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Tony Bouza: DFL candidate for governor
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| Contributor | Craverguy |
| Last Edited | Craverguy Jun 02, 2008 04:11pm |
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| Category | Profile |
| News Date | Friday, August 19, 1994 10:10:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | It was a laid-back, wine-and-cheese setting - gentle sunshine, a quiet lake, clumps of birch trees sprinkled along the shore - plus a becalmed Tony Bouza chatting with some of Bemidji's literati.
"Who are your political heroes, the individuals you admire most in politics?" asked a writer.
"Cincinnatus," he said. "Lincoln, of course, and Beethoven, Shakespeare, Socrates."
"Cincinnatus was a Roman general in the 5th century B.C.," Bouza hurried to explain. "He was living quietly in the country when he was twice asked to lead the Roman legions in times of crisis. He won great battles and, though Rome was at his feet, he turned his back on all the adulation and each time returned to his farm."
Bouza identifies with Cincinnatus. He's the cop who feels he has served the republic - actually, New York City and Minneapolis - well. And now, at age 65, he's come out of retirement to perform one last, great service - be Minnesota's governor.
The audience quickly made the connection, despite his protestation that he doesn't equate himself with any of his heroes. But the listeners were puzzled about Beethoven. Why was he on a list of political heroes?
Bouza got excited: "Liberty, justice and equality! The French Revolution! That's what Beethoven was writing about in the Third Symphony. He dedicated it to Napoleon, but was bitterly disillusioned when Napoleon invaded Russia. So Beethoven scratched the dedication and named the symphony the Eroica."
And Socrates? "Life unexamined isn't worth living. He tells us it is a constant search."
Shakespeare, an astute observer of the human condition, made the point that evil men don't always look the part. "Richard III was a brave man with a pretty face, just like today's Dirty Harrys and Michael Sauros, but they're all evil."
As for Lincoln, having to send young men off to die in combat "tortured his soul," but his war to end slavery was a "calculated risk to make us a better people." |
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