A Quote for the Times

We’ve been watching the Ken Burns-Lynn Novick PBS series on the Vietnam War. Along with powerful stories and a great soundtrack, it brought back memories of some of the major political figures of the time. I was reminded of Hubert Humphrey, who was Lyndon Johnson’s Vice President and who lost the 1968 election to Richard Nixon. Humphrey delivered a speech near the end of his life in 1977 that contained this sentence: “It was once said that the moral test of Government is how that Government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.” Some of today’s politicians would do well to remember Mr. Humphrey’s words as they deliberate the latest “health care” bill.