heroes of the republic

this week jim jeffords died.

last week marion milne died.

jim jeffords was mostly a republican, but he was a vermont style moderate republican, which these days is not very much like being a regular republican. yeah, in vermont we have liberal republicans and conservative democrats. we have this odd little thing in which the two group get together and try to sort out their differences to benefit the greatest number of people of the state of vermont and we know we can't always get our way.

senator jeffords was a good and decent man. i was going to add stuff on to that sentence but really it's the whole of the story. he was good and decent and he worked hard for the public good, the good of the nation and the good of the state.

marion milne was a republican state legislator elected for two terms with support of both democrats and republicans. she was also good and decent, and her political career came to an end when she voted with her conscience and against her conservative constituents on the matter of civil unions. in her eyes it was a matter of fairness for all citizens of this state.

often i have a lot of snarky things to say about politics, but i have nothing snarky to say about either of these giants.

they were heroes of the republic.