7.28.2003

Carry it forward.

A bumpersticker on the SUV of a Republican Senate staffer at the Minnesota state capitol reads, "It’s time to park the bus"—a reference to the iconic green bus driven by the late Senator Paul Wellstone and the countless Wellstone yard signs and bumperstickers that remain displayed nine months after his death. It joins the particularly caustic bumpersticker that reads, in trademark Wellstone green and white, "He’s Dead, Get Over It." While Democrats speculate that GOPers are behind the stickers, Republican spokesman Randy Wenke suggests the opposite: "For all I know Democrats put this on the car themselves in order to try to energize their base."

If the "Get Over It" crowd thinks Wellstone’s legacy went down in that plane in northern Minnesota, think again. Carry It Forward, a new film by Lu Lippold and Laurie Stern, will tell the story of Sheila and Paul Wellstone’s progressive populism, while WellstoneAction, a grassroots group founded by Mark and David Wellstone, is working to train armies of community activists in their dad’s brand of progressive organizing. It seems the bus is just getting rollin’ again.

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