At 90, Edward Brooke has seen a lot of history. He also has earned a place in it in 1966 when he became the first African-American to be elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote.
Senator Brooke left Capitol Hill 30 years ago after Massachusetts voters turned him out of office, but he returned last week to claim a much deserved honor: The Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award Congress has to honor civilians for achievements and contributions to society.
He had some advice for his successors in Washington, too.
"We've got to get together," he said. "We have no alternative. There's nothing left. It's time for politics to be put aside on the back burner."
Brooke, a Republican who didn't shy from championing causes outside the mainstream of the GOP, may have been referring to the health care debate, but his call for unity could apply to the partisan gridlock over a number of vital national issues.
Putting politics aside for the greater good may sound like a radical idea, but it's actually what used to be referred to as statesmanship in the days when Edmund Brooke served in the Senate.
Bipartisanship wasn't a dirty word then. It was practical politics and Washington was the better for it.
As President Obama, another political trail-blazer, noted, Senator Brooke entered politics "to bring people together who had never been together before." In doing so, Obama said, "He didn't care whether a bill was popular or politically expedient, Democratic or Republican -- he cared about whether it helped people, whether it made a difference in their daily lives."
Thirty years after Edmund Brooke left the Senate, his successors would do well to heed his words of wisdom.