Wayne Morse of Oregon

Senator Wayne Morse spoke the truth when it was needed, not just quietly coming around years later to say it, sheepishly, when it was safe to say it, and only when prodded, mincing words about it as much as possible.

Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon (1900-1974)

I once went to a speech he gave in the middle 1960's in which he said these words:

My grandchildren will be proud of me that I was one of only two people in the Senate who voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

Ernest Gruening of Alaska was the other Senator who voted against it.

I see videos from time to time of the abuse Muhammad Ali took when he spoke out against that war, refused to participate in it, and lost his job and more for doing so.

I experienced the same kind of thing for telling the truth and refusing to participate in it: infinite abuse, subject to arrest every night I came home for years, wondering what the hell is wrong with everyone around me that they supported the horror with such superior fervor – I think you have to have lived it, experienced it yourself, in order to understand and to believe that it is even possible, never mind so very real.

It's been a long time since then – fifty years – and probably very few USA'ers remember Wayne Morse's name. But I remember his face when he said his grandchildren would be proud of him for voting against that resolution, against all those people posing as patriots around him. I can see his face as he said it, even now. Just to remember it brings that thrill of recognition of reality.