THE TEN THINGS I LEARNED FROM RONALD REAGAN
1. Trust in God. Even if.
2. Pray for your enemies. Even though.
3. Call what is good, 'good'. And call what is evil, 'evil'.
4. Then act accordingly.
5. Optimism is a communicable ease.
6. Class is its own reward.
7. Reagan was both a hedgehog--who knew one big thing...AND a fox, knowing many little things. His detractors remain over-educated asses, who know everything--and badly.
8. When you finally succeed in moving the mountain, those who opposed moving it in the first place will say:
a.) that the mountain would have inevitably moved on its own, anyway.
b.) that you were just lucky it moved while you were in charge.
c.) that it was actually the hostile tribal chieftain encamped on the mountain who made it move.
d.) "We're not really for Mountainism--we're just anti-anti-Mountainist!"
And lastly,
e.) "Hey; we helped move the mountain, too!" (while secretly clinging to the belief that the mountain was just fine where it was.)
9. America is the greatest country in the world, with one exception;
10. There are no exceptions.
Saturday, July 10, 2004
Prescient at Creation
"I am apt to believe that it [Independence Day] will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, for evermore. You will think me transported by enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this declaration and support and defend these states. Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means, and that posterity will triumph in that day's transaction, even though we should rue it, which I trust in God we shall not."--John Adams
"I am apt to believe that it [Independence Day] will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, for evermore. You will think me transported by enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this declaration and support and defend these states. Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means, and that posterity will triumph in that day's transaction, even though we should rue it, which I trust in God we shall not."--John Adams
"One if by land, Two if by Sea..."
There has recently been modest effort to defend historic North Church against the ravages of the "silent artillery of time"...and memory.
The taxpayers are funding repairs of this National Landmark, and Barry Lynn, who uses the title "Rev." when it helps him advance his anti-Christian bigotry, said "that if Revere were alive today, he would 'ride around the country, saying your tax dollars are being abused and warning that the church-state separation wall has just seen another crack.' " Another crack-pot, maybe.
We thought we'd take him up on his challenge and ask Paul Revere himself:
(With apologies to Longfellow)
Listen, tax-payers and you will hear
of the Midnight ride of Paul Revere.
Where are you going at this hour, Paul?
Playing some Midnight basketball?
Or, are you a war-monger,
spreading intolerance and hate,
and breeching the wall between church & the state?
I can't help but notice you carry a musket;
Paul, they're illegal from here to Pawtucket.
You wear a tri-corner and their coats are red;
Is that any reason to fight 'til one's dead?
To our modern eyes, these are indicia;
"My God! I think he's in a militia!"
You see, Paul, some things have changed since your day;
If we saw you now, we'd lock you away.
That horse that you're riding out in the yard;
He too, has rights, and you ride him too hard!
And the lanterns your friend carried up to the tower
relied upon whale oil for their shining power!
And that shop in town where you were a smithy;
must comply with our rules; there's a million & fifty!
Talk back not, and cast no aspersions,
Or we'll drop by to see if you've hired enough Persians.
On April 15th and each day of the year,
we pay and we pay on what we have earned dear.
We've got money for Egypt, money for zoos,
plenty of money for removing tattoos.
Money to study love-lives of emus,
and money for mohair where no hair ever grew.
Money for 'artists' wearing nothing but chocolate,
Money for bombs that make awe and make shocklets.
But here is a thing that you would find odd;
No money for North Church...Someone said "God"!
I know what you're thinking as you shake your head;
You think that you're safe, Paul; but we tax the dead.
You're saying to us: "Why on earth did I bother?...
Have my children forgotten the Flags of their Fathers?
And whence all this anger at all your traditions?
How did you come into this strange condition?"
"Some worship money, some worship science,
some merely shake their fists in defiance.
Some worship power, some worship Nature,
some worship the Devil, and worse: Legislatures!
Your fathers were brave, ringing Liberty's Bell,
and Acknowledged their Father who blessed them so well.
But ponder this thought as you seek your solution:
Without that church tower...
...There'd be no Constitution."
There has recently been modest effort to defend historic North Church against the ravages of the "silent artillery of time"...and memory.
The taxpayers are funding repairs of this National Landmark, and Barry Lynn, who uses the title "Rev." when it helps him advance his anti-Christian bigotry, said "that if Revere were alive today, he would 'ride around the country, saying your tax dollars are being abused and warning that the church-state separation wall has just seen another crack.' " Another crack-pot, maybe.
We thought we'd take him up on his challenge and ask Paul Revere himself:
(With apologies to Longfellow)
Listen, tax-payers and you will hear
of the Midnight ride of Paul Revere.
Where are you going at this hour, Paul?
Playing some Midnight basketball?
Or, are you a war-monger,
spreading intolerance and hate,
and breeching the wall between church & the state?
I can't help but notice you carry a musket;
Paul, they're illegal from here to Pawtucket.
You wear a tri-corner and their coats are red;
Is that any reason to fight 'til one's dead?
To our modern eyes, these are indicia;
"My God! I think he's in a militia!"
You see, Paul, some things have changed since your day;
If we saw you now, we'd lock you away.
That horse that you're riding out in the yard;
He too, has rights, and you ride him too hard!
And the lanterns your friend carried up to the tower
relied upon whale oil for their shining power!
And that shop in town where you were a smithy;
must comply with our rules; there's a million & fifty!
Talk back not, and cast no aspersions,
Or we'll drop by to see if you've hired enough Persians.
On April 15th and each day of the year,
we pay and we pay on what we have earned dear.
We've got money for Egypt, money for zoos,
plenty of money for removing tattoos.
Money to study love-lives of emus,
and money for mohair where no hair ever grew.
Money for 'artists' wearing nothing but chocolate,
Money for bombs that make awe and make shocklets.
But here is a thing that you would find odd;
No money for North Church...Someone said "God"!
I know what you're thinking as you shake your head;
You think that you're safe, Paul; but we tax the dead.
You're saying to us: "Why on earth did I bother?...
Have my children forgotten the Flags of their Fathers?
And whence all this anger at all your traditions?
How did you come into this strange condition?"
"Some worship money, some worship science,
some merely shake their fists in defiance.
Some worship power, some worship Nature,
some worship the Devil, and worse: Legislatures!
Your fathers were brave, ringing Liberty's Bell,
and Acknowledged their Father who blessed them so well.
But ponder this thought as you seek your solution:
Without that church tower...
...There'd be no Constitution."
Friday, June 11, 2004
AVE ATQUE VALE
Ronald Wilson Reagan, American, 1911-2004
California and the Problem of Government Growth
January 5, 1967
"Perhaps you and I have lived with this miracle too long to be properly appreciative. Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again. Knowing this, it is hard to explain those who even today would question the people's capacity for self-rule. Will they answer this: if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? Using the temporary authority granted by the people, an increasing number lately have sought to control the means of production, as if this could be done without eventually controlling those who produce. Always this is explained as necessary to the people's welfare. But, "The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principle upon which it was founded" [Montesquieu]. This is as true today as it was when it was written in 1748."
"Government is the people's business, and every man, woman and child becomes a shareholder with the first penny of tax paid. With all the profound wording of the Constitution, probably the most meaningful words are the first three: "We, the People." Those of us here today who have been elected to constitutional office or legislative position are in that three-word phrase. We are of the people, chosen by them to see that no permanent structure of government ever encroaches on freedom or assumes a power beyond that freely granted by the people. We stand between the taxpayer and the taxspender."
When Reagan says "Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again," even he was wrong; he returned freedom to Eastern Europe, finishing FDR's, Truman's & Churchill's jobs for them.
In his Farewell Address, he offers more advice:
"Finally, there is a great tradition of warnings in Presidential farewells, and I've got one that's been on my mind for some time. But oddly enough it starts with one of the things I'm proudest of in the past 8 years: the resurgence of national pride that I called the new patriotism. This national feeling is good, but it won't count for much, and it won't last unless it's grounded in thoughtfulness and knowledge."
"An informed patriotism is what we want. And are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world? Those of us who are over 35 or so years of age grew up in a different America. We were taught, very directly, what it means to be an American. And we absorbed, almost in the air, a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions. If you didn't get these things from your family you got them from the neighborhood, from the father down the street who fought in Korea or the family who lost someone at Anzio. Or you could get a sense of patriotism from school. And if all else failed you could get a sense of patriotism from the popular culture. The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special. TV was like that, too, through the mid-sixties."
"But now, we're about to enter the nineties, and some things have changed. Younger parents aren't sure that an unambivalent appreciation of America is the right thing to teach modern children. And as for those who create the popular culture, well-grounded patriotism is no longer the style. Our spirit is back, but we haven't reinstitutionalized it. We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom--freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs protection."
"So, we've got to teach history based not on what's in fashion but what's important--why the Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant. You know, 4 years ago on the 40th anniversary of D-day, I read a letter from a young woman writing to her late father, who'd fought on Omaha Beach. Her name was Lisa Zanatta Henn, and she said, `we will always remember, we will never forget what the boys of Normandy did.' Well, let's help her keep her word. If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are. I'm warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. Let's start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual."
"And let me offer lesson number one about America: All great change in America begins at the dinner table. So, tomorrow night in the kitchen I hope the talking begins. And children, if your parents haven't been teaching you what it means to be an American, let 'em know and nail 'em on it. That would be a very American thing to do."
Yes it would.
In that same speech, he tells a story that sums up how I remember Ronnie:
"...the sailor was hard at work on the carrier Midway, which was patrolling the South China Sea. The sailor, like most American servicemen, was young, smart, and fiercely observant. The crew spied on the horizon a leaky little boat. And crammed inside were refugees from Indochina hoping to get to America. The Midway sent a small launch to bring them to the ship and safety. As the refugees made their way through the choppy seas, one spied the sailor on deck, and stood up, and called out to him. He yelled, "Hello, American sailor. Hello, freedom man.""
Godspeed, Freedom Man.
Ronald Wilson Reagan, American, 1911-2004
California and the Problem of Government Growth
January 5, 1967
"Perhaps you and I have lived with this miracle too long to be properly appreciative. Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again. Knowing this, it is hard to explain those who even today would question the people's capacity for self-rule. Will they answer this: if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? Using the temporary authority granted by the people, an increasing number lately have sought to control the means of production, as if this could be done without eventually controlling those who produce. Always this is explained as necessary to the people's welfare. But, "The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principle upon which it was founded" [Montesquieu]. This is as true today as it was when it was written in 1748."
"Government is the people's business, and every man, woman and child becomes a shareholder with the first penny of tax paid. With all the profound wording of the Constitution, probably the most meaningful words are the first three: "We, the People." Those of us here today who have been elected to constitutional office or legislative position are in that three-word phrase. We are of the people, chosen by them to see that no permanent structure of government ever encroaches on freedom or assumes a power beyond that freely granted by the people. We stand between the taxpayer and the taxspender."
When Reagan says "Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again," even he was wrong; he returned freedom to Eastern Europe, finishing FDR's, Truman's & Churchill's jobs for them.
In his Farewell Address, he offers more advice:
"Finally, there is a great tradition of warnings in Presidential farewells, and I've got one that's been on my mind for some time. But oddly enough it starts with one of the things I'm proudest of in the past 8 years: the resurgence of national pride that I called the new patriotism. This national feeling is good, but it won't count for much, and it won't last unless it's grounded in thoughtfulness and knowledge."
"An informed patriotism is what we want. And are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world? Those of us who are over 35 or so years of age grew up in a different America. We were taught, very directly, what it means to be an American. And we absorbed, almost in the air, a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions. If you didn't get these things from your family you got them from the neighborhood, from the father down the street who fought in Korea or the family who lost someone at Anzio. Or you could get a sense of patriotism from school. And if all else failed you could get a sense of patriotism from the popular culture. The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special. TV was like that, too, through the mid-sixties."
"But now, we're about to enter the nineties, and some things have changed. Younger parents aren't sure that an unambivalent appreciation of America is the right thing to teach modern children. And as for those who create the popular culture, well-grounded patriotism is no longer the style. Our spirit is back, but we haven't reinstitutionalized it. We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom--freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs protection."
"So, we've got to teach history based not on what's in fashion but what's important--why the Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant. You know, 4 years ago on the 40th anniversary of D-day, I read a letter from a young woman writing to her late father, who'd fought on Omaha Beach. Her name was Lisa Zanatta Henn, and she said, `we will always remember, we will never forget what the boys of Normandy did.' Well, let's help her keep her word. If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are. I'm warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. Let's start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual."
"And let me offer lesson number one about America: All great change in America begins at the dinner table. So, tomorrow night in the kitchen I hope the talking begins. And children, if your parents haven't been teaching you what it means to be an American, let 'em know and nail 'em on it. That would be a very American thing to do."
Yes it would.
In that same speech, he tells a story that sums up how I remember Ronnie:
"...the sailor was hard at work on the carrier Midway, which was patrolling the South China Sea. The sailor, like most American servicemen, was young, smart, and fiercely observant. The crew spied on the horizon a leaky little boat. And crammed inside were refugees from Indochina hoping to get to America. The Midway sent a small launch to bring them to the ship and safety. As the refugees made their way through the choppy seas, one spied the sailor on deck, and stood up, and called out to him. He yelled, "Hello, American sailor. Hello, freedom man.""
Godspeed, Freedom Man.
Honor, Gratitude...& Memory
"When we came there, we were attacked by a party of French and Indians...The Virginia troops showed a good deal of bravery, and were nearly all killed; for I believe, out of three companies that were there, scarcely thirty men are left alive. Captain Peyrouny, and all his officers down to a corporal, were killed. Captain Polson had nearly as hard a fate, for only one of his was left. ...I luckily escaped without a wound, though I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me."--a 23 year-old American Militia colonel, Geo. Washington, describes the Battle of Fort Duquesne, July 9, 1755.
(Many years later, an Indian chief sought out Washington. The chief told him that he and his warriors had exerted themselves mightily, yet in vain, to kill Washington during that battle: "We felt that some Manitou guarded your life and we believed you could not be killed." Washington later told his brother "By the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation. Death was levelling my companions on every side.")************
"There they now stood, side by side...with (fire)arms in their hands, silent & fearless, willing to shed their blood for their rights...John Parker, the strongest and best wrestler in Lexington, had promised never to run from the British troops; and he kept his vow. A wound brought him on his knees. Having discharged his gun, he was preparing to load it again, when he was stabbed by a bayonet, and lay on the post which he took at the morning's drumbeat..."--George Bancroft, historian & founder of the Naval Academy, describes the Battle on Lexington Green, where 70-some Minute Men--ordinary citizens, really--faced 700 British Regulars on Apr. 19, 1775.
(The citizens had been warned by Richard Dawes and Paul Revere. They were joined by Dr. Samuel Prescott, who had been visiting his girl-friend in Lexington. When Revere & Dawes were suddenly surrounded and detained, Dr. Prescott and his mount jumped a stone wall and escaped. {'Prescott'?...hmmm...AWOL!AWOL!} When church bells pealed across the countryside, the British fled, freeing Revere & Dawes.)********
"The fighting at the head of the line was fierce and bloody to an extraordinary degree. ...the 'Queen Charlotte' was almost disabled, and the 'Detroit' was also frightfully shattered, especially by the raking fire of the gunboats, her first lieutenant, Mr. Garland, being mortally wounded, and Captain Barclay so severely injured that he was obliged to quit the deck, leaving his ship in the command of Lieutenant George Inglis. But on board the Lawrence matters had gone even worse, the combined fire of her adversaries having made the grimmest carnage on her decks. Of the one hundred and three men who were fit for duty when she began the action, eighty-three, or over four-fifths, were killed or wounded. The vessel was shallow, and the ward-room, used as a cockpit, to which the wounded were taken, was mostly above water, and the shot came through it continually, killing and wounding many men under the hands of the surgeon."
"The first lieutenant, Yarnall, was three times wounded, but kept to the deck through all; the only other lieutenant on board, Brooks, of the marines, was mortally wounded. Every brace and bowline was shot away, and the brig almost completely dismantled; her hull was shattered to pieces, many shot going completely through it, and the guns on the engaged side were by degrees all dismounted. Perry kept up the fight with splendid courage. As the crew fell one by one, the commodore called down through the skylight for one of the surgeon's assistants; and this call was repeated and obeyed till none was left; then he asked, "Can any of the wounded pull a rope?" and three or four of them crawled up on deck to lend a feeble hand in placing the last guns. Perry himself fired the last effective heavy gun, assisted only by the purser and chaplain."--Theodore Roosevelt's account of Captain Oliver Hazard Perry & the Battle of Lake Erie, September 10, 1813.
(Capt. Perry and crew's victory secured the Great Lakes...and kept the nation free of marauding Canadians such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell for another 150 years. It was one of the few good pieces of good news in the War of 1812 {which also gave us our national anthem} until the Battle of New Orleans was won by Johnny Horton. Seriously, although New Orleans was fought after a treaty had been signed, Andy Jackson insisted--rightly--that the British wouldn't have honored the treaty without it. Both Hazard & Jackson had enlisted as 13-year olds; Hazard fought against the Barbary Pirates and Jackson was abused as a prisoner by the British during the Revolution. The British failed to apologize.)***
"There is one who on this day is always present on my mind
(Henry Abbott of the 20th Mass.). He entered the army at nineteen, a second lieutenant. In the Wilderness, already at the head of his regiment, he fell, using the moment that was left him of life to give all of his little fortune to his soldiers.I saw him in camp, on the march, in action. I crossed debatable land with him when we were rejoining the Army together. I observed him in every kind of duty, and never in all the time I knew him did I see him fail to choose that alternative of conduct which was most disagreeable to himself. He was indeed a Puritan in all his virtues, without the Puritan austerity; for, when duty was at an end, he who had been the master and leader became the chosen companion in every pleasure that a man might honestly enjoy. His few surviving companions will never forget the awful spectacle of his advance alone with his company in the streets of Fredericksburg. ...He was little more than a boy, but the grizzled corps commanders knew and admired him; and for us, who not only admired, but loved, his death seemed to end a portion of our life also."
..."It is not of the dead alone that we think on this day. There are those still living whose sex forbade them to offer their lives, but who gave instead their happiness. Which of us has not been lifted above himself by the sight of one of those lovely, lonely women, around whom the wand of sorrow has traced its excluding circle--set apart, even when surrounded by loving friends who would fain bring back joy to their lives?"
..."But, nevertheless, the generation that carried on the war has been set apart by its experience. Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing. While we are permitted to scorn nothing but indifference, and do not pretend to undervalue the worldly rewards of ambition, we have seen with our own eyes, beyond and above the gold fields, the snowy heights of honor, and it is for us to bear the report to those who come after us. But, above all, we have learned that whether a man accepts from Fortune her spade, and will look downward and dig, or from Aspiration her axe and cord, and will scale the ice, the one and only success which it is his to command is to bring to his work a mighty heart."******
..."But grief is not the end of all. I seem to hear the funeral march become a paean. I see beyond the forest the moving banners of a hidden column. Our dead brothers still live for us, and bid us think of life, not death--of life to which in their youth they lent the passion and joy of the spring. As I listen , the great chorus of life and joy begins again, and amid the awful orchestra of seen and unseen powers and destinies of good and evil our trumpets sound once more a note of daring, hope, and will."--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Civil War veteran, on Memorial Day, May 30, 1884.
"Mother, I suppose you read all about the Marines in the New York papers. Well, it was in one of those battles that I was wounded, but before they got me I was able to get to the edge of the woods and help to drive them out. When I was first hit I thought I was going to die, and I was glad that I took the ten thousand insurance, but I did not die. Well, Mother, I think I will close now as I will write a letter to you once a week to let you know how I am getting along."--Pvt. Frank McCarthy, USMC, 2nd Division, Belleau Wood, June, 1918.
"It's God's truth that one Company of American soldiers beat and routed a full regiment of picked shock troops of the German Army...At ten o'clock...the Germans were carrying back wounded and dead [from] the river bank and we in our exhaustion let them do it--they carried back all but six hundred which we counted later and fifty-two machine guns... We had started with 251 men and 5 lieutenants...I had left 51 men and 2 second lieutenants..."--Capt. Jesse Woolridge,
3rd Division, Second Battle of the Marne, September, 1918.***
"The flak was the heaviest I'd ever flown into. The Japanese were ready and waiting: their antiaircraft guns were set up to nail us as we pushed into our dives. By the time VT-51 was ready to go in, the sky was thick with angry black clouds of exploding antiaircraft fire."
"Don Melvin led the way, scoring hits on a radio tower. I followed, going into a thirty-five degree dive, an angle of attack that sounds shallow but in an Avenger felt as if you were headed straight down. The target map was strapped to my knee, and as I started into my dive, I'd already spotted the target area. Coming in, I was aware of black splotches of gunfire all around."
"Suddenly there was a jolt, as if a massive fist had crunched into the belly of the plane. Smoke poured into the cockpit, and I could see flames rippling across the crease of the wing, edging towards the fuel tanks. I stayed with the dive, homed in on the target, unloaded our four 500-pound bombs, and pulled away, heading for the sea. Once over water, I leveled off and told Delaney and White to bail out, turning the plane to starboard to take the slipstream off the door near Delaney's station."--George H.W. Bush
The Washington Times: "Mr. Bush was just 20 years old when his TBM Avenger torpedo-bomber was hit by anti-aircraft fire on Sept. 2, 1944, during a bombing run over Chichi Jima, an island 600 miles south of Japan, just north of the better-known Iwo Jima.
The young pilot stayed on course long enough to release those bombs on an enemy radio transmitter before bailing out above the Pacific, his aircraft now a fireball, his two crewmen dead.
Mr. Bush never forgot his men, the black smoke and the moment he himself sliced into the ocean with a damaged parachute. He was rescued by a U.S. Navy submarine after three hours in the water and was later awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
But these events — the visceral moments of a young pilot — have not been lost. Mr Bush's experiences have been retold in both a new book and an upcoming CNN documentary.
"Flyboys," by James Bradley, will be published Tuesday, chronicling the stories of nine airmen shot down over Chichi Jima, eight of whom died as prisoners of war. Some were beheaded, according to recently declassified documents with "facts so horrible" they were hidden from the men's families.
But the ninth airman — Mr. Bush — survived.
"The Flyboy who got away became president of the United States," Mr. Bradley wrote in his account.
To this day, that president can't forget his lost crew mates, gunner Ted White and radio man John Delaney.
"It still plagues me if I gave those guys enough time to get out," Mr. Bush told the author. "I think about those guys all the time." {underscoring Pres. Bush's fundamental decency.-ed.}
..."Just over a year ago, Mr. Bush returned to Chichi Jima, meeting veterans from both sides of the war — including one Japanese soldier who saw Mr. Bush's plane fall into the sea five decades earlier...
Alone in a life raft, Mr. Bush paddled out to the waters that had claimed both his plane and his buddies."***************
"On August 26, 1950, I was summoned to the office of Captain Edward Pearce, USN, in the Dai Ichi Insurance Building in downtown Tokyo, overlooking Emperor Hirohito's imperial palace. For the past year, I had been serving under Captain Pearce on General Douglas MacArthur's staff.
"Gene," Eddie Pearce said in his gruff deadpan way, "I believe we've cooked up a little rumble you're going to like."
The twinkle in Pearce's gray eyes intrigued me. So did the eager expectation on the face of the other man in Pearce's office, Major General Holmes E. Dager. He had been one of General George S. Patton's tank commanders during World War II. Between them, these two guys had seen a lot of bullets and shells fly in that global struggle. Now a new war had exploded in Korea. I sensed they were about to invite me to sample some excitement in this fracas.
I said nothing, while Eddie Pearce shifted in his chair and leaned toward me. "We're going to make an amphibious landing at Inchon on 15 September, and General MacArthur says it's essential we obtain more timely and accurate information on everything in and around the place-at once."
"How would you like to try to get us that information?" General Dager asked.
On June 24, 1950, Communist North Korea had invaded South Korea with fourteen well-trained divisions. They quickly captured the capital, Seoul, and smashed the lightly armed Republic of Korea army with a lavish use of artillery and tanks. President Harry S. Truman had ordered General MacArthur to send American soldiers to resist this act of naked aggression.
The green GIs, mostly draftees in combat for the first time, had been driven back to a precarious perimeter around the port of Pusan, on the southern tip of the Korean peninsula. They were clinging to this enclave, under ferocious North Korean attack. Many people in General Headquarters thought it was only a matter of time before we faced an American Dunkerque. In Washington, D.C., shudders ran through the White House at the possibility that if the North Koreans succeeded in spreading Communism at the point of a gun, the Russians might try something similar in Europe. There was also a very visible threat to Japan, where President Truman had done his utmost to exclude Communist influence. The tip of Korea was only about ninety miles from Kyushu, Japan's southernmost island.
I was devoted to Captain Pearce. The white-haired Annapolis man had accepted me without the slightest hint of the condescension often displayed by some naval academy graduates toward "mustangs"-officers appointed from the enlisted ranks during World War II. That was how I had won my commission. A yeoman, I had risen from seaman to chief petty officer-the highest rank an enlisted man can achieve. But I disliked captaining what I sometimes called an "LMD"-a Large Mahogany Desk-and applied for a commission to get myself into the war zone.
I was not completely surprised by Eddie Pearce's proposition. Since the war in Korea began, I had been working in the Geographic Branch of General MacArthur's staff, gathering information about tides, terrain, and landing facilities at various ports along both coasts of South Korea. I had participated in amphibious operations during World War II, notably on Okinawa, the last big battle of the Pacific war, and knew what was needed to make a successful landing on an enemy-held shore. I and other members of my research team had scoured every possible source, from old Japanese studies to aerial photography taken during World War II-and had come up with very little that was reliable about either Korean coast. Major General Charles Willoughby, MacArthur's intelligence chief, had expressed grave dissatisfaction with our reports.
My experience as an amphibian also enabled me to grasp why a landing at Inchon required absolutely reliable information. The port was on Korea's west coast, 180 miles north of the Pusan perimeter. If anything went wrong at Inchon, the American attackers would be in serious danger of being flung back into the sea with horrendous casualties. The fighting men around Pusan were too far away to give them any support. From my preliminary research, I already knew that the approach to Inchon was complicated by tides that rose and fell twenty-nine feet in a twenty-four-hour period-leaving miles of mudflats, some extending six thousand yards from the shoreline at low water.
"I know we've gone to the limit in researching this matter," I said. "So I take it that a little personal look-see trip is in order. Is that correct, Captain?"
"That's right, Gene," Pearce said. "It's going to require a reconnaissance of the Inchon area by someone qualified to observe and transmit back to Tokyo the information we currently lack. I believe you're the man for the job."
"I'd certainly like to take a crack at it," I said-simultaneously trying to visualize what this rumble might involve. I had an uneasy feeling it was not going to be a pleasure trip. At thirty-nine, I was getting a little old for the commando game. But I preferred excitement to desk work. I had had a pretty good taste of action on Okinawa and nearby islands, dealing with Japanese troops who were inclined to stage a final banzai charge rather than surrender. After the war, I had enjoyed some highly clandestine operations along the China coast, trying to help the Nationalist Chinese in their losing struggle with the Communists.
"I told General Willoughby you'd be ready to tackle the job," Captain Pearce said, visibly pleased. "You will report to General Dager until the completion of this mission, as of now."
"Aye aye, sir!" I said.
In the elevator, General Dager told me to get him a list of what I would need for the expedition by the following morning. With it should be a target date for my departure to the vicinity of Inchon.
Back in my office, I sat down at my desk and lit my pipe. Below me spread the peaceful, exquisitely beautiful grounds of the Japanese imperial palace. It was hard to believe that men were fighting and dying around Pusan while I gazed down at this oasis of serenity."--Excerpt from "The Secrets of Inchon: The Untold Story of the Most Daring Covert Mission of the Korean War" by Commander Eugene Franklin Clark, USN.
(This gripping story should be made into a movie.)
We'll stop our historical review here, leaving stories from 'Nam, Grenada, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, the home front & elsewhere for another day.
But the message is clear; from times now receding into the mists of history, Americans have answered the call to duty.
And they deserve our Honor, Gratitude...and Memory.
"When we came there, we were attacked by a party of French and Indians...The Virginia troops showed a good deal of bravery, and were nearly all killed; for I believe, out of three companies that were there, scarcely thirty men are left alive. Captain Peyrouny, and all his officers down to a corporal, were killed. Captain Polson had nearly as hard a fate, for only one of his was left. ...I luckily escaped without a wound, though I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me."--a 23 year-old American Militia colonel, Geo. Washington, describes the Battle of Fort Duquesne, July 9, 1755.
(Many years later, an Indian chief sought out Washington. The chief told him that he and his warriors had exerted themselves mightily, yet in vain, to kill Washington during that battle: "We felt that some Manitou guarded your life and we believed you could not be killed." Washington later told his brother "By the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation. Death was levelling my companions on every side.")************
"There they now stood, side by side...with (fire)arms in their hands, silent & fearless, willing to shed their blood for their rights...John Parker, the strongest and best wrestler in Lexington, had promised never to run from the British troops; and he kept his vow. A wound brought him on his knees. Having discharged his gun, he was preparing to load it again, when he was stabbed by a bayonet, and lay on the post which he took at the morning's drumbeat..."--George Bancroft, historian & founder of the Naval Academy, describes the Battle on Lexington Green, where 70-some Minute Men--ordinary citizens, really--faced 700 British Regulars on Apr. 19, 1775.
(The citizens had been warned by Richard Dawes and Paul Revere. They were joined by Dr. Samuel Prescott, who had been visiting his girl-friend in Lexington. When Revere & Dawes were suddenly surrounded and detained, Dr. Prescott and his mount jumped a stone wall and escaped. {'Prescott'?...hmmm...AWOL!AWOL!} When church bells pealed across the countryside, the British fled, freeing Revere & Dawes.)********
"The fighting at the head of the line was fierce and bloody to an extraordinary degree. ...the 'Queen Charlotte' was almost disabled, and the 'Detroit' was also frightfully shattered, especially by the raking fire of the gunboats, her first lieutenant, Mr. Garland, being mortally wounded, and Captain Barclay so severely injured that he was obliged to quit the deck, leaving his ship in the command of Lieutenant George Inglis. But on board the Lawrence matters had gone even worse, the combined fire of her adversaries having made the grimmest carnage on her decks. Of the one hundred and three men who were fit for duty when she began the action, eighty-three, or over four-fifths, were killed or wounded. The vessel was shallow, and the ward-room, used as a cockpit, to which the wounded were taken, was mostly above water, and the shot came through it continually, killing and wounding many men under the hands of the surgeon."
"The first lieutenant, Yarnall, was three times wounded, but kept to the deck through all; the only other lieutenant on board, Brooks, of the marines, was mortally wounded. Every brace and bowline was shot away, and the brig almost completely dismantled; her hull was shattered to pieces, many shot going completely through it, and the guns on the engaged side were by degrees all dismounted. Perry kept up the fight with splendid courage. As the crew fell one by one, the commodore called down through the skylight for one of the surgeon's assistants; and this call was repeated and obeyed till none was left; then he asked, "Can any of the wounded pull a rope?" and three or four of them crawled up on deck to lend a feeble hand in placing the last guns. Perry himself fired the last effective heavy gun, assisted only by the purser and chaplain."--Theodore Roosevelt's account of Captain Oliver Hazard Perry & the Battle of Lake Erie, September 10, 1813.
(Capt. Perry and crew's victory secured the Great Lakes...and kept the nation free of marauding Canadians such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell for another 150 years. It was one of the few good pieces of good news in the War of 1812 {which also gave us our national anthem} until the Battle of New Orleans was won by Johnny Horton. Seriously, although New Orleans was fought after a treaty had been signed, Andy Jackson insisted--rightly--that the British wouldn't have honored the treaty without it. Both Hazard & Jackson had enlisted as 13-year olds; Hazard fought against the Barbary Pirates and Jackson was abused as a prisoner by the British during the Revolution. The British failed to apologize.)***
"There is one who on this day is always present on my mind
(Henry Abbott of the 20th Mass.). He entered the army at nineteen, a second lieutenant. In the Wilderness, already at the head of his regiment, he fell, using the moment that was left him of life to give all of his little fortune to his soldiers.I saw him in camp, on the march, in action. I crossed debatable land with him when we were rejoining the Army together. I observed him in every kind of duty, and never in all the time I knew him did I see him fail to choose that alternative of conduct which was most disagreeable to himself. He was indeed a Puritan in all his virtues, without the Puritan austerity; for, when duty was at an end, he who had been the master and leader became the chosen companion in every pleasure that a man might honestly enjoy. His few surviving companions will never forget the awful spectacle of his advance alone with his company in the streets of Fredericksburg. ...He was little more than a boy, but the grizzled corps commanders knew and admired him; and for us, who not only admired, but loved, his death seemed to end a portion of our life also."
..."It is not of the dead alone that we think on this day. There are those still living whose sex forbade them to offer their lives, but who gave instead their happiness. Which of us has not been lifted above himself by the sight of one of those lovely, lonely women, around whom the wand of sorrow has traced its excluding circle--set apart, even when surrounded by loving friends who would fain bring back joy to their lives?"
..."But, nevertheless, the generation that carried on the war has been set apart by its experience. Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing. While we are permitted to scorn nothing but indifference, and do not pretend to undervalue the worldly rewards of ambition, we have seen with our own eyes, beyond and above the gold fields, the snowy heights of honor, and it is for us to bear the report to those who come after us. But, above all, we have learned that whether a man accepts from Fortune her spade, and will look downward and dig, or from Aspiration her axe and cord, and will scale the ice, the one and only success which it is his to command is to bring to his work a mighty heart."******
..."But grief is not the end of all. I seem to hear the funeral march become a paean. I see beyond the forest the moving banners of a hidden column. Our dead brothers still live for us, and bid us think of life, not death--of life to which in their youth they lent the passion and joy of the spring. As I listen , the great chorus of life and joy begins again, and amid the awful orchestra of seen and unseen powers and destinies of good and evil our trumpets sound once more a note of daring, hope, and will."--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Civil War veteran, on Memorial Day, May 30, 1884.
"Mother, I suppose you read all about the Marines in the New York papers. Well, it was in one of those battles that I was wounded, but before they got me I was able to get to the edge of the woods and help to drive them out. When I was first hit I thought I was going to die, and I was glad that I took the ten thousand insurance, but I did not die. Well, Mother, I think I will close now as I will write a letter to you once a week to let you know how I am getting along."--Pvt. Frank McCarthy, USMC, 2nd Division, Belleau Wood, June, 1918.
"It's God's truth that one Company of American soldiers beat and routed a full regiment of picked shock troops of the German Army...At ten o'clock...the Germans were carrying back wounded and dead [from] the river bank and we in our exhaustion let them do it--they carried back all but six hundred which we counted later and fifty-two machine guns... We had started with 251 men and 5 lieutenants...I had left 51 men and 2 second lieutenants..."--Capt. Jesse Woolridge,
3rd Division, Second Battle of the Marne, September, 1918.***
"The flak was the heaviest I'd ever flown into. The Japanese were ready and waiting: their antiaircraft guns were set up to nail us as we pushed into our dives. By the time VT-51 was ready to go in, the sky was thick with angry black clouds of exploding antiaircraft fire."
"Don Melvin led the way, scoring hits on a radio tower. I followed, going into a thirty-five degree dive, an angle of attack that sounds shallow but in an Avenger felt as if you were headed straight down. The target map was strapped to my knee, and as I started into my dive, I'd already spotted the target area. Coming in, I was aware of black splotches of gunfire all around."
"Suddenly there was a jolt, as if a massive fist had crunched into the belly of the plane. Smoke poured into the cockpit, and I could see flames rippling across the crease of the wing, edging towards the fuel tanks. I stayed with the dive, homed in on the target, unloaded our four 500-pound bombs, and pulled away, heading for the sea. Once over water, I leveled off and told Delaney and White to bail out, turning the plane to starboard to take the slipstream off the door near Delaney's station."--George H.W. Bush
The Washington Times: "Mr. Bush was just 20 years old when his TBM Avenger torpedo-bomber was hit by anti-aircraft fire on Sept. 2, 1944, during a bombing run over Chichi Jima, an island 600 miles south of Japan, just north of the better-known Iwo Jima.
The young pilot stayed on course long enough to release those bombs on an enemy radio transmitter before bailing out above the Pacific, his aircraft now a fireball, his two crewmen dead.
Mr. Bush never forgot his men, the black smoke and the moment he himself sliced into the ocean with a damaged parachute. He was rescued by a U.S. Navy submarine after three hours in the water and was later awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
But these events — the visceral moments of a young pilot — have not been lost. Mr Bush's experiences have been retold in both a new book and an upcoming CNN documentary.
"Flyboys," by James Bradley, will be published Tuesday, chronicling the stories of nine airmen shot down over Chichi Jima, eight of whom died as prisoners of war. Some were beheaded, according to recently declassified documents with "facts so horrible" they were hidden from the men's families.
But the ninth airman — Mr. Bush — survived.
"The Flyboy who got away became president of the United States," Mr. Bradley wrote in his account.
To this day, that president can't forget his lost crew mates, gunner Ted White and radio man John Delaney.
"It still plagues me if I gave those guys enough time to get out," Mr. Bush told the author. "I think about those guys all the time." {underscoring Pres. Bush's fundamental decency.-ed.}
..."Just over a year ago, Mr. Bush returned to Chichi Jima, meeting veterans from both sides of the war — including one Japanese soldier who saw Mr. Bush's plane fall into the sea five decades earlier...
Alone in a life raft, Mr. Bush paddled out to the waters that had claimed both his plane and his buddies."***************
"On August 26, 1950, I was summoned to the office of Captain Edward Pearce, USN, in the Dai Ichi Insurance Building in downtown Tokyo, overlooking Emperor Hirohito's imperial palace. For the past year, I had been serving under Captain Pearce on General Douglas MacArthur's staff.
"Gene," Eddie Pearce said in his gruff deadpan way, "I believe we've cooked up a little rumble you're going to like."
The twinkle in Pearce's gray eyes intrigued me. So did the eager expectation on the face of the other man in Pearce's office, Major General Holmes E. Dager. He had been one of General George S. Patton's tank commanders during World War II. Between them, these two guys had seen a lot of bullets and shells fly in that global struggle. Now a new war had exploded in Korea. I sensed they were about to invite me to sample some excitement in this fracas.
I said nothing, while Eddie Pearce shifted in his chair and leaned toward me. "We're going to make an amphibious landing at Inchon on 15 September, and General MacArthur says it's essential we obtain more timely and accurate information on everything in and around the place-at once."
"How would you like to try to get us that information?" General Dager asked.
On June 24, 1950, Communist North Korea had invaded South Korea with fourteen well-trained divisions. They quickly captured the capital, Seoul, and smashed the lightly armed Republic of Korea army with a lavish use of artillery and tanks. President Harry S. Truman had ordered General MacArthur to send American soldiers to resist this act of naked aggression.
The green GIs, mostly draftees in combat for the first time, had been driven back to a precarious perimeter around the port of Pusan, on the southern tip of the Korean peninsula. They were clinging to this enclave, under ferocious North Korean attack. Many people in General Headquarters thought it was only a matter of time before we faced an American Dunkerque. In Washington, D.C., shudders ran through the White House at the possibility that if the North Koreans succeeded in spreading Communism at the point of a gun, the Russians might try something similar in Europe. There was also a very visible threat to Japan, where President Truman had done his utmost to exclude Communist influence. The tip of Korea was only about ninety miles from Kyushu, Japan's southernmost island.
I was devoted to Captain Pearce. The white-haired Annapolis man had accepted me without the slightest hint of the condescension often displayed by some naval academy graduates toward "mustangs"-officers appointed from the enlisted ranks during World War II. That was how I had won my commission. A yeoman, I had risen from seaman to chief petty officer-the highest rank an enlisted man can achieve. But I disliked captaining what I sometimes called an "LMD"-a Large Mahogany Desk-and applied for a commission to get myself into the war zone.
I was not completely surprised by Eddie Pearce's proposition. Since the war in Korea began, I had been working in the Geographic Branch of General MacArthur's staff, gathering information about tides, terrain, and landing facilities at various ports along both coasts of South Korea. I had participated in amphibious operations during World War II, notably on Okinawa, the last big battle of the Pacific war, and knew what was needed to make a successful landing on an enemy-held shore. I and other members of my research team had scoured every possible source, from old Japanese studies to aerial photography taken during World War II-and had come up with very little that was reliable about either Korean coast. Major General Charles Willoughby, MacArthur's intelligence chief, had expressed grave dissatisfaction with our reports.
My experience as an amphibian also enabled me to grasp why a landing at Inchon required absolutely reliable information. The port was on Korea's west coast, 180 miles north of the Pusan perimeter. If anything went wrong at Inchon, the American attackers would be in serious danger of being flung back into the sea with horrendous casualties. The fighting men around Pusan were too far away to give them any support. From my preliminary research, I already knew that the approach to Inchon was complicated by tides that rose and fell twenty-nine feet in a twenty-four-hour period-leaving miles of mudflats, some extending six thousand yards from the shoreline at low water.
"I know we've gone to the limit in researching this matter," I said. "So I take it that a little personal look-see trip is in order. Is that correct, Captain?"
"That's right, Gene," Pearce said. "It's going to require a reconnaissance of the Inchon area by someone qualified to observe and transmit back to Tokyo the information we currently lack. I believe you're the man for the job."
"I'd certainly like to take a crack at it," I said-simultaneously trying to visualize what this rumble might involve. I had an uneasy feeling it was not going to be a pleasure trip. At thirty-nine, I was getting a little old for the commando game. But I preferred excitement to desk work. I had had a pretty good taste of action on Okinawa and nearby islands, dealing with Japanese troops who were inclined to stage a final banzai charge rather than surrender. After the war, I had enjoyed some highly clandestine operations along the China coast, trying to help the Nationalist Chinese in their losing struggle with the Communists.
"I told General Willoughby you'd be ready to tackle the job," Captain Pearce said, visibly pleased. "You will report to General Dager until the completion of this mission, as of now."
"Aye aye, sir!" I said.
In the elevator, General Dager told me to get him a list of what I would need for the expedition by the following morning. With it should be a target date for my departure to the vicinity of Inchon.
Back in my office, I sat down at my desk and lit my pipe. Below me spread the peaceful, exquisitely beautiful grounds of the Japanese imperial palace. It was hard to believe that men were fighting and dying around Pusan while I gazed down at this oasis of serenity."--Excerpt from "The Secrets of Inchon: The Untold Story of the Most Daring Covert Mission of the Korean War" by Commander Eugene Franklin Clark, USN.
(This gripping story should be made into a movie.)
We'll stop our historical review here, leaving stories from 'Nam, Grenada, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, the home front & elsewhere for another day.
But the message is clear; from times now receding into the mists of history, Americans have answered the call to duty.
And they deserve our Honor, Gratitude...and Memory.
On this Memorial Day, we honor the memory of those who gave, and still give, all for our liberty.
Let's then examine the meaning of that liberty through the words of the four American Giants whose images are carved on Mt. Rushmore, symbolizing the birth, growth, preservation and development of our national life.
George Washington:
"The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty — that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men."
"There is a rank due to the United States, among nations, which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war."
"I wish from my soul that the legislature of this State could see a policy of a gradual Abolition of Slavery."
"I am principled against this kind of traffic in the human species...and to disperse the families I have an aversion."
"The Constitution which at any time exists, 'till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People is sacredly obligatory upon all."
Thomas Jefferson:
"A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate."
"A judiciary independent of a king or executive alone, is a good thing; but independence of the will of the nation is a solecism (an absurdity), at least in a republican government."
"All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride legitimately, by the grace of God."
"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever."
"At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping, by little and little, the foundations of the constitution, and working its change by construction, before any one has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life, if secured against all liability to account."
Abraham Lincoln:
"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved--I do not expect the house to fall--but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. ...Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred thousand strong. We did this under the single impulse of resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance against us. Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy. Did we brave all them to falter now?-now, when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered, and belligerent? The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail-if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come."
"The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
"Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation."
"Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this. Who can be more nearly a fiend than he who habitually overhauls the register of deeds in search of defects in titles, whereon to stir up strife, and put money in his pocket?...Let no young man choosing the law for a calling for a moment yield to the popular belief -- resolve to be honest at all events; and if in your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer."
"Dear Madam,
I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.
I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours, very sincerely and respectfully, A. Lincoln"
"Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH, LET US, TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT."
"I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence."
"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan..."
Teddy Roosevelt:
"I believe that a man must be a good patriot before he can be, and as the only possible way of being, a good citizen of the world. Experience teaches us that the average man who protests that his international feeling swamps his national feeling, that he does not care for his country because he cares so much for mankind, in actual practice proves himself the foe of mankind; that the man who says that he does not care to be a citizen of any one country, because he is the citizen of the world, is in fact usually and exceedingly undesirable citizen of whatever corner of the world he happens at the moment to be in."
"Let the man of learning, the man of lettered leisure, beware of that queer and cheap temptation to pose to himself and to others as a cynic, as the man who has outgrown emotions and beliefs, the man to whom good and evil are as one. ...Still less room is there for those who deride of slight what is done by those who actually bear the brunt of the day; nor yet for those others who always profess that they would like to take action, if only the conditions of life were not exactly what they actually are. The man who does nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be a cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of great and generous emotion, of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder. Well for these men if they succeed; well also, though not so well, if they fail, given only that they have nobly ventured, and have put forth all their heart and strength. It is war-worn Hotspur, spent with hard fighting, he of the many errors and valiant end, over whose memory we love to linger, not over the memory of the young lord who "but for the vile guns would have been a valiant soldier.""
"But the reward must go to the man who does his work well; for any other course is to create a new kind of privilege, the privilege of folly and weakness; and special privilege is injustice, whatever form it takes. To say that the thriftless, the lazy, the vicious, the incapable, ought to have reward given to those who are far-sighted, capable, and upright, is to say what is not true and cannot be true. Let us try to level up, but let us beware of the evil of leveling down. If a man stumbles, it is a good thing to help him to his feet. Every one of us needs a helping hand now and then. But if a man lies down, it is a waste of time to try and carry him; and it is a very bad thing for every one if we make men feel that the same reward will come to those who shirk their work and those who do it."
"Of one man in especial, beyond any one else, the citizens of a republic should beware, and that is of the man who appeals to them to support him on the ground that he is hostile to other citizens of the republic, that he will secure for those who elect him, in one shape or another, profit at the expense of other citizens of the republic. It makes no difference whether he appeals to class hatred or class interest, to religious or antireligious prejudice. The man who makes such an appeal should always be presumed to make it for the sake of furthering his own interest. The very last thing an intelligent and self-respecting member of a democratic community should do is to reward any public man because that public man says that he will get the private citizen something to which this private citizen is not entitled, or will gratify some emotion or animosity which this private citizen ought not to possess. ...One day I was riding the range with a newly hired cowboy, and we came upon a maverick. We roped and threw it; then we built a fire, took out a cinch-ring, heated it in the fire; and then the cowboy started to put on the brand. I said to him, "It So-and-so's brand," naming the man on whose range we happened to be. He answered: "That's all right, boss; I know my business." In another moment I said to him: "Hold on, you are putting on my brand!" To which he answered: "That's all right; I always put on the boss's brand." I answered: "Oh, very well. Now you go straight back to the ranch and get whatever is owing to you; I don't need you any longer." He jumped up and said: "Why, what's the matter? I was putting on your brand." And I answered: "Yes, my friend, and if you will steal for me then you will steal from me."
"There is not in all America a more dangerous trait than the deification of mere smartness unaccompanied by any sense of moral responsibility."
"To no body of men in the United States is the country so much indebted as to the splendid officers and enlisted men of the regular army and navy. There is no body from which the country has less to fear, and none of which it should be prouder, none which it should be more anxious to upbuild."
Now that we recall the 'why', let's remember the 'who'.
Now have a great--and meaningful--holiday!
Let's then examine the meaning of that liberty through the words of the four American Giants whose images are carved on Mt. Rushmore, symbolizing the birth, growth, preservation and development of our national life.
George Washington:
"The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty — that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men."
"There is a rank due to the United States, among nations, which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war."
"I wish from my soul that the legislature of this State could see a policy of a gradual Abolition of Slavery."
"I am principled against this kind of traffic in the human species...and to disperse the families I have an aversion."
"The Constitution which at any time exists, 'till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People is sacredly obligatory upon all."
Thomas Jefferson:
"A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate."
"A judiciary independent of a king or executive alone, is a good thing; but independence of the will of the nation is a solecism (an absurdity), at least in a republican government."
"All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride legitimately, by the grace of God."
"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever."
"At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping, by little and little, the foundations of the constitution, and working its change by construction, before any one has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life, if secured against all liability to account."
Abraham Lincoln:
"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved--I do not expect the house to fall--but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. ...Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred thousand strong. We did this under the single impulse of resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance against us. Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy. Did we brave all them to falter now?-now, when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered, and belligerent? The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail-if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come."
"The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
"Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation."
"Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this. Who can be more nearly a fiend than he who habitually overhauls the register of deeds in search of defects in titles, whereon to stir up strife, and put money in his pocket?...Let no young man choosing the law for a calling for a moment yield to the popular belief -- resolve to be honest at all events; and if in your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer."
"Dear Madam,
I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.
I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours, very sincerely and respectfully, A. Lincoln"
"Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH, LET US, TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT."
"I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence."
"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan..."
Teddy Roosevelt:
"I believe that a man must be a good patriot before he can be, and as the only possible way of being, a good citizen of the world. Experience teaches us that the average man who protests that his international feeling swamps his national feeling, that he does not care for his country because he cares so much for mankind, in actual practice proves himself the foe of mankind; that the man who says that he does not care to be a citizen of any one country, because he is the citizen of the world, is in fact usually and exceedingly undesirable citizen of whatever corner of the world he happens at the moment to be in."
"Let the man of learning, the man of lettered leisure, beware of that queer and cheap temptation to pose to himself and to others as a cynic, as the man who has outgrown emotions and beliefs, the man to whom good and evil are as one. ...Still less room is there for those who deride of slight what is done by those who actually bear the brunt of the day; nor yet for those others who always profess that they would like to take action, if only the conditions of life were not exactly what they actually are. The man who does nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be a cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of great and generous emotion, of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder. Well for these men if they succeed; well also, though not so well, if they fail, given only that they have nobly ventured, and have put forth all their heart and strength. It is war-worn Hotspur, spent with hard fighting, he of the many errors and valiant end, over whose memory we love to linger, not over the memory of the young lord who "but for the vile guns would have been a valiant soldier.""
"But the reward must go to the man who does his work well; for any other course is to create a new kind of privilege, the privilege of folly and weakness; and special privilege is injustice, whatever form it takes. To say that the thriftless, the lazy, the vicious, the incapable, ought to have reward given to those who are far-sighted, capable, and upright, is to say what is not true and cannot be true. Let us try to level up, but let us beware of the evil of leveling down. If a man stumbles, it is a good thing to help him to his feet. Every one of us needs a helping hand now and then. But if a man lies down, it is a waste of time to try and carry him; and it is a very bad thing for every one if we make men feel that the same reward will come to those who shirk their work and those who do it."
"Of one man in especial, beyond any one else, the citizens of a republic should beware, and that is of the man who appeals to them to support him on the ground that he is hostile to other citizens of the republic, that he will secure for those who elect him, in one shape or another, profit at the expense of other citizens of the republic. It makes no difference whether he appeals to class hatred or class interest, to religious or antireligious prejudice. The man who makes such an appeal should always be presumed to make it for the sake of furthering his own interest. The very last thing an intelligent and self-respecting member of a democratic community should do is to reward any public man because that public man says that he will get the private citizen something to which this private citizen is not entitled, or will gratify some emotion or animosity which this private citizen ought not to possess. ...One day I was riding the range with a newly hired cowboy, and we came upon a maverick. We roped and threw it; then we built a fire, took out a cinch-ring, heated it in the fire; and then the cowboy started to put on the brand. I said to him, "It So-and-so's brand," naming the man on whose range we happened to be. He answered: "That's all right, boss; I know my business." In another moment I said to him: "Hold on, you are putting on my brand!" To which he answered: "That's all right; I always put on the boss's brand." I answered: "Oh, very well. Now you go straight back to the ranch and get whatever is owing to you; I don't need you any longer." He jumped up and said: "Why, what's the matter? I was putting on your brand." And I answered: "Yes, my friend, and if you will steal for me then you will steal from me."
"There is not in all America a more dangerous trait than the deification of mere smartness unaccompanied by any sense of moral responsibility."
"To no body of men in the United States is the country so much indebted as to the splendid officers and enlisted men of the regular army and navy. There is no body from which the country has less to fear, and none of which it should be prouder, none which it should be more anxious to upbuild."
Now that we recall the 'why', let's remember the 'who'.
Now have a great--and meaningful--holiday!
Friday, January 02, 2004
"I Shall Never Prove a Traitor to My Country!"
Fifteen year-old James Forten was a student at Quaker School in Philadelphia. But this was no time for school; his bustling port city, the largest in America, was at war...with the world's only super-power.
James had seen the Founding Fathers as they came and went on their revolutionary business. He'd heard the words of the Declaration and took them to heart. He became a drummer in the Continental Army. Now older, he sought more adventurous service, signing up as a powder boy on the privateer 'Royal Louis'; a dangerous job in the best of circumstances.
On his very first voyage, the 'Royal Louis' was victorious, taking a British Navy brig after a pitched battle. Bringing her back to Philadelphia, the crew received their shares and were hailed as heroes by their fellow citizens. Then, it was back to sea again under Captain Stephen Decatur, Sr.
The Fates of War were not twice kind ; Forten and his fellow crewmen were overwhelmed by the British frigate 'Amphylon' and two other vessels. They found themselves captives of the British, who often regarded American privateers worse than pirates, being rebels as well.
But Forten was befriended aboard by the son of the ship's captain. They played marbles together, and although Forten won, the captain's son had found a friend. He begged his father to bring young James back to England with them, away from all danger. The father agreed. On one condition:
...that James Forten renounce his loyalty to America.
"I shall never prove a traitor to my country," said James...and the Philadelphian boy was now an American man.
Remarkable, yes. But made more so by one fact:
James Forten was black. As were 20 of the 200 other crewmen.
Although undoubtedly regarded by many in Philadelphia as a second-class citizen, he had been a free man there. The British routinely transported black prisoners-of-war to the West Indies to become slaves. The captain gave him the same choice as white prisoners: join the British Navy or languish in the prison boats.
As James had already ruled out treason, the captain transfered him to the 'HMS Jersey', with a letter asking for Forten's humane treatment. About 11,000 POW's lost their lives in these brutal prison ships floating in New York harbor. Their corpses were often dumped overboard into the bay where the Brooklyn Naval Yard stands today.
When an officer was being released in a prisoner exchange, Forten had his chance to escape by hiding in the luggage; but he gave his place to a younger white boy, even helping to carry the contraband luggage down the gang-plank.
Eventually, he was exchanged & released...and walked home from New York to Philadelphia. (Try that sometime, compu-tatos!)
He became an apprentice sail-maker. Then foreman. Then an owner; he was a success, a multi-millionaire by today's standards, and employed a large, mixed-race work-force.
He became active in politics, petitioning Congress on behalf of escaped slaves, founding 'The Liberator' with fellow abolitionist Wm. Lloyd Garrison, supporting temperance & women's rights, and was a pillar in his African Methodist Church.
When he passed in 1842, 5000 people, both black & white, attended his funeral to honor the man.
James Forten: American patriot, civil-rights advocate, valued businessman & Christian gentleman.
Perhaps history wouldn't have judged him too harshly had he taken up the offer of the British captain...but his patriotism and integrity forbade it.
Ours is a time when "a real and generous love of our country" is fashionably mocked or at the least, held suspect. America's interests have been sold out for money or ideology at even the highest levels. The very idea of citizenship is constantly being demeaned, degraded & defined downward. Allegedly sane people think nothing of giving over our defense policy to the tender mercies of trans-national Ghanian technocrats, Syrian Ba'ath Party stooges and French diplo-whores.
One can't help but compare Mr. Forten's demeanor to those of certain other personnel, who, like Mr. Forten, volunteered for service in a very different America. Unlike Forten, they actually hoped to be sent to the West Indies...specifically Guantanamo. Not as POWs--but to conspire with the enemy held there. As spies for a medieval death-cult, these 'translators'...even a so-called 'chaplain', betrayed the country to which they swore a meaningless oath.
James Forten's American life stands four-square as a tri-cornered, two-fisted, first-person-singular rebuke to all traitors...and over two centuries later, still shines like a Pole-star, a guide for us all.
Stand up and shine with him...you patriot, you.
Fifteen year-old James Forten was a student at Quaker School in Philadelphia. But this was no time for school; his bustling port city, the largest in America, was at war...with the world's only super-power.
James had seen the Founding Fathers as they came and went on their revolutionary business. He'd heard the words of the Declaration and took them to heart. He became a drummer in the Continental Army. Now older, he sought more adventurous service, signing up as a powder boy on the privateer 'Royal Louis'; a dangerous job in the best of circumstances.
On his very first voyage, the 'Royal Louis' was victorious, taking a British Navy brig after a pitched battle. Bringing her back to Philadelphia, the crew received their shares and were hailed as heroes by their fellow citizens. Then, it was back to sea again under Captain Stephen Decatur, Sr.
The Fates of War were not twice kind ; Forten and his fellow crewmen were overwhelmed by the British frigate 'Amphylon' and two other vessels. They found themselves captives of the British, who often regarded American privateers worse than pirates, being rebels as well.
But Forten was befriended aboard by the son of the ship's captain. They played marbles together, and although Forten won, the captain's son had found a friend. He begged his father to bring young James back to England with them, away from all danger. The father agreed. On one condition:
...that James Forten renounce his loyalty to America.
"I shall never prove a traitor to my country," said James...and the Philadelphian boy was now an American man.
Remarkable, yes. But made more so by one fact:
James Forten was black. As were 20 of the 200 other crewmen.
Although undoubtedly regarded by many in Philadelphia as a second-class citizen, he had been a free man there. The British routinely transported black prisoners-of-war to the West Indies to become slaves. The captain gave him the same choice as white prisoners: join the British Navy or languish in the prison boats.
As James had already ruled out treason, the captain transfered him to the 'HMS Jersey', with a letter asking for Forten's humane treatment. About 11,000 POW's lost their lives in these brutal prison ships floating in New York harbor. Their corpses were often dumped overboard into the bay where the Brooklyn Naval Yard stands today.
When an officer was being released in a prisoner exchange, Forten had his chance to escape by hiding in the luggage; but he gave his place to a younger white boy, even helping to carry the contraband luggage down the gang-plank.
Eventually, he was exchanged & released...and walked home from New York to Philadelphia. (Try that sometime, compu-tatos!)
He became an apprentice sail-maker. Then foreman. Then an owner; he was a success, a multi-millionaire by today's standards, and employed a large, mixed-race work-force.
He became active in politics, petitioning Congress on behalf of escaped slaves, founding 'The Liberator' with fellow abolitionist Wm. Lloyd Garrison, supporting temperance & women's rights, and was a pillar in his African Methodist Church.
When he passed in 1842, 5000 people, both black & white, attended his funeral to honor the man.
James Forten: American patriot, civil-rights advocate, valued businessman & Christian gentleman.
Perhaps history wouldn't have judged him too harshly had he taken up the offer of the British captain...but his patriotism and integrity forbade it.
Ours is a time when "a real and generous love of our country" is fashionably mocked or at the least, held suspect. America's interests have been sold out for money or ideology at even the highest levels. The very idea of citizenship is constantly being demeaned, degraded & defined downward. Allegedly sane people think nothing of giving over our defense policy to the tender mercies of trans-national Ghanian technocrats, Syrian Ba'ath Party stooges and French diplo-whores.
One can't help but compare Mr. Forten's demeanor to those of certain other personnel, who, like Mr. Forten, volunteered for service in a very different America. Unlike Forten, they actually hoped to be sent to the West Indies...specifically Guantanamo. Not as POWs--but to conspire with the enemy held there. As spies for a medieval death-cult, these 'translators'...even a so-called 'chaplain', betrayed the country to which they swore a meaningless oath.
James Forten's American life stands four-square as a tri-cornered, two-fisted, first-person-singular rebuke to all traitors...and over two centuries later, still shines like a Pole-star, a guide for us all.
Stand up and shine with him...you patriot, you.
HAMILTON v. McCAIN
Mr. Hamilton: "...To discuss measures without reference to men, was impracticable. Why examine measures, but to prove them bad, and to point out their pernicious authors, so that the people might correct the evil by removing the men? There was no other way to preserve liberty, and bring down a tyrannical faction. If this right was not permitted to exist in vigor and in exercise, good men would become silent; corruption and tyranny would go on, step by step, in usurpation, until at last, nothing that was worth speaking, or writing, or acting for, would be left in our country."
"Men are not to be implicitly trusted, in elevated stations. The experience of mankind teaches us, that persons have often arrived at power by means of flattery and hypocrisy; but instead of continuing humble lovers of the people, have changed into their most deadly persecutors."
"The real danger to our liberties was not from a few provisional troops. The road to tyranny will be opened by making dependent judges, by packing juries, by stifling the press, by silencing leaders and patriots. His apprehensions were not from single acts of open violence. Murder rouses to vengeance; it awakens sympathy, and spreads alarm. But the most dangerous, the most sure, the most fatal of tyrannies, was by selecting and sacrificing single individuals, under the mask and forms of law, by dependent and partial tribunals. Against such measures we ought to keep a vigilant eye, and take a manly stand. Whenever they arise, we ought to resist, and resist, till we have hurled the demagogues and tyrants from their imagined thrones."
"But, whatever may be our opinion on the English law, there is another and a very important view of the subject to be taken, and that is with respect to the true standard of the freedom of the American press. In England they have never taken notice of the press in any parliamentary recognition of the principles of the government, or of the rights of the subject, whereas the people of this country have always classed the freedom of the press among their fundamental rights. This I can easily illustrate by a few examples."
"The first American congress, in 1774, in one of their public addresses, (Journals, vol. 1, p. 57,) enumerated five invaluable rights, without which a people cannot be free and happy, and under the protecting and encouraging influence of which these colonies had hitherto so amazingly flourished and increased. One of these rights was the freedom of the press, and the importance of this right consisted, as they observed, "besides the advancement of truth, science, morality, and arts in general, in its diffusion of liberal sentiments on the administration of government, its ready communication of thoughts between subjects, and its consequential promotion of union among them, whereby oppressive officers are shamed or intimidated into more honorable and just modes of conducting affairs.""
Shame indeed. Now let's hear from Mr. McCain:
"(3) Electioneering communication.--For purposes of this
subsection--
``(A) In general.--(i) The term `electioneering
communication' means any broadcast, cable, or satellite
communication which--
``(I) refers to a clearly identified candidate
for Federal office;
``(II) is made within--
``(aa) 60 days before a general,
special, or runoff election for the
office sought by the candidate; or
``(bb) 30 days before a primary or
preference election, or a convention or
caucus of a political party that has
authority to nominate a candidate, for
the office sought by the candidate; and
``(III) in the case of a communication which
refers to a candidate for an office other than
President or Vice President, is targeted to the
relevant electorate.
``(ii) If clause (i) is held to be constitutionally
insufficient by final judicial decision to support the
regulation provided herein, then the term
`electioneering communication' means any broadcast,
cable, or satellite communication which promotes or
supports a candidate for that office, or attacks or
opposes a candidate for that office (regardless of
whether the communication expressly advocates a vote for
or against a candidate) and which also is suggestive of
no plausible meaning other than an exhortation to vote
for or against a specific candidate. Nothing in this
subparagraph shall be construed to affect the
interpretation or application of section 100.22(b) of
title 11, Code of Federal Regulations."
Make mine Hamilton.
Mr. Hamilton: "...To discuss measures without reference to men, was impracticable. Why examine measures, but to prove them bad, and to point out their pernicious authors, so that the people might correct the evil by removing the men? There was no other way to preserve liberty, and bring down a tyrannical faction. If this right was not permitted to exist in vigor and in exercise, good men would become silent; corruption and tyranny would go on, step by step, in usurpation, until at last, nothing that was worth speaking, or writing, or acting for, would be left in our country."
"Men are not to be implicitly trusted, in elevated stations. The experience of mankind teaches us, that persons have often arrived at power by means of flattery and hypocrisy; but instead of continuing humble lovers of the people, have changed into their most deadly persecutors."
"The real danger to our liberties was not from a few provisional troops. The road to tyranny will be opened by making dependent judges, by packing juries, by stifling the press, by silencing leaders and patriots. His apprehensions were not from single acts of open violence. Murder rouses to vengeance; it awakens sympathy, and spreads alarm. But the most dangerous, the most sure, the most fatal of tyrannies, was by selecting and sacrificing single individuals, under the mask and forms of law, by dependent and partial tribunals. Against such measures we ought to keep a vigilant eye, and take a manly stand. Whenever they arise, we ought to resist, and resist, till we have hurled the demagogues and tyrants from their imagined thrones."
"But, whatever may be our opinion on the English law, there is another and a very important view of the subject to be taken, and that is with respect to the true standard of the freedom of the American press. In England they have never taken notice of the press in any parliamentary recognition of the principles of the government, or of the rights of the subject, whereas the people of this country have always classed the freedom of the press among their fundamental rights. This I can easily illustrate by a few examples."
"The first American congress, in 1774, in one of their public addresses, (Journals, vol. 1, p. 57,) enumerated five invaluable rights, without which a people cannot be free and happy, and under the protecting and encouraging influence of which these colonies had hitherto so amazingly flourished and increased. One of these rights was the freedom of the press, and the importance of this right consisted, as they observed, "besides the advancement of truth, science, morality, and arts in general, in its diffusion of liberal sentiments on the administration of government, its ready communication of thoughts between subjects, and its consequential promotion of union among them, whereby oppressive officers are shamed or intimidated into more honorable and just modes of conducting affairs.""
Shame indeed. Now let's hear from Mr. McCain:
"(3) Electioneering communication.--For purposes of this
subsection--
``(A) In general.--(i) The term `electioneering
communication' means any broadcast, cable, or satellite
communication which--
``(I) refers to a clearly identified candidate
for Federal office;
``(II) is made within--
``(aa) 60 days before a general,
special, or runoff election for the
office sought by the candidate; or
``(bb) 30 days before a primary or
preference election, or a convention or
caucus of a political party that has
authority to nominate a candidate, for
the office sought by the candidate; and
``(III) in the case of a communication which
refers to a candidate for an office other than
President or Vice President, is targeted to the
relevant electorate.
``(ii) If clause (i) is held to be constitutionally
insufficient by final judicial decision to support the
regulation provided herein, then the term
`electioneering communication' means any broadcast,
cable, or satellite communication which promotes or
supports a candidate for that office, or attacks or
opposes a candidate for that office (regardless of
whether the communication expressly advocates a vote for
or against a candidate) and which also is suggestive of
no plausible meaning other than an exhortation to vote
for or against a specific candidate. Nothing in this
subparagraph shall be construed to affect the
interpretation or application of section 100.22(b) of
title 11, Code of Federal Regulations."
Make mine Hamilton.
Sunday, July 20, 2003
THE PRICE THEY PAID
Author Unknown
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the revolutionary army, another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the revolutionary war.
They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners, men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.
Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers or both, looted the properties of Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. The owner quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.
Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
Author Unknown
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the revolutionary army, another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the revolutionary war.
They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners, men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.
Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers or both, looted the properties of Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. The owner quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.
Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
The late Michael Kelly, American, speaks:
"America was created as an antidote to Europe. American "unilateralism," as its critics call it, has not produced anything like perfect leadership. But there are worse "isms" than unilateralism; three are imperialism, fascism, and communism. A century of American resolve, often in the face of European disdain, created a continent where not one of these lives as a serious force. Not bad."
"America was created as an antidote to Europe. American "unilateralism," as its critics call it, has not produced anything like perfect leadership. But there are worse "isms" than unilateralism; three are imperialism, fascism, and communism. A century of American resolve, often in the face of European disdain, created a continent where not one of these lives as a serious force. Not bad."
Pres. George Washington- "The Constitution which at any time exists, 'till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People, is sacredly obligatory upon all."
Justice Joseph Story-"...[T]he danger is not, that the judges will be too firm in resisting public opinion, and in defence of private rights or public liberties; but, that they will be ready to yield themselves to the passions, and politics, and prejudices of the day."
(Story served with Washington in the 1777 campaigns, was the Speaker of the Mass. House and was named by Pres. Madison to the Court, where he served from 1811 to 1845. He was also a poet, an orator and held Harvard's first endowed law professorship.)
Pres. Thomas Jefferson-"The opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch."
Did they know something we have forgotten?
Justice Joseph Story-"...[T]he danger is not, that the judges will be too firm in resisting public opinion, and in defence of private rights or public liberties; but, that they will be ready to yield themselves to the passions, and politics, and prejudices of the day."
(Story served with Washington in the 1777 campaigns, was the Speaker of the Mass. House and was named by Pres. Madison to the Court, where he served from 1811 to 1845. He was also a poet, an orator and held Harvard's first endowed law professorship.)
Pres. Thomas Jefferson-"The opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch."
Did they know something we have forgotten?
If the Declaration of Independence
were written today, would it resemble this:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident:
That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government..."
or this?:
"A Manifesto of Dependence"
"We, evidently, hold our Selves to be Truth;
That all outcomes & peoples shall be created equal; Above average? We'll grind you into mediocrity; below average? we'll prop you up! That we are endowed by our prehensile protozoan predecessors with all rights/all the time...and never any duties; that among these rights are...well, everthing. oh, yeah ; Happiness, too. Make me happy...or else! To secure these rights, we surrender all decision-making, including where to vacation, to Government, which derives it's raw power from the Contempt of the Governed. Whenever any actual people get in the way of the Utopia we are creating, it is the right of government to alter or abolish the people and institute a new people."
Come to think of it, this might actually be the Preamble to the new EU Constitution.
were written today, would it resemble this:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident:
That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government..."
or this?:
"A Manifesto of Dependence"
"We, evidently, hold our Selves to be Truth;
That all outcomes & peoples shall be created equal; Above average? We'll grind you into mediocrity; below average? we'll prop you up! That we are endowed by our prehensile protozoan predecessors with all rights/all the time...and never any duties; that among these rights are...well, everthing. oh, yeah ; Happiness, too. Make me happy...or else! To secure these rights, we surrender all decision-making, including where to vacation, to Government, which derives it's raw power from the Contempt of the Governed. Whenever any actual people get in the way of the Utopia we are creating, it is the right of government to alter or abolish the people and institute a new people."
Come to think of it, this might actually be the Preamble to the new EU Constitution.
I'm reading
"Benjamin Franklin" by Edmund S. Morgan. Not to be confused with Edmund Morris, the lazy
bio-novelist of "Dutch" fame.
We tend to think of the colonists fighting King George, but Franklin's beef was with the Penn family & Parliament. Indeed, Franklin wanted more Royal control to check their power. The colonists recognized the King, but couldn't accept that Englishmen of say, Manchester, should have control over the Englishmen of Massachussets. When the King sided with Parliament, it was over. And Franklin, who had long cherished the dream of a Greater England, became the most pro-independence of Americans, based on his intimate knowledge of English opinion & malfeasance.
Franklin embraced moral relativity as a young man...until his friends used it to avoid repaying their debts to him.
He wrongly worried about the assimilation of Germans...and rightly complained about the importation of British criminals.
He 'owned' 2 slaves at one point...but came to forcefully reject slavery.
He had at least 4 home-towns in his life; Boston, Philadelphia, London and Paris.
He could be considered America's first nationally-elected leader; he was chosen by the Assemblies of Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvannia and Massachusetts to represent them before the Crown.
Franklin's pen-names include: Historicus, Benevolus, Silence Dogood, Harry Meanwell, Alice Addertongue, 'Poor' Richard Saunders, Timothy Turnstone, Caelia Shortface, Martha Careful, Miss Busy Body, Polly Baker & Anthony Afterwit.
"Hereditary Legislators!, thought I. There would be more propriety...(and) less mischief, in having...Hereditary Professors of Mathematics!"
"Benjamin Franklin" by Edmund S. Morgan. Not to be confused with Edmund Morris, the lazy
bio-novelist of "Dutch" fame.
We tend to think of the colonists fighting King George, but Franklin's beef was with the Penn family & Parliament. Indeed, Franklin wanted more Royal control to check their power. The colonists recognized the King, but couldn't accept that Englishmen of say, Manchester, should have control over the Englishmen of Massachussets. When the King sided with Parliament, it was over. And Franklin, who had long cherished the dream of a Greater England, became the most pro-independence of Americans, based on his intimate knowledge of English opinion & malfeasance.
Franklin embraced moral relativity as a young man...until his friends used it to avoid repaying their debts to him.
He wrongly worried about the assimilation of Germans...and rightly complained about the importation of British criminals.
He 'owned' 2 slaves at one point...but came to forcefully reject slavery.
He had at least 4 home-towns in his life; Boston, Philadelphia, London and Paris.
He could be considered America's first nationally-elected leader; he was chosen by the Assemblies of Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvannia and Massachusetts to represent them before the Crown.
Franklin's pen-names include: Historicus, Benevolus, Silence Dogood, Harry Meanwell, Alice Addertongue, 'Poor' Richard Saunders, Timothy Turnstone, Caelia Shortface, Martha Careful, Miss Busy Body, Polly Baker & Anthony Afterwit.
"Hereditary Legislators!, thought I. There would be more propriety...(and) less mischief, in having...Hereditary Professors of Mathematics!"
We present
French History Month:
Lewis & Clark hired Toussaint Charbonneau to translate for them on their expedition. He brought one his adolescent American Indian slave-wives, Sacagawea, and left the other behind. He made his living killing fuzzy little animals. Several times he nearly ended the expedition, getting lost, capsizing boats, losing valuable supplies & nearly drowning. When confronted by a bear, he threw away his gun and fled, endangering the other members of the party.
But he could cook.
This has been a French History Moment.
French History Month:
Lewis & Clark hired Toussaint Charbonneau to translate for them on their expedition. He brought one his adolescent American Indian slave-wives, Sacagawea, and left the other behind. He made his living killing fuzzy little animals. Several times he nearly ended the expedition, getting lost, capsizing boats, losing valuable supplies & nearly drowning. When confronted by a bear, he threw away his gun and fled, endangering the other members of the party.
But he could cook.
This has been a French History Moment.
Denis Boyles
On France: "...almost 100 percent of them practice birth control and "family planning," a euphemism for having a family that includes more cars than kids. Natural law, the richly ornamented expression of which is orthodox religious practice and belief, is easy to disregard. But you break the law, you pay the price. And in the case of France — and Germany...the price of being fruitless and not multiplying is a smaller state-welfare apparatus and a working life that takes you right up to the edge of the grave, then pushes you in. For those who need to believe the state can always do what God can't, that's called dying for your faith."
"The growing smallness of France — diplomatically, economically, culturally — is a remarkable thing. One day, I fear I'll go to bash the French and find myself making faces at an Islamic Euro-state."
On France: "...almost 100 percent of them practice birth control and "family planning," a euphemism for having a family that includes more cars than kids. Natural law, the richly ornamented expression of which is orthodox religious practice and belief, is easy to disregard. But you break the law, you pay the price. And in the case of France — and Germany...the price of being fruitless and not multiplying is a smaller state-welfare apparatus and a working life that takes you right up to the edge of the grave, then pushes you in. For those who need to believe the state can always do what God can't, that's called dying for your faith."
"The growing smallness of France — diplomatically, economically, culturally — is a remarkable thing. One day, I fear I'll go to bash the French and find myself making faces at an Islamic Euro-state."
National Court's "European Vacation"
Terry Eastland cites those who cite Euro-law.
Justice Kennedy: "..."The right...has been accepted as an integral part of human freedom in many other countries.", citing the anti-semitic European Court of Human Rights.
"... Justice Ginsburg began with a discussion of foreign law. In a death penalty case last year, Justice Stevens dropped a footnote citing "the world community"..."
"Justice Breyer wrote that foreign law "can help guide this court when it decides whether a particular punishment violates the Eighth Amendment." In a rare TV interview last week, Justice Breyer described "the challenge for the next generation" as that of figuring out whether the Constitution "fits into the governing documents of other nations." "
I don't want our Constitution to "fit in" with other countries' 'governing documents', thank you very much. Let them "harmonize" their inferior documents to fit in with ours. Or not.
But we need Justices who remember who they work for and to which 'governing document' they swore an allegiance. As I recall, ours was an antidote to European systems, not a subordinate clause to be 'harmonized'.
Justices Scalia & Thomas have been highly critical of this Trans-national jurisprudence.
Most of the Court is in Europe at this very moment, including Justice Thomas;
At least he knows which country he's in.
And which country is in him.
Terry Eastland cites those who cite Euro-law.
Justice Kennedy: "..."The right...has been accepted as an integral part of human freedom in many other countries.", citing the anti-semitic European Court of Human Rights.
"... Justice Ginsburg began with a discussion of foreign law. In a death penalty case last year, Justice Stevens dropped a footnote citing "the world community"..."
"Justice Breyer wrote that foreign law "can help guide this court when it decides whether a particular punishment violates the Eighth Amendment." In a rare TV interview last week, Justice Breyer described "the challenge for the next generation" as that of figuring out whether the Constitution "fits into the governing documents of other nations." "
I don't want our Constitution to "fit in" with other countries' 'governing documents', thank you very much. Let them "harmonize" their inferior documents to fit in with ours. Or not.
But we need Justices who remember who they work for and to which 'governing document' they swore an allegiance. As I recall, ours was an antidote to European systems, not a subordinate clause to be 'harmonized'.
Justices Scalia & Thomas have been highly critical of this Trans-national jurisprudence.
Most of the Court is in Europe at this very moment, including Justice Thomas;
At least he knows which country he's in.
And which country is in him.
Will Rogers,
on viewing the Venus de Milo with his neice:
"See what happens if you keep chewing your nails?"
"If Stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?"
"This stuff they are talking here in Congress costs the people of the United States $44 a page. That's beside what it costs to ship it to the asylums where it's read."
"A politician is just like a pickpocket; it's almost impossible to get him to reform."
"Our Constitution protects aliens, drunks and U.S. Senators."
on viewing the Venus de Milo with his neice:
"See what happens if you keep chewing your nails?"
"If Stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?"
"This stuff they are talking here in Congress costs the people of the United States $44 a page. That's beside what it costs to ship it to the asylums where it's read."
"A politician is just like a pickpocket; it's almost impossible to get him to reform."
"Our Constitution protects aliens, drunks and U.S. Senators."
"We often read nowadays of the valor or audacity with which some rebel attacks a hoary tyranny or an antiquated superstition. There is not really any courage at all in attacking hoary or antiquated things, any more than in offering to fight one's grandmother. The really courageous man is he who defies tyrannies young as the morning and superstitions fresh as the first flowers." - G. K. Chesterton
Wednesday, July 02, 2003
Michelle Malkin:
"To civil-liberties alarmists, Viet Dinh is a traitor. To me, he is an American hero. Dinh, 35, is widely known-and reviled-as the primary architect of the Patriot Act."
"Drawing on Edmund Burke's theory of "Ordered Liberty," which argues that liberty cannot be exercised unless government has first provided civil order, Dinh observes: "I think security exists for liberty to flourish and liberty cannot exist without order and security." "
"On July 4th, this fundamental lesson of Sept. 11 must not be forgotten. The charred earth, mangled steel, crashing glass, fiery chaos, and eviscerated bodies are indelible reminders that the blessings of liberty in America do not secure themselves."
True.
"To civil-liberties alarmists, Viet Dinh is a traitor. To me, he is an American hero. Dinh, 35, is widely known-and reviled-as the primary architect of the Patriot Act."
"Drawing on Edmund Burke's theory of "Ordered Liberty," which argues that liberty cannot be exercised unless government has first provided civil order, Dinh observes: "I think security exists for liberty to flourish and liberty cannot exist without order and security." "
"On July 4th, this fundamental lesson of Sept. 11 must not be forgotten. The charred earth, mangled steel, crashing glass, fiery chaos, and eviscerated bodies are indelible reminders that the blessings of liberty in America do not secure themselves."
True.
The early years of our nation were marked by a constant whip-sawing between England & France, hence Washington's warning about 'entangling alliances'. Washington realized our country had to survive infancy by remaining aloof from European intrigues.
We fought an undeclared naval war with France in the wake of the XYZ Affair. Indeed, it was a toss-up as to whom we would declare war on in 1812; the Senate voted 14 to 16 to declare war on France. But we couldn't do both and England was judged the greater offender.
The sinking of the Maine was judged to be terrorism and help spark the Spanish-American War in Cuba & the Phillipines.
Our involvement in WWI was in a sense caused by 'terrorism'; the sinkings by U-boat submarines caused an outrage. Previously, ships of war were expected to allow passengers to man the life-boats. The U-boats couldn't do this for their own safety, and certainly couldn't pick up survivors.
That war has always seemed to me to be the last 'old-fashioned' European war, the kind Europe fought almost out of habit. That habit clashed with the modern weapons that were introduced; the subs, the machine guns, mass artillary, poison gas, airplanes, tanks, etc.
Fortunately, today's war is different in one regard ; the casualties in those battles were staggering; there would be 80 or 100 thousand killed & wounded in a battle, then off to the next one. A staggering toll, which led to the pacifism of the 1930's. At the time of Armistice, many people grasped that they would be back in 20 years, with so many issues unresolved. Pacifism only made it worse.
The Korean War was popular at first, then many politicians began backtracking; some for political advantage and some because they were soft on Communism. That sounds very familiar. We're lucky Franklin Roosevelt dumped his socialist Vice-President in 1944 and picked Truman. Interestingly, Stalin knew of the American A-bomb before Truman did, having penetrated Los Alamos Laboratories.
Gen. MacArthur thought we should use atomic weapons in Korea. Truman balked, not wanting to use them on Asians again. Given the despicable regime and the nuclear nut-cases running it, one has to wonder if Mac wasn't right.
Sec. of State John Foster Dulles gave a speech that listed countries we thought should be defended in Asia. The list neglected to mention Korea, and some have said this encouraged the Communist attack.
I think our open borders and multi-cultural policies put New York City & Washington, D.C. on a list of places we were unwilling to defend and encouraged terrorists.
We fought an undeclared naval war with France in the wake of the XYZ Affair. Indeed, it was a toss-up as to whom we would declare war on in 1812; the Senate voted 14 to 16 to declare war on France. But we couldn't do both and England was judged the greater offender.
The sinking of the Maine was judged to be terrorism and help spark the Spanish-American War in Cuba & the Phillipines.
Our involvement in WWI was in a sense caused by 'terrorism'; the sinkings by U-boat submarines caused an outrage. Previously, ships of war were expected to allow passengers to man the life-boats. The U-boats couldn't do this for their own safety, and certainly couldn't pick up survivors.
That war has always seemed to me to be the last 'old-fashioned' European war, the kind Europe fought almost out of habit. That habit clashed with the modern weapons that were introduced; the subs, the machine guns, mass artillary, poison gas, airplanes, tanks, etc.
Fortunately, today's war is different in one regard ; the casualties in those battles were staggering; there would be 80 or 100 thousand killed & wounded in a battle, then off to the next one. A staggering toll, which led to the pacifism of the 1930's. At the time of Armistice, many people grasped that they would be back in 20 years, with so many issues unresolved. Pacifism only made it worse.
The Korean War was popular at first, then many politicians began backtracking; some for political advantage and some because they were soft on Communism. That sounds very familiar. We're lucky Franklin Roosevelt dumped his socialist Vice-President in 1944 and picked Truman. Interestingly, Stalin knew of the American A-bomb before Truman did, having penetrated Los Alamos Laboratories.
Gen. MacArthur thought we should use atomic weapons in Korea. Truman balked, not wanting to use them on Asians again. Given the despicable regime and the nuclear nut-cases running it, one has to wonder if Mac wasn't right.
Sec. of State John Foster Dulles gave a speech that listed countries we thought should be defended in Asia. The list neglected to mention Korea, and some have said this encouraged the Communist attack.
I think our open borders and multi-cultural policies put New York City & Washington, D.C. on a list of places we were unwilling to defend and encouraged terrorists.
O, Canada!
This was broadcast 30 years ago on a Toronto radio station:
"The Americans"
"The United States dollar took another pounding on German, French and British exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany. It has declined there by 41% since 1971 and this Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least-appreciated people in all the earth.
As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtse. Who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did.
They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges and the Niger. Today, the rich bottom land of the Mississippi is under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help. Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of those countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.
When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
When distant cities are hit by earthquakes, it is the United States that hurries into help... Managua Nicaragua is one of the most recent examples. So far this spring, 59 American communities have been flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped.
The Marshall Plan .. the Truman Policy .. all pumped billions upon billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now, newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent war-mongering Americans.
I'd like to see one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplanes.
Come on... let's hear it! Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tristar or the Douglas 107? If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all international lines except Russia fly American planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or women on the moon?
You talk about Japanese technocracy and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy and you find men on the moon, not once, but several times ... and safely home again. You talk about scandals and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everyone to look at. Even the draft dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, most of them ... unless they are breaking Canadian laws .. are getting American dollars from Ma and Pa at home to spend here.
When the Americans get out of this bind ... as they will... who could blame them if they said 'the hell with the rest of the world'. Let someone else buy the Israel bonds, Let someone else build or repair foreign dams or design foreign buildings that won't shake apart in earthquakes.
When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke. I can name to you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble.
Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbours have faced it alone and I am one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles.
I hope Canada is not one of these. But there are many smug, self-righteous Canadians. And finally, the American Red Cross was told at its 48th Annual meeting in New Orleans this morning that it was broke.
This year's disasters .. with the year less than half-over… has taken it all and nobody...but nobody... has helped."
"LET'S BE PERSONAL"
Broadcast June 5, 1973
CFRB, Toronto, Ontario
This was broadcast 30 years ago on a Toronto radio station:
"The Americans"
"The United States dollar took another pounding on German, French and British exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany. It has declined there by 41% since 1971 and this Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least-appreciated people in all the earth.
As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtse. Who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did.
They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges and the Niger. Today, the rich bottom land of the Mississippi is under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help. Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of those countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.
When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
When distant cities are hit by earthquakes, it is the United States that hurries into help... Managua Nicaragua is one of the most recent examples. So far this spring, 59 American communities have been flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped.
The Marshall Plan .. the Truman Policy .. all pumped billions upon billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now, newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent war-mongering Americans.
I'd like to see one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplanes.
Come on... let's hear it! Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tristar or the Douglas 107? If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all international lines except Russia fly American planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or women on the moon?
You talk about Japanese technocracy and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy and you find men on the moon, not once, but several times ... and safely home again. You talk about scandals and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everyone to look at. Even the draft dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, most of them ... unless they are breaking Canadian laws .. are getting American dollars from Ma and Pa at home to spend here.
When the Americans get out of this bind ... as they will... who could blame them if they said 'the hell with the rest of the world'. Let someone else buy the Israel bonds, Let someone else build or repair foreign dams or design foreign buildings that won't shake apart in earthquakes.
When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke. I can name to you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble.
Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbours have faced it alone and I am one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles.
I hope Canada is not one of these. But there are many smug, self-righteous Canadians. And finally, the American Red Cross was told at its 48th Annual meeting in New Orleans this morning that it was broke.
This year's disasters .. with the year less than half-over… has taken it all and nobody...but nobody... has helped."
"LET'S BE PERSONAL"
Broadcast June 5, 1973
CFRB, Toronto, Ontario
Presidents, and Congresses, not to mention citizens, also have a say in the meaning of the Constitution.
Yes, I know; It was all supposed to be decided by Chief Justice John Marshall in 'Marbury v. Madison'. Marshall was a truly great American.
But here is another take on 'Marbury' by former Atty. General Meese:
"Some Americans have erroneously been led to believe that courts must always have the sole and final word in interpreting the Constitution and that state governments, and the executive and legislative branches of the federal government, must accept judicial rulings without question."
"The Constitution, however, does not grant the courts such supremacy; indeed, as President Lincoln expressly noted, the logic of self-government denies it. The Founders of our nation feared that if any one branch of government seized supreme authority to control the meaning of the Constitution, that branch would gradually expand its own powers and encroach on the legitimate authority of the other branches. This is why the Founders crafted the Constitution around the idea of a balance and separation of powers, not on executive, legislative or judicial supremacy."
"In the 1803 Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison, which was the first major exercise of judicial review, Chief Justice John Marshall argued that all three branches have power to interpret the Constitution: “[I]t is apparent that the framers ... contemplated that instrument as a rule for the government of courts, as well as of the legislature,” Marshall wrote, adding that “courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument.”
And here is what Linclon said after 'Dred Scott':
"If it is “the policy of the government, upon vital questions, affecting the whole people, that [constitutionality] be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation between parties, then the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having, to that extent, practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.” "
" In 1861, Lincoln announced that his administration, while respecting the result in Dred Scott, would recognize that case only as “binding … to that particular case,” and would not accept the principle of the broader rule of law the Court was trying to create in the decision. This was important because the Patent Office in Boston had denied a patent to a free black, citing Dred Scott that blacks were not citizens, and the State Department had denied a passport to a free black to travel to Europe on the same grounds. Lincoln ordered these executive branch departments to reverse both decisions, saying that he would not apply the legal principle of Dred Scott to these cases ..."
The oath taken by the President (& Congress) are more than pretty words. If the Constitution has been seriously breached, The President has a DUTY to defend it. He then takes the consequences; Impeachment, voted out of office or swept to popular re-election. Same with Congress.
Imagine the Court ruled that our signature on the UN Charter prevented us from going to war without the Security Council's permission. Trans-nationals in the Senate had enough votes to prevent the removal of those Justices. Is the case closed? The scenario is far-fetched--I hope.
But a President would have the duty to over-rule such a Court.
Just as all Presidents from 'Plessy' to 'Brown' should have stood up against 'Separate but Equal'.
Yes, it's messy. Yes, half the Congress wouldn't recognize the Constitution if their paychecks were printed on it & their pensions depended on it. And yes, it's hard to take a bold stand when Liberty is taken in tiny increments, day by day.
But Freedom is messy. And a Balance of Powers helps protect the rights of a free people.
I'll say it again:
The Court does not 'own' the Constitution.
Or, as Patrick Henry famously said; " Give me Liberty or give me a narrowly-tailored penumbra...whatever."
Yes, I know; It was all supposed to be decided by Chief Justice John Marshall in 'Marbury v. Madison'. Marshall was a truly great American.
But here is another take on 'Marbury' by former Atty. General Meese:
"Some Americans have erroneously been led to believe that courts must always have the sole and final word in interpreting the Constitution and that state governments, and the executive and legislative branches of the federal government, must accept judicial rulings without question."
"The Constitution, however, does not grant the courts such supremacy; indeed, as President Lincoln expressly noted, the logic of self-government denies it. The Founders of our nation feared that if any one branch of government seized supreme authority to control the meaning of the Constitution, that branch would gradually expand its own powers and encroach on the legitimate authority of the other branches. This is why the Founders crafted the Constitution around the idea of a balance and separation of powers, not on executive, legislative or judicial supremacy."
"In the 1803 Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison, which was the first major exercise of judicial review, Chief Justice John Marshall argued that all three branches have power to interpret the Constitution: “[I]t is apparent that the framers ... contemplated that instrument as a rule for the government of courts, as well as of the legislature,” Marshall wrote, adding that “courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument.”
And here is what Linclon said after 'Dred Scott':
"If it is “the policy of the government, upon vital questions, affecting the whole people, that [constitutionality] be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation between parties, then the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having, to that extent, practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.” "
" In 1861, Lincoln announced that his administration, while respecting the result in Dred Scott, would recognize that case only as “binding … to that particular case,” and would not accept the principle of the broader rule of law the Court was trying to create in the decision. This was important because the Patent Office in Boston had denied a patent to a free black, citing Dred Scott that blacks were not citizens, and the State Department had denied a passport to a free black to travel to Europe on the same grounds. Lincoln ordered these executive branch departments to reverse both decisions, saying that he would not apply the legal principle of Dred Scott to these cases ..."
The oath taken by the President (& Congress) are more than pretty words. If the Constitution has been seriously breached, The President has a DUTY to defend it. He then takes the consequences; Impeachment, voted out of office or swept to popular re-election. Same with Congress.
Imagine the Court ruled that our signature on the UN Charter prevented us from going to war without the Security Council's permission. Trans-nationals in the Senate had enough votes to prevent the removal of those Justices. Is the case closed? The scenario is far-fetched--I hope.
But a President would have the duty to over-rule such a Court.
Just as all Presidents from 'Plessy' to 'Brown' should have stood up against 'Separate but Equal'.
Yes, it's messy. Yes, half the Congress wouldn't recognize the Constitution if their paychecks were printed on it & their pensions depended on it. And yes, it's hard to take a bold stand when Liberty is taken in tiny increments, day by day.
But Freedom is messy. And a Balance of Powers helps protect the rights of a free people.
I'll say it again:
The Court does not 'own' the Constitution.
Or, as Patrick Henry famously said; " Give me Liberty or give me a narrowly-tailored penumbra...whatever."
Tuesday, June 24, 2003
"Liberty Enlightening the World"
is the proper name of Frederic Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty.
Concerned about religious freedom after the Russian pogroms, Emma Lazarus writes "The New Colossus". The last five lines are inscribed at the statue's base. The 'Colussus' refers, not to a conquering god, but a liberating idea; not to American power, but the source of that power; Liberty.
The poem has been used to justify unlimited mass-immigration, both legal & illegal, and without assimilation.
This is not an enhancement of our ordered liberty, but a dimunition, as France herself is discovering. Between this, the aristocratic tradition & the choking trans-national socialism of the Euro-elites, liberty eludes there.
Bartholdi to Edouard de Laboulaye, who conceived the project to celebrate the end of slavery:
"Trying to glorify the republic & liberty over there {in America}, I shall await the day they shall be found over here with us {in France}."
Bartholdi awaits.
is the proper name of Frederic Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty.
Concerned about religious freedom after the Russian pogroms, Emma Lazarus writes "The New Colossus". The last five lines are inscribed at the statue's base. The 'Colussus' refers, not to a conquering god, but a liberating idea; not to American power, but the source of that power; Liberty.
The poem has been used to justify unlimited mass-immigration, both legal & illegal, and without assimilation.
This is not an enhancement of our ordered liberty, but a dimunition, as France herself is discovering. Between this, the aristocratic tradition & the choking trans-national socialism of the Euro-elites, liberty eludes there.
Bartholdi to Edouard de Laboulaye, who conceived the project to celebrate the end of slavery:
"Trying to glorify the republic & liberty over there {in America}, I shall await the day they shall be found over here with us {in France}."
Bartholdi awaits.
On the Slave-Trade: To the Editor of the Federal Gazette, March 23rd, 1790.
Sir,
Reading last night in your excellent paper the speech of Mr. Jackson in Congress against their meddling with the affair of slavery, or attempting to mend the condition of the slaves, it put me in mind of a similar one made about 100 Years since by Sidi Mohammed Ibrahim, a member of the Divan of Algiers, which may be seen in 'Martin's Account of his Consulship', (pub. 1687). It was against granting the petition of the sect called 'Erika', or purists who prayed for the abolition of piracy and slavery as being unjust.
Mr. Jackson does not quote it; perhaps he has not seen it. If, therefore, some of its reasonings are to be found in his eloquent speech, it may only show that men's interests and intellects operate and are operated on with surprising similarity in all countries and climates, when under similar circumstances. The African {Muslim}'s speech, as translated, is as follows:
"Allah Bismillah, etc. God is great, and Mohammed is his Prophet."
"Have these abolitionists considered the consequences of granting their Petition? If we cease our cruises against the Christians, how shall we be furnished with the commodities their countries produce, and which are so necessary for us? If we forbear to make slaves of their people, who in this hot climate are to cultivate our lands? Who are to perform the common labours of our city, and in our families? Must we not then be our own slaves? And is there not more compassion and more favour due to us as Muslims, than to these Christian dogs?
"We have now about 50,000 slaves in and near Algiers. This number, if not kept up by fresh supplies, will soon diminish, and be gradually annihilated. If we then cease taking and plundering the infidel ships, and making slaves of the seamen and passengers, our lands will become of no value for lack of cultivation; the rents of houses in the city will sink one half; and the revenues of government arising from its share of prizes be totally destroyed! And for what? To gratify the whims of a whimsical sect, who would have us, not only forgo making more slaves, but even to free those we have."
"But who is to indemnify their masters for the loss? Will the state do it? Is our treasury sufficient? Will the abolitionists do it? Can they do it? Or would they, to do what they think justice to the slaves, do a greater injustice to the owners? And it we set our slaves free, what is to be done with them? Few of them will return to their countries; they know too well the great hardships they must there be subject to; they will not embrace our holy religion; they will not adopt our manners; our people will not pollute themselves by intermarrying with them. Must we maintain them as beggars in our streets, or suffer our properties to be the prey of their pillage? For men long accustomed to slavery will not work for a livelihood when not compelled. And what is there so pitiable in their present condition? Were they not slaves in their own countries?"
"Are not Spain, Portugal, France, and the Italian states governed by despots, who hold all their subjects in slavery, without exception? Even England treats its sailors as slaves; for they are, whenever the Government pleases, seized, and confined in ships of war, condemned not only to work, but to fight, for small wages, or a mere subsistence, not better than our slaves are allowed by us. Is their condition then made worse by their falling into our hands? No; they have only exchanged on slavery for another, and I may say a better; for here they are brought into a land where the Sun of Islamism gives forth its Light, and shines in full splendor, and they have an opportunity of making themselves acquainted with the true doctrine, and thereby saving their immortal souls. Those who remain at home have not that happiness. Sending the slaves home then would be sending them out of Light into Darkness."
"I repeat the question; What is to be done with them? I have heard it suggested, that they may be planted in the wilderness, where there is plenty of land for them to subsist on, and where they may flourish as a free state; but they are, I doubt, to little disposed to labour without compulsion, as well as too ignorant to establish a good government, and the wild Arabs would soon molest and destroy or again enslave them. While serving us, we take care to provide them with every thing, and they are treated with humanity. The labourers in their own country are, as I am well informed, worse fed, lodged, and clothed. The condition of most of them is therefore already mended, and requires no further improvement. Here their lives are in safety. They are not liable to be impressed for soldiers, and forced to cut one another's Christian throats, as in the wars of their own countries. If some of the religious mad bigots, who now tease us with their silly petitions, have, in a fit of blind zeal, freed their slaves, it was not generosity, it was not humanity, that moved them to the action; it was from the conscious burden of a load of sins, and hope, from the supposed merits of so good a work, to be excused from damnation."
"How grossly are they mistaken in imagining slavery to be disallowed by the Koran? Are not the two precepts, to quote no more; 'Masters, treat your slaves with kindness; Slaves, serve your masters with cheerfulness and fidelity,' clear proofs to the contrary? Nor can the plundering of infidels be in that sacred Book forbidden, since it is well known from it, that God has given the world, and all that it contains, to his faithful Muslims, who are to enjoy it of right as fast as they conquer it. Let us then hear no more of this detestable proposition, the Freeing of Christian slaves, the adoption of which would, by depreciating our lands and houses, and thereby depriving so many good citizens of their properties, create universal discontent, and provoke insurrections, to the endangering of government and producing general confusion. I have therefore no doubt, but this wise Council will prefer the comfort and happiness of a whole nation of true believers to the whim of a few abolitionists, and dismiss their petition." - Sidi Mohammed Ibrahim.
The result was, as Martin tells us, that the Divan came to this resolution; "The doctrine, that plundering and enslaving the Christians is unjust, is at best problematical; but that it is the interest of this State to continue the practice, is clear; therefore let the petition be rejected."
And it was rejected accordingly.
And since similar motives are apt to produce in the minds of men similar opinions and resolutions, may we not, Mr. Brown, venture to predict, from this account, that the petitions to the Parliament of England for abolishing the Slave-Trade, to say nothing of other Legislatures, and the debates upon them, will have a similar conclusion? I am, Sir, your constant reader and humble servant,
-HISTORICUS.
(Franklin's pen name)
Interestingly, this letter now stands as a rebuke to the Islamic world. I was already in school when the Sauds outlawed slavery in 1962. America was then going through it's civil-rights struggle, a century after abolition. I doubt we can afford to wait 'til 2062 for the Sauds to produce a Martin Luther King.
I was surprised to learn that Twain disliked Franklin for his Main Street boosterism. Both excellent satirists & civil-rights supporters. This work compares well to Twain's...of a century later. As with so much in American life...first there was Franklin
Sir,
Reading last night in your excellent paper the speech of Mr. Jackson in Congress against their meddling with the affair of slavery, or attempting to mend the condition of the slaves, it put me in mind of a similar one made about 100 Years since by Sidi Mohammed Ibrahim, a member of the Divan of Algiers, which may be seen in 'Martin's Account of his Consulship', (pub. 1687). It was against granting the petition of the sect called 'Erika', or purists who prayed for the abolition of piracy and slavery as being unjust.
Mr. Jackson does not quote it; perhaps he has not seen it. If, therefore, some of its reasonings are to be found in his eloquent speech, it may only show that men's interests and intellects operate and are operated on with surprising similarity in all countries and climates, when under similar circumstances. The African {Muslim}'s speech, as translated, is as follows:
"Allah Bismillah, etc. God is great, and Mohammed is his Prophet."
"Have these abolitionists considered the consequences of granting their Petition? If we cease our cruises against the Christians, how shall we be furnished with the commodities their countries produce, and which are so necessary for us? If we forbear to make slaves of their people, who in this hot climate are to cultivate our lands? Who are to perform the common labours of our city, and in our families? Must we not then be our own slaves? And is there not more compassion and more favour due to us as Muslims, than to these Christian dogs?
"We have now about 50,000 slaves in and near Algiers. This number, if not kept up by fresh supplies, will soon diminish, and be gradually annihilated. If we then cease taking and plundering the infidel ships, and making slaves of the seamen and passengers, our lands will become of no value for lack of cultivation; the rents of houses in the city will sink one half; and the revenues of government arising from its share of prizes be totally destroyed! And for what? To gratify the whims of a whimsical sect, who would have us, not only forgo making more slaves, but even to free those we have."
"But who is to indemnify their masters for the loss? Will the state do it? Is our treasury sufficient? Will the abolitionists do it? Can they do it? Or would they, to do what they think justice to the slaves, do a greater injustice to the owners? And it we set our slaves free, what is to be done with them? Few of them will return to their countries; they know too well the great hardships they must there be subject to; they will not embrace our holy religion; they will not adopt our manners; our people will not pollute themselves by intermarrying with them. Must we maintain them as beggars in our streets, or suffer our properties to be the prey of their pillage? For men long accustomed to slavery will not work for a livelihood when not compelled. And what is there so pitiable in their present condition? Were they not slaves in their own countries?"
"Are not Spain, Portugal, France, and the Italian states governed by despots, who hold all their subjects in slavery, without exception? Even England treats its sailors as slaves; for they are, whenever the Government pleases, seized, and confined in ships of war, condemned not only to work, but to fight, for small wages, or a mere subsistence, not better than our slaves are allowed by us. Is their condition then made worse by their falling into our hands? No; they have only exchanged on slavery for another, and I may say a better; for here they are brought into a land where the Sun of Islamism gives forth its Light, and shines in full splendor, and they have an opportunity of making themselves acquainted with the true doctrine, and thereby saving their immortal souls. Those who remain at home have not that happiness. Sending the slaves home then would be sending them out of Light into Darkness."
"I repeat the question; What is to be done with them? I have heard it suggested, that they may be planted in the wilderness, where there is plenty of land for them to subsist on, and where they may flourish as a free state; but they are, I doubt, to little disposed to labour without compulsion, as well as too ignorant to establish a good government, and the wild Arabs would soon molest and destroy or again enslave them. While serving us, we take care to provide them with every thing, and they are treated with humanity. The labourers in their own country are, as I am well informed, worse fed, lodged, and clothed. The condition of most of them is therefore already mended, and requires no further improvement. Here their lives are in safety. They are not liable to be impressed for soldiers, and forced to cut one another's Christian throats, as in the wars of their own countries. If some of the religious mad bigots, who now tease us with their silly petitions, have, in a fit of blind zeal, freed their slaves, it was not generosity, it was not humanity, that moved them to the action; it was from the conscious burden of a load of sins, and hope, from the supposed merits of so good a work, to be excused from damnation."
"How grossly are they mistaken in imagining slavery to be disallowed by the Koran? Are not the two precepts, to quote no more; 'Masters, treat your slaves with kindness; Slaves, serve your masters with cheerfulness and fidelity,' clear proofs to the contrary? Nor can the plundering of infidels be in that sacred Book forbidden, since it is well known from it, that God has given the world, and all that it contains, to his faithful Muslims, who are to enjoy it of right as fast as they conquer it. Let us then hear no more of this detestable proposition, the Freeing of Christian slaves, the adoption of which would, by depreciating our lands and houses, and thereby depriving so many good citizens of their properties, create universal discontent, and provoke insurrections, to the endangering of government and producing general confusion. I have therefore no doubt, but this wise Council will prefer the comfort and happiness of a whole nation of true believers to the whim of a few abolitionists, and dismiss their petition." - Sidi Mohammed Ibrahim.
The result was, as Martin tells us, that the Divan came to this resolution; "The doctrine, that plundering and enslaving the Christians is unjust, is at best problematical; but that it is the interest of this State to continue the practice, is clear; therefore let the petition be rejected."
And it was rejected accordingly.
And since similar motives are apt to produce in the minds of men similar opinions and resolutions, may we not, Mr. Brown, venture to predict, from this account, that the petitions to the Parliament of England for abolishing the Slave-Trade, to say nothing of other Legislatures, and the debates upon them, will have a similar conclusion? I am, Sir, your constant reader and humble servant,
-HISTORICUS.
(Franklin's pen name)
Interestingly, this letter now stands as a rebuke to the Islamic world. I was already in school when the Sauds outlawed slavery in 1962. America was then going through it's civil-rights struggle, a century after abolition. I doubt we can afford to wait 'til 2062 for the Sauds to produce a Martin Luther King.
I was surprised to learn that Twain disliked Franklin for his Main Street boosterism. Both excellent satirists & civil-rights supporters. This work compares well to Twain's...of a century later. As with so much in American life...first there was Franklin
Thursday, June 19, 2003
The North and South Poles of the Revolution speak, on education:
"I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy."
-John Adams
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
-Thomas Jefferson
"I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy."
-John Adams
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
-Thomas Jefferson
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