This is a great read for anyone, but especially for those not familiar with Floyd B. Olson:
http://www.startribune.com/stories/357/4964378.html
The vandals who want to remove the name of Floyd B. Olson from a Minnesota highway and rename it for the late thespian, Ronald Reagan, know they have no chance of succeeding. But they don't care, because their goal is not to rename a highway. Their goal is to make Minnesota into Mississippi and turn a state that was once proud of its progressive heritage into a state ignorant of its own history.
The angry revisionists are trying to erase any vestige of the prosperous and successful Minnesota built by generations of visionary leaders on all sides -- Democrat, Republican and third party. In order to tear history down, they have to tear down Olson, who they are sliming as a Socialist while trafficking in the trade of all tyrants: making political opponents disappear down the memory hole.
The son of a Norwegian immigrant railroad worker who grew up in polyglot north Minneapolis speaking several languages, he won fame battling corruption as a Democratic Hennepin County attorney appointed by a Republican County Board. During the 1920s, he joined the Farmer-Labor Party, a grass-roots reform movement, and became its most recognized champion. He was elected governor for the first time in 1930, as the Depression began to harden. He won again in 1932 and 1934, becoming a confidant of Roosevelt and a nationally known reformer who helped pioneer elements of Roosevelt's efforts to get America on its feet.
"He didn't put on airs," an observer said in his day. "People with callused hands or dirty hands or the big bankers. He treated everyone the same."
Olson died in 1936 at age 44, cancer cutting short a career that might have taken him to the White House (he was running for the U.S. Senate when he died). As many as 100,000 people came to his memorial service at the old Minneapolis Auditorium, listening on loudspeakers on the packed streets outside while rabbis, priests and ministers mourned his passing.
Hmmm...Progressive Minnesotan who "didn't put on airs" dies while running for the Senate. Sounds like a familiar story. After reading this today my Mom said that she recalls there were a lot of people who were suspicious about Olson's death. I had a history professor at the U who said the same thing. Apparently the cancer came on suddenly but remember,they didn't have the diagnostic tests in 1936 that they have now. Besides, he was friends with the president.
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