Biden emphasized Mondale’s empathy, recalling his own promise during the 2020 presidential campaign to bring the country together. That’s something the president has veered away from in recent weeks, as he seeks to draw a sharper contrast between his administration and congressional Republicans who have opposed it on nearly every major issue.
“It was Fritz who lit the way.” Biden said. “Everyone should be treated with dignity. Everyone.”
Biden added of Mondale: “He brought people together who shared the light, the same hopes, even when we disagreed, he thought that was important.”
“It’s up to each of us to reflect that light that Fritz was all about.”
The 90-minute, invitation-only service on Sunday inside a stately campus auditorium featured copious organ music. Biden, who received a standing ovation, said he spoke with Mondale’s family beforehand and that he himself “got emotional.”
Democratic Senator Tina Smith called Mondale a “bona fide political celebrity” who still made time for races big and small in her home state. Minnesota civil rights icon Josie Johnson spoke about what a good listener Mondale was and how he championed inclusion.
Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar described once being an intern climbing under chairs and a table to take inventory of furniture when Mondale was vice president.
“That was my first job in Washington. And, thanks to Walter Mondale, this was my second,” Klobuchar said of being a senator, noting that Mondale encouraged her to run and taught “the experts in Washington how to say my name.”
Democratic Governor Tim Walz said that Minnesota may be better known as Mondale’s home state than by its nickname “The Land of 10,000 Lakes”, praising Mondale’s intellect, humility, humor and optimism.
“He embodied a sense of joy. He lived his life every day,” Walz said. “At 91 years old, he was still fishing walleye. Unlike me, he was catching something.”
A handout handed out to attendees for the “evening of remembrance and reflection” quoted from Mondale’s 2010 book, “The Good Fight”: “I believe the values of the American people: our fundamental decency, our sense of justice and fairness , our love of freedom, are the country’s greatest assets, and that being guided by its North Star is the only true way forward.”
Its back cover featured Mondale’s face along with the tagline “We told the truth. We obeyed the law. We kept the peace,” which Klobuchar described as remembered after the then vice president said them at the end of the Carter administration.
Mondale is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and its law school, which has a building named after him. During Sunday’s remembrance, Biden wiped his eyes as “Tomorrow” from the musical “Annie” was performed, and the service closed with the university’s marching band, which sent people off with the fight song “Minnesota Rouser.” .
Mondale followed a path blazed by his political mentor, Hubert H. Humphrey, serving as Minnesota’s attorney general before replacing Humphrey in the Senate. He was Carter’s vice president from 1977 to 1981.
Mondale also lost one of the most lopsided presidential elections in history, to Ronald Reagan in 1984. He won only Minnesota and the District of Columbia after bluntly telling voters to expect a tax increase if he won. But he made history in that race by choosing Rep. Geraldine Ferraro of New York as his running mate, becoming the first major party candidate to put a woman on the ticket.
Mondale remained a major Democratic voice for decades afterward, serving as ambassador to Japan under President Bill Clinton. In 2002, at age 74, he was recruited to run for Senate again after Senator Paul Wellstone was killed in a plane crash shortly before the election. Mondale lost the abbreviated race to Republican Norm Coleman.
Reference-www.bostonglobe.com