Robert Byrd - many lives or many incarnations

He was the major voice in the Senate against the Iraq war, echoing the many, many of us 'small people' who spoke and rallied against it before it began.  If Hillary had listened to him, she'd be Prez.  (Of course, if I'd listened to my then-wife and not rallied and spoken against that upcomingness of war, I might still be married and have avoided the long-term horrors and short-term thrills of the last six years!) Aw, shit.

Byrd was a lot of things, and had been a lot more, long ago; but he stood up against this war, as opposed to other idiots like the [haha] EX-Senator from Oregon who lamented the war by 2008 but pled that he - A U.S. SENATOR, FOR GOODNESS SAKE - had "just tried to be a good soldier" [for Bush].  Well, he was a fucking 'good soldier' and thousands died.  But, Robert Byrd, already ancient, ill and impaired, stood up.

I've made plenty of errors, so I find it easy to forgive and forget his KKK activities in the distant past - he evolved, he improved, and finally ... when it really counted on a crucial and actually life-and-death issue, he stood up, and stood tall, and took the heat.