghanistan by their sluggish and inept response after the 9/11 attacks.

UPDATE: Somehow the death of Elanor McGovern on January 25 in Mitchell, S. D. had escaped my note. They began dating in 1940 while attending college.