U. S. Senator Wellstone was the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, born in 1944 and raised in Arlington, Virginia. His mother was a cafeteria worker and his father was a writer and federal employee. His father left Russia shortly before the Stalinist purges took the lives of Paul's grandparents. A Jew, a politician who dared to criticize Ronald Reagan, and a Senator who voted against the Iraq war (http://www.wellstone.org/). Some would say that's about as un-American as you can get. Not me! That's the kind of pride and guts this country was founded on.

I was born in the backwoods of Alabama, and we didn't have any Jewish families living on Ghost Mountain, or at least none that I knew of. All I knew about Jews was what I had heard and it's not fit for printing. My first encounter with a Jew was not a good one. I was working in Las Vegas at a job that allowed me to carry a concealed weapon. As I was driving home one night, I saw two guys trying to beat up an old man. I say trying because the old man was giving the two would-be robbers more than they bargained for. Since he was holding his own I didn't rush in, I just watched. But it wasn't long before the odds and youth started to take their toll on the old guy, so I made my presence known thinking the two would not like the new odds and leave. One of the robbers pulled out a weapon and started in my direction. That was a mistake since my weapon was much larger and far more deadly than his. To make a rather long story short, the two would-be robbers left the area in need of much medical attention. As I was driving the old guy to the hospital to get some stitches I said, "Old timer, you're one hell of a fighter." He answered, "When you're a Jew, you have to fight or they'll kill you." That really took me back. I said, "Hell, had I known you were a Jew, I wouldn't have stopped to help you." He looked at me, and with tears in his eyes asked, "Why?" I didn't know why and told him so. We were friends until his death.

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