Letter of the day: Celebrate Sen. Robert Byrd as a symbol of American change

The late Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., will no doubt will be compared to another former long-serving senator, South Carolina Republican Strom Thurmond. Both were once conservative Democrats with racist and prosegregation pasts who voted against the Civil Rights Act. But when America changed, Thurmond did not, and he later switched parties to become a Republican. Byrd, conversely, became a champion for the weak and needy regardless of race. He also remained independent, such as when he became one of only four Democrats to support the nomination of Justice Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. And while the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., will be more remembered and revered, Byrd's tenure and tenacity did as much for the party as Kennedy. If Kennedy was the heart of the party, Byrd was the conscience of it, as his own political changes cut the party away from its segregationist past for good. I celebrate Byrd's life as one of hope and in honor of America and its ever-changing landscape.WILLIAM CORY LABOVITCH, SOUTH ST. PAUL