Perhaps you’ve never met a Youpper.  Perhaps you’ve never been there either— to the upper peninsula of Michigan, where beer freezes at football games in the late fall.  Youpper’s are a hardy lot.  They can easily give Green Bay Packer fans a run for their money.  And at this time of year everywhere in upper Michigan looks like Frostbite Falls.  If you are hardy enough to live there, it is not entirely surprising that you are hardy enough to stand by your principles even in the face of “the proud man’s contumely”. Such a person is Bart Stupak, a Democratic member of Congress.  He is the sponsor of the Stupak amendment to the current healthcare legislation, as in “let’s not call abortions a form of health care, because its bad for the mother and worse for the child”.   It is possible he could singlehandedly derail the passing of the healthcare legislation.  He has endured no end of abuse and critique and shunning and the like from many of his fellow Democrats, but in fact he is not alone.  There are 10-11 other Blue Dog Democrats who agree with Stupak on this matter.   Here is an inspirational story of voting your conscience and sticking by your guns from this morning’s paper— see what you think.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/us/politics/07stupak.html?th&emc=th