Tom Harkin: “I do not go quietly into the night. I do not give up struggling to be a responsible contributor to the sacred continuum…”

“I do not go quietly into the night. I do not give up struggling to be a responsible contributor to the sacred continuum of human life. I do not give up struggling to overcome my weakness, to conform my life--and that part of my life called death--to the great values of the human dream. Death is not a tragedy. It is not an evil from which we must escape. Death is as natural as birth. Like childbirth, death is often a time of fear and pain, but also of profound beauty, of the celebration of the mystery and the majesty which is life pushing its horizons towards oneness with the truth of mother universe. The days of dying carry a special responsibility. There is a great potential to communicate values in a uniquely powerful way--the person who dies demonstrating for civil rights. Let my final actions thunder of love, solidarity, protest-- of empowerment. I call for solidarity among all who love justice, all who love life, to create a revolution that will empower every single human being to govern his or her life, to govern the society and to be fully productive of life quality for self and for all.”