Mark O. Hatfield RIP

Mark Hatfield, former Oregon Governor and Senator, has died at age 89.

He was known around Congress as St. Mark because of his high moral standards. He was rather religious. He had regular prayer meetings. But he prayed only with rich guys from the timber industry. They were very nice. They gave him large loans which he was never asked to repay. As Jesus commanded in the Sermon of the Mount, they forgave his debts.

I think he also got the government to give a large sum of money to a private college in return for their admitting his idiot son.

My own memory of Hatfield was the time I was at my job in a downtown furniture store. My car was parked in front. It was a twenty-year-old Toyota which was rather banged up. The front end was pushed in which put the radiator perilously close to the fan, and one of the engine mounts was broken. I looked out. An old man in a Cadillac was trying to parallel park behind me. He pulled forward until he hit my car. Then he backed up. Then he pulled forward and hit my car again. Then he backed up again. It didn't seem to do any damage, so, okay.

The old man came inside. And it was former Senator Mark Hatfield!

Later, I went out to my car. I started the engine. Because the motor mount was broken, him ramming into it had cause the engine to shift a bit and the fan tore a hole in the radiator. The car only cost a hundred dollars in the first place, so that was the end of it.

I can't help but wonder if it was the hand of God that tore the hole in that radiator.