After the announcement of the passing of U.S. Representative Jim Oberstar, I received news release after news release from his political colleagues expressing disbelief and heartfelt sorrow. Even though I sometimes disagreed with Congressman Oberstar, I share those sentiments. It is hard to believe the eloquent statesman with the big grin and hearty laugh is gone.
As I searched my photo archives for a photo to accompany our article about the loss of our former 8th District representative, I remembered the many times I was privileged to visit with Congressman Oberstar through the years.
I remember how nervous I was when Congressional Aide John Schadl contacted me the very first time, back in 1999. Schadl said Congressman Oberstar was coming to Grand Marais and he wanted to meet with the local media. I was a nervous wreck. I had never interviewed anyone as important as a U.S. Congressman.
It went very well. The congressman and I walked over to Blue Water Café and had an interesting discussion over pie and coffee. He was very friendly—to me, to the staff at Blue Water, and to several people that he recognized. I was very impressed that he so easily remembered people that I was sure he only saw occasionally.
We visited for probably half an hour and I asked—and jotted down his answers—to what I thought were good, hard-hitting questions.
We walked back to the office, I took the congressman’s picture, capturing the ever-present grin and as he was preparing to leave he asked if there was anything he could do for us.
Yes, there was, Publisher Hal Kettunen told him. We were having problems getting our newspapers delivered in a timely manner to our readers in the Twin Cities. For some reason, people in Arizona or Pennsylvania were getting their papers faster than subscribers in Bloomington or Edina. Is there anything that can be done about that, Hal asked.
Congressman Oberstar listened and nodded and went on his way. I sat down to type up the interview, to record the answers to those hard-hitting questions and realized that the congressman, the consummate politician, had smoothly directed the conversation to the topics he wanted to discuss. I had some great comments on a variety of issues, none of which I had set out to ask. It was a good interview, just not what I expected.
We wondered if Congressman Oberstar’s assurance that he would do something about our poor postal service was genuine or if it was political grandstanding. It wasn’t—the very next day we received a phone call from the person in charge of the Minneapolis Post Office facility, asking what he could do to speed up the delivery of our newspaper. This everso helpful official offered tips on sorting and labeling and things improved. It was nice to know that our congressman went to bat for our small town paper.
I had several more interviews with Congressman Oberstar over the years and I learned to bring written questions and to refer to them frequently. As I struggled to stay on task during interviews, I was always amazed at how articulate he was. If Jim Oberstar had not been a legislator, he could have been a television or radio personality. His ability to speak without notes on just about any subject introduced was impressive.
I didn’t always agree with what Congressman Oberstar had to say in interviews. In fact there were times I vehemently disagreed with him, but I always appreciated the respectful way he explained his position.
One of my favorite memories of Jim Oberstar was during the tour of Gunflint Trail to see the devastation wrought by the Ham Lake wildfire. Traveling in a caravan of U.S. Forest Service personnel, county officials and media from around the region, I watched while Oberstar found a way to connect with everyone. He had flown over the still-burning wildfire the day before and he used that knowledge to reassure distressed residents that there was still a lot of green. He was the one who pointed out the bright green plants pushing through the burnt soil at one of the stops. He was sure his beloved Northwoods would return.
Jim Oberstar bolstered the spirit of everyone on the tour of the fire-ravaged forest. He promised that he would do all he could to get phone service restored and to get FEMA money to help those who lost use of their property. He followed through on that and it was just one of the many ways he served Minnesota through the years.
Thinking back to the post office incident, I wasn’t surprised at all.
The politician who
never made a mistake
never made a decision.
John Major
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