Fighting Bob La Follette; Quotes of Others; Suggested Actions

Robert Marion “Fighting Bob” La Follette, Sr. was an American Republican politician from Wisconsin. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, was the Governor of Wisconsin, and was also a Wisconsin U.S. Senato serving from 1906 to 1925. He ran for President of the United States as the nominee of his own Progressive Party in 1924, carrying Wisconsin and 17% of the national popular vote. La Follette has been called “arguably the most important and recognized leader of the opposition to the growing dominance of corporations over the Government and is one of the key figures pointed to in Wisconsin’s long history of political liberalism.

Fighting Bob La Follette was born in a log cabin in the Town of Primrose, Wisconsin. He grew up on a farm in rural Dane County, Wisconsin. Following the death of his father in 1856 and the subsequent death of his stepfather, his mother sold the family farm and moved to nearby Madison, Wisconsin. He studied at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he was deeply influenced by University president John Bascom on issues of morality, ethics and social justice. La Follette studied oratory and, during his senior year, won a major Midwestern oratorical competition.He graduated in 1879.

He met Ms.Belle Case while attending the University of Wisconsin, and they married on December 31, 1881, at her family home in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Bell became a leader in the feminist movement, an advocate of women’s suffrage and an important influence on the development of La Follette’s ideas. Robert La Follette attended law school briefly and passed the bar in 1880.

After a long and influential political career, Fighting Bob La Follotte died in Washington, D.C., on June 18, 1925, of cardiovascular disease. He was buried in the Forest Hill Cemetery on the near west side of Madison. After her husband’s death, Belle Case La Follette remained an influential figure and editor.

1. In response to the President Obama’s 2014 State of the Union address, the National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE) issued the following statement to the President: “In the coming months as you make key decisions regarding climate change and energy policy, we urge you to be guided by a moral framework that includes not only being responsible stewards of God’s creation, but protecting poor and vulnerable populations in the US and abroad while meeting our obligations to future generations”. (NRPE 2/4/2014). SUGGESTED ACITON: Demand, strongly, that your elected governmental officials uphold the values you cherish and your rights to “liberty, justice, and pursuit of happiness”, which includes FREEDOM FROM HARM BY GLOBAL WARMING! THINGS YOU MIGHT DO: CALL THEM; WRITE THEM; SEND THEM AN EMAIL; OR BEST YET, VISIT THEM IN PERSON. Do not expect other to do this because they might be thinking that same thing. DO IT NOW!

2. “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. (President John F. Kennedy, 1/20/1961). SUGGESTION: Americans should do everything in their individual and collective power to protect and preserve our world’s natural and human environment, including those of other countries, without discrimination, death and destruction

3. “Free men of every generation must combat renewed efforts of organized force and greed to destroy liberty.” (Robert M. La Follette, 1924)

(To be continued…)