by Rick Dancer

I don’t know if everyone feels like I do but I have this strong urge to help right the wrongs of this world.

I never really knew that about myself until working on this documentary film on Senator Mark Hatfield. We wrapped up the last of our interviews (more than 50) last Friday.

I sit a few feet from people who loved Mark Hatfield. I ask questions, dig for information, and listen to a great story unfold about a great man. The people we interview worked with him, were the recipients of his grace, kindness and friendship and I am awed by what he left behind.

Senator Mark Hatfield was a man who was all about righting the wrongs of this world. He stood alone, he stood strong but he never tried to stand out which is why he did.

I watch people talk about him and many get tears in their eyes because he cared about them, not just their issue and never for a vote.

People who rubbed elbows with this man will never be the same. The stories we’ve heard from the mighty and the meek are so consistent, because Mark Hatfield was a model of consistency in a sea of turbulent waters driven by polls and popularity.

He supported the restoration of Indian Tribes in Oregon because it was the right thing to do, not the popular thing to do. He stood for life and against war. He didn’t stick his finger in the air to see how the wind was blowing, he stuck his neck out for us, for Oregonians because he loved this state and all that it could become. His name is everywhere, on buildings, monuments and protected land but his heart is in us and that is what he truly cared about.

Now we will begin the process of going over all the tape, listening to all those interviews and creating the story Mark Hatfield leaves behind.

As I drive back from Salem I’m thinking a lot about righting, wrongs and doing what’s right verses what’s popular. My skin is growing thicker as I think of what it takes to stand alone, really stand alone, especially in the culture we’ve created of distrust and public relations gimmicks.

Could a Mark Hatfield survive politics today? We asked everyone and the answer will be in the final product for all to see.

Perhaps what made Mark Hatfield such a good leader is he really was like us. He was independent, he cared about the big picture and never forgot why he was doing what he did….and he never stopped listening.

I believe the measure of a good man, of a good woman is not necessarily what they do, but what they leave behind in those they serve. And that is why so many consider Mark Hatfield one of the great Oregonians.

After talking to over 50 people on camera, we’ve completed our planned interviews for The Hatfield Project. Our final two interview sessions took place in locations that we believe represented Sen. Hatfield well.

On November 4th, we set up at the First Baptist Church of Portland to interview several former staff members. We interviewed Craig Honeyman, Tom Imeson, Rick Rolf, Tom Maginnis and Joan Schaub. The First Baptist Church was a wonderful host and shared some of Sen. Hatfield’s history related to the church. He joined in 1996 and continued to be a member until he died last summer. They said that the Sunday ushers knew him well and were aware of his habit of arriving late, after everyone was seated, and then leaving just before the service concluded.

The church in particularly proud of The Vincent Fund, which Sen. Hatfield and his wife Antoinette set up in memory of Antoinette’s father. The fund helps feed about 30,000 meals a year to low income and homeless individuals in downtown Portland.

Last Friday, December 9, we interviewed representatives from three of Oregon’s Tribes. Delores Pigsley (Siletz), Sue Shaffer (Cow Creek), Cheryle Kennedy and Kathleen Tom (Grand Ronde) provided outstanding interviews about Sen. Hatfield’s dedication to restoring Oregon’s Tribes. We conducted the interviews in The Hatfield Room at the Hatfield Library at Willamette University. Special thanks to Willamette University for allowing us to use the space.

Now we head into post-production. We estimate needing just $60,000.00 to complete the project. That money will go toward having the 50+ interviews transcribed, reviewing and editing together the documentary, and paying licensing fees for any photos and video/film footage needed.

If you can help, please click DONATE to give online via debit or credit card. You can also mail a check to The Hatfield Project, 16869 SW 65th Ave. #444, Lake Oswego, OR 97035. Thank you for you support!

Senator Mark Hatfield died August 7, 2011 at the age of 89. Oregon, America & the world are better for his service. Thank you Senator. Our prayers & condolences go out to Senator Hatfield’s family, wife Antoinette and children Elizabeth, Theresa, Mark & Visko.

Today, July 12th, is Senator Hatfield’s 89th birthday.

In his daily email, Carl Cannon at RealClearPolitics.com wrote a nice piece on Sen. Hatfield to mark this occasion:

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, July 12, 2011, the birthday of Mark O. Hatfield, who turns 89 today. A two-term governor of Oregon, Hatfield was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1966, the same year Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California. The careers of the two western Republican icons intersected, but did not exactly parallel.

In 1964, the year Reagan launched his political profile with a national speech in support of GOP presidential nominee Barry Goldwater, Mark Hatfield was the keynote speaker at the Republican convention in San Francisco. Hatfield used that venue to denounce both the war in Vietnam and political extremism. You might say he was at odds with his party: Goldwater was the candidate who had joked about lobbing a nuclear bomb into the men’s room at the Kremlin, and who also, in his acceptance speech at that 1964 convention, employed the word “extremism” approvingly.

It would not be the last time Hatfield went his own way, but in our era of severe political polarization, it’s important to remember that he didn’t fit the tribal template of party politics in his own time. An evangelical Christian, Hatfield opposed abortion — as well as war. His views of the latter were informed by his service in United States Navy during World War II where he participated in the landings at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Later, he was among the first wave of Navy officers to visit Hiroshima after it was destroyed by a U.S. atomic bomb.

Hatfield was no Tea Party guy, either. He was a proud dispenser of pork barrel projects back to his native state, and he saw no conflict between helping the timber industry while also working to set aside 2 million acres of wilderness in Oregon. Nor was Hatfield the kind of lawmaker who believed an opposition senator’s job was to assure the defeat of the sitting president of the other party. He thought it was to get things done. As he told Timothy Egan of the New York Times in 1994 after the Republicans came to power on Capitol Hill: “I’m prepared to work with the White House. I can’t afford to be a partisan guerrilla.”

And knowing he wasn’t an easy man to label, Hatfield just shrugged when accused of being too liberal. “Lincoln was a liberal,” he replied.

We are excited to announce that President Bill Clinton has sent us an interview he conducted this week for the Hatfield Project. His statement is a moving tribute to the leadership Sen. Hatfield exhibited throughout his service in the US Senate. Special thanks to former Hatfield staffer Keith Kennedy for his assistance securing the interview, and to Hatfield Project producer Rick Dancer for coordinating it with the Clinton Foundation!

If you’d like to help us complete the project, please click the “Donate” button on the site.

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