THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL----NOVEMBER 22, 1963

 

                45 years ago this weekend, my life changed.   I had lived through a changing of the political guard in Idaho and in the United States.  Frank Church had been elected Senator in Idaho replacing an ultra-ultra right wing Herman Welker who walked around telling everyone he had a “list of card carrying communists working in the State Department” in his coat pocket, but would not share the names or make them public.  Extreme use of alcohol helped not only make him a joke, but Idaho as well.  He was a follower of Joe McCarthy, without the spiritual and mental commitment that at least drove McCarthy.   Senator Church was an idol of mine.  He had won the District, State, Regional, Sectional and National American Legion oratory contests; and he judged me when I won the district  in my senior year.  He told me that he thought I could win out through the competition and I was thrilled.  But, I respected him not for his friendly judging results but from his young, vital approach to representing Idahoans.  He brought an honorable look back to Idaho in the U.S. Senate.

           And, John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been elected president, bringing new excitement to the government of the United States.  His administration really was a “Camelot”, a place of shining futures.  Young people flocked into government service from the volunteer Peace Corps to every level of government service including the professional branches.  Pride in America was regained as we moved away from the phony “brinksmanship” of the prior 8 years.  Lodice and I were 23 and 24, when he was elected  and we were delighted to have a “new frontier” for all Americans.  His was to be the first “upward bound” administration since the end of World War II.  There was a direct link between Kennedy and Church; Senator Church delivered the keynote address at the convention that nominated Kennedy; the two were both young and idealistic about the place of the American dream in the world.

         Then, 45 years ago yesterday, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

         The shock of the news was immeasurable.  The memory is still painful.  For many years I could not read accounts of the day or of his young administration.  If you are old enough to have lived that dreadful day, where were you when you heard the news?  I was in court, trying a case that I don’t even remember.  The judge’s secretary came in,  and gave the judge a note.  I remember her face—white and bloodless, and I wondered if she had a personal emergency.  Judge Carter read the note, looked at her and she nodded to him, and he  made the announcement that the president had been shot and killed in Dallas.

 I don’t even remember him recessing the court, I remember only that he rose and walked out.   I just sat there as the courtroom was first very, very quiet, and then broke into chattering.  I don’t know how long I just sat there, numb.  Finally, I went in and called Lodice at work; she had heard and had been trying to call me.  She was not yet crying, and that was common throughout the courthouse.  Shock was the emotion, not yet sadness.   As opposing counsel and I stood outside  the judge’s chambers silently, the judge walked out, told us he was going home-----just like that.   None of us even thought it was an unusual act; it was if we expected no less.

 

                    Still in my drinking days, I went to the Southern Hotel bar to have a drink or two.  An older guy walked in and shouted “we need a drink to celebrate.  Somebody finally killed the son of a bitch.”  Thankfully, I wasn’t yet drunk, so I didn’t react, just got up and left.  As I drove home I thought about the fact that no matter to what heights we climb in this country, there will always be the mongers of hate, and of negatism who delight in trying to bring us back to the slimier levels of life which fit their awfully morbid mental state. 

What was it the crook, Spiro Agnew later called the press---the nattering naybobs of negatisim?  Well, I refer to the ultra right wing and the ultra left wing that way.  This is neither an ultra right nor ultra left country, and the fringe lunatics cannot accept a high level of success in the middle common sense level where most of us live and thrive.

        The rest of that pre-Thanksgiving week-end was spent in a state of shock.  Glued to the television, Lodice and I couldn’t draw our selves away from it.  Watching President Johnson take the oath of office on Air Force One, with Jackie looking on, still in her blood stained suit, I allowed my mind to slip back into the “old way” of thinking again, wondering if LBJ had something to do with the assassination.  Of course, we now know that he did not.  We now know from confessions of a lawyer for organized crime that JFK died under a mob death sentence, resulting from his brother’s crusade against organized crime.

                On the Sunday following the assassination, 45 years ago, Lodice and I went to church, and then to breakfast just to get ourselves pulled away from the television set and the morbid attachment to it.  During breakfast we learned that Jack Ruby had killed Oswald while Texas police were transporting Oswald.  I told Lodice, “of course it was Johnson,  Texans are in on this, because no police department would let a gunman into their jail.”  I hadn’t yet become a prosecutor, hadn’t yet become involved with the intricacies of organized crime, and so didn’t yet know that no one has more “bought in” access than the syndicate at all levels.

                But, from that day on, my interest in politics has been mainly one of “who will do most for my friends and clients”.  Young people quickly began to lose interest again---and small wonder.  Just consider the string of presidents: 

Johnson (Viet Nam lies),

Nixon (Watergate),

Ford (briefly and with no charm to “hook” youth; and with the ugliness of the pardon of Nixon seeming to have been his “deal” for being named vice president in the absence of Spiro Agnew who, in spite of his public  cries “I am not a crook” was a crook), 

Carter (allowing the strength of this nation to continue so reduced that an Arab thug could hold American hostages endlessly; and at the same time trying to negotiate with the thugs instead of turning the Israelis loose to get our people free as they had their own)  

Reagan (a great communicator who brought back to the polls a group of late 20s and early 30s, but conservatives, those who already had some interest in politics), 

Bush (read my lips, no increase in taxes),

Clinton (I did not have sex with that woman; It depends on what you mean by “is”),

and W(no more need be said other than to mention his W).

             This year, young people were inspired early, stayed inspired and once again returned to the polls.  My young sister took interest to the extent that she worked tirelessly as a volunteer for Barack Obama.  Lodice beamed when she heard his speech in Springfield, the political home of Lincoln, announcing his run.   I was intrigued because of his connection with Chicago and Illinois politics where things get done, where bottom line is “don’t talk, do”.   My youngest son and my daughter in law looked forward to voting for him.  In droves, young people showed that it isn’t apathy on their part, it is the lack of imagination of the parties that keeps them away from the polls.  Their voices were too powerful for the old hack politicians to ignore them. 

As a result, we have another exciting, young president elect.  No matter which direction he takes this nation, he has the excitement of youth behind him, just as did John Fitzgerald Kennedy.  My prayers are with the new president, and with all the young people in this country.  God help them,  I pray they may never have to live through the sorrow and shock of that November 22 day, 45 years ago.

Today’s quotation:   “A politician’s words reveal  less about what he thinks about his subject than about what he thinks about his audience.”

                                       George Will, noted syndicated columnist, protégé of William F. Buckley

Mr. President Elect Obama,  PLEASE SAY IT ISN’T SO!!!

                Barack Obama has been elected president of the United States mostly because of his promise to change things in the way the federal government is run.  On election night, in a packed and excited Grant Park in Chicago, he said to all Americans that he would be truthful, honest and direct, and particularly as to issues with which there was disagreement.

              During the campaign, he repeatedly pledged his complete support to the state of Israel, just as that support has been given by every American president since Harry S. Truman quickly recognized Israel as a nation state once it had won its war for independence.  John Fitzgerald Kennedy pledged the same type of support, and he honored his word.  Even George W. Bush kept his word as to full support for Israel.  His position won him massive support from Jewish voters and pro-Israel voters.

              A dispatch from the Jerusalem Times causes me to wonder whether Obama was truthful during his campaign---and if he wasn’t, then he did not tell the truth in his Grant Park address.   

              Early in the campaign Obama released a list of foreign policy advisers which included Zbrigniew Brzezinski who was Jimmy Carter’s anti-Israeli national security adviser.  He was one of the weakest security advisers to serve any president, and the Carter foreign policy was one of the weakest in the history of the United States.

            The list also included Robert Malley, a junior Middle East adviser to Bill Clinton who constantly opposed U.S. support of Israel and proposed a “favored nation” approach to the Palestinians and terrorist supporting nations in the Middle East.  Clinton’s lack of aggressive attention to bin Laden no doubt contributed to the taking of Afghanistan and ultimately to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.  Malley was especially favorable to Hamas, as deadly an anti-American terrorist group as exists anywhere.

           I well remember my discouragement when I saw the list including these pro-terrorist state ideologues as advisers to Obama.  I well remember that for the first time that caused my wife Lodice to question whether she would vote for Obama.  No one in the country believed more fervently than Lodice and I that the only thing that keeps any semblance of order in the Middle East is a strong and independent Israel.

         We both were relieved when the campaign cast aside these reprobates of two prior failed foreign policy approaches to peace in the Middle East.  The “walking of the plank” took place after it was revealed by the London Times that Malley had been holding regular strategy sessions with Hamas terrorist leaders, and it came to light that Brzezinksi  lead a group to Damascus to assure Syria and Iran that the Bush support for Israel would be reversed.   Brzezinksi  had reportedly been advising Obama that Syria and Iran really meant no harm to the United States and that Iran’s only interest in nuclear weapons was to defend against Israel.  These representations were made while at the same time Iran continued to state that it would drive the Israelis into the sea and to certain death, and while Syria was clearly giving support to terrorist groups.  A cloud fell over Brzezinksi’s mission when the infamous Iranian-Lebanese terrorist, Imad Mughniyeh, was assassinated in Damascus during  Brzezinksi’s trip there.

        The obvious embarrassment resulting from these disclosures caused the Obama campaign to cast them aside.  I was relieved.    After all, thought I, he could have made a mistake in naming them to begin with.  It was a BIG mistake, but nevertheless maybe only a mistake rectified upon discovery that the two dinosaur survivors of  failed policies were playing footsies with terrorists.  I worried about Obama’s astuteness about foreign policy since he did allow association of his campaign with two  men who obviously don’t recognize the importance of Israel to us.  It is the only state in the Middle East that does not hate the United States, and would not do everything possible to destroy the United States.      

Now, however,  David Ignatius of the New York Times (a supporter of Obama) reports that Obama senior staff members have told him that Brzezinski serves as an “unofficial”[meaning operating under the radar] foreign policy adviser.    Also, just within the past ten days, an aide  told FrontPAGE Magazine that Malley, on instructions from Obama, went to Syria and Egypt to assure those nations that Obama will set aside the Bush support for Israel and will more favorably support Syrian and Egyptian interests. 

Moreover,  Hamas terrorist leader Ahmad Youssef has told an Arab newspaper that during the months leading to the election, Obama’s advisers regularly met with Hamas in Gaza, but warned that the meetings be kept secret so that Obama’s election chances would not be harmed.

One element of corroboration to these dispatches and columns is that Joe Cirincione is apparently advising the Obama staff.  Cirincione has espoused the concept that Israel should give up its nuclear arsenal, that such action would neutralize Iran’s threats.  What an idiotic, naïve thought.  How can anyone with any kind of knowledge of the history of the nation states in the Middle East and with even a miniscule of information about the historical hatred of Israel by the Arab nation states, believe that disarming Israel will solidify peace in the Middle East.  All disarmament would mean is that Israel would be in fact driven off the face of the earth, and then all the Arab states would fight each other with resulting threat to our precious oil supplies.  The war in Iraq would never end---just shift to other sites n the Arab world.

If these reports are true, then Obama was not truthful during the campaign, and he was not truthful in Grant Park.  That would be my primary worry.  Israel will not give up its arsenal which is all that keeps its people alive.  Israel will prevail, with or without our help.  But, if it is proven at this early date that Obama cannot be trusted for the truth, then we face no change at all from the Bush White House and that of Clinton, Clinton and Bush I.  If that is the case, the enthusiasm of the mass of youthful voters will be lost for the rest of their lives.  I will at that point agree with my son, and with Lewis Black, that no politician is honest and that it doesn’t matter a particle who we elect.

During the campaign, I received messages from the Obama staff that gave me an email address which I could use to ask any question I might have to pose to Obama.  The messages resulted I am sure from a contribution that was made in my family’s name.   Since the election, I have received a message that gives me a new email address to use to submit any question I have for the transition team.  I have been told that I will get a complete answer.  So, I intend to ask the following:  1.  Is Brzezinski advising Obama on foreign policy; 2. Is Malley doing any work for Obama; 3. will Cirincione serve in the administration? and 4. What is the goal for Obama regarding Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Iran. 

Regardless of the answer to number 4, if the answers to numbers one and two and three are affirmative, then I will believe that Obama has lied.  For Lodice’s sake, for the sake of my family members who voted for him because of their belief that he would in fact change the old way of doing business in the White House, I hope the answers are “no, of course not.” 

Say it isn’t so, Mr. President Elect.

OWYHEE INITIATIVE BILL TO BE PRESENTED IN NEW CONGRESS

 

From:  Fred Kelly Grant, Chairman Owyhee Initiative Work Group

            [mailto: fredkellygrant@msn.com]               

            Jerry Hoagland, Chairman Owyhee County, Idaho Commissioners

 

 Sent:  Monday, 11/17/08   6:13 pm

 To:     Fred Kelly Grant (fredkellygrant@msn.com)

 

            It appears clear that the Owyhee Initiative Bill will not be voted on in the lame duck session of Congress, but will be re-introduced by Senator Crapo in January in the new Congress.  Since being recommended for passage by a unanimous vote in the Energy-Natural Resources committee, the committee and Senate leadership packaged it into the Omnibus Public Lands Bill with 149 other bills.

 

            Just prior to the pre-election recess of Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced that the lands package would be called to the floor for a vote during the lame duck session which began today.  Last Friday, a spokesman for Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.)  told the press  that the  Omnibus Lands Bill will not be voted on  during this session.  

 

            Today, Owyhee County Commissioners and the Chairman of the Owyhee Initiative Work Group have confirmed with several sources in DC that the bill will not be voted on during the lame duck session.  The sources, Eastern, Mid-Western and Western Senators-key staff members-and special interest representatives on the Hill have relayed their belief that the bill will not be brought forward for vote.  They also confirm that  Senator Reid has assured the sponsors of the 150 bills that the delay does not diminish in any way his commitment to lead the bill to a vote when the new Congress convenes in January, 2009.

 

           Senate sources say that the bill is being delayed because of Senator Coburn’s (R-OK) threatened filibuster of the bill, which could tie the Senate up for a good full three days.  With all the funding problems facing the Senate during the economic crisis, leadership does not believe that the three days can be wasted in the short lame duck session.  Senate Coburn has opposed the bills in the package because of expenditures of $4 billion over a period of years, and because so many acres of public land will be removed from energy.  60 Senators would be needed to stop the filibuster.  Senator Reid said that with the new Democrats coming in for the January session, there will be far less trouble getting the 60 necessary votes for cloture.

 

         So, the Owyhee Initiative Bill will have to wait also until the new Congress convenes.  The Owyhee Work Group, a broad base coalition, has worked on the Owyhee Agreement and the implementing bill for nearly 8 years.  The sponsor, Senator Mike Crapo, has praised the efforts of ranchers, county officials, conservation groups and recreation groups to put together a local solution to local land use problems. 

 

        The bill will result in a net gain of 29,000 acres of private property to the Owyhee County tax base.  It also provides for range expert review of BLM decisions, release of over 300,000 acres to full multiple use,  reservation of about 500,000 acres as wilderness, and designation of wild and scenic rivers---all in an attempt to resolve land use disputes raging for three decades.  The bill also provides for a travel management plan to implement challenging trail systems for use by recreational vehicles and to protect private property.

 

         The Owyhee Bill features authorization to fund a cultural site protection plan prepared by the Shoshone Paiute Tribes of Nevada and Idaho.  Tribal rangers to patrol and protect one of the largest unprotected acreages of cultural and religious sites in the lower 48 states will be authorized by the bill.  The Tribes joined with Owyhee County Commissioners in presenting the Owyhee Initiative Agreement to Senator Crapo for legislative action.

 

       Dr. Chad Gibson, representative of the Owyhee Cattleman’s Association on the Owyhee Work Group, said today that “we haven’t given up on the Owyhee bill.  The agreement we crafted is historic, and we must keep after it until the bill gets passed.”

 

       Tim Lowry, president and representative of the Owyhee County Farm Bureau on the Work Group agreed with Gibson, “Our bill is critical for protection of the economic stability of our ranchers.” 

 

       Grant Simonds, executive director of the Outfitters and Guides Association, looks forward to the January session and “finally getting to a vote the product of our long years of work to craft a bill that serves all multiple users of the public lands in Owyhee County.”

 

       Jerry Hoagland, Chairman of the Owyhee County Board of Commissioners thanked Senator Crapo and his staff for the strong effort they have made to gain passage of the bill which represents solutions fashioned by local citizens and interests.  “We know that Senator Crapo will move strongly for passage early in the new Congress, and he will be working with the support of the full Idaho delegation.  We have been assured that Senator Risch (newly elected R-Id), and Representatives Simpson (R-Id) and Minnick (newly elected D-Id) will support the bill and Senator Crapo’s efforts for passage.”

 

       Fred Kelly Grant, chairman of the Owyhee Initiative Work Group, thanked  the American Land Rights Association,  Stewards of the Range and the American Land Foundation for their statements favorable to the Owyhee bill.

 

       Grant said “Chuck Cushman, a long time friend of Owyhee County, has lead a strong fight against the Omnibus lands package, but has said that the Owyhee bill is an example of a good bill which should be supported if it were by itself.”

 

        He also pointed out that Stewards of the Range and American Land Foundation “also friends of Owyhee County citizens, opposed the lands package in a letter to each Senator, but singled out the Owyhee bill as a private property bill which deserved passage if standing alone.”  Grant said  “the County Commissioners and I appreciate the positive statements about our specific bill.  We have worked hard to gain confidence of all interest groups in the value of our bill.”

 

For further comment or information, CONTACT  Fred Kelly Grant, Chairman of the Owyhee Initiative Work Group--- fredkellygrant@msn.com; or Staci Grant---yipikiya@msn.com.

Quotation for today:   “I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.”  

                                H.L. Mencken, famed curmudgeonly writer for the Baltimore Sun

LIMBAUGH IN NEVERNEVER LAND OF WHINERS

                Rush Limbaugh professes to be a “conservative”, not a “Republican”.  Those have been his exact words many times during the two years of the longest election campaign in the history of the civilized, and uncivilized, world.

              Rush couldn’t wait until January 20, 2009 to blame Obama for the recession in which we have been mired for just about a year.  He now calls this the “Obama recession”.  Why?  Well, Rush the Conservative, not Republican (keep remembering this even when his credibility slips lower than usual) whines that the recession is caused by the volatile market losses, and he further whines that the losses result from  the fear of increased taxes under the Obama administration which doesn’t even begin for nearly three months.

            If he were viewing matters as a “conservative”, he would have to make the admission made by George Will in his November 16 column for TownHall:  an admission that the Republican party has been responsible for the socialism that has flowed into DC like molten lava from an erupting volcano. 

            Will, unlike Limbaugh, candidly assigns responsibility to the Republicans for the huge Wall Street bail-out, the drug prescription plan that he calls the biggest welfare program since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, the Farm Bill to which he refers as “lavish” in its favorable treatment to an increasingly small family farm trade, the partial nationalizing of the banks, and the searching look for “some bit of what is smilingly called the ‘private sector’ has been inadvertently left off the ever expanding list of entities eligible for a bailout from the $1 trillion or so that is to be ‘spread around’.”

            Will, a protégé of the famed conservative, William F. Buckley, is a conservative who abhors the bigness of government and the speed with which the federal government is intruding into every aspect of our lives.  Limbaugh is simply a brash apologist for the Republicans.  He does and has defend every mistake the Bush administration makes and has made.  During the early days of the primary campaigns he said that nomination of John McCain would be devastating to the Republican party---not to conservatives, but to the Republicans.  But, when McCain beat all of Limbaugh’s personal favorites, suddenly he was Limbaugh’s answer to all the nation’s problems.

           On air, Michael Savage, a true conservative, puts the blame where it is deserved.  He blames the Republicans for leading us closer to socialism on the business front than we have ever been---closer than in the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and the Great Society.  He recognizes that it was a Republican, Richard Nixon who completed the work started in the New Deal---pushing enactment of the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act,  the Clean Air Act, and OSHA--- all of which have infused big government into the control of private property and the private business sector.  He recognizes that it was a Supreme Court dominated by Republican appointees which issued Roe v. Wade.

           Will recognizes the same in print.  He and Savage  agree that the majority of the Republican party has deserted the conservative philosophy of government.  David Brooks of the New York Times, another of Buckley’s protégés, joins them.  Glenn Beck has his moments, but usually is a Republican apologist. 

           But, Limbaugh continues to bomb away---its all the fault of theDemocrats, and its Obama’s fault that we have been in a recession for over a year.  It is Obama created fear of raised taxes which has caused businesses to lose value and caused the market to go crazy.  It has nothing to do with the rudderless administration of George W. Bush.  It has nothing to do with the fact that Bush’s secretary of the Treasury “Hank” Paulson changes his message each morning with his breakfast coffee.  Surely, the market will not suffer from Paulson’s latest announcement that the “bail-out” designed to assume mortgages that should never have been issued will not be used for that purpose.  He now says that the investment houses will use the money to acquire other properties, not to bail themselves out of disastrous mortgages.  Not only does this position further the socialistic interference with a free market, it flies in the face of the clear intent of the Congress.

          Mark these words, Limbaugh will  not criticize this rogue socialistic action by the Republican administration.  He will defend it, and will continue to blame the economic mess on Obama’s coming administration.

          It is time, I think, for someone to compile the Limbaugh defenses of Republicans, as opposed to conservatives, and title it “The further adventures into NeverNeverLand for Whiners”.

         And it is time for conservatives to figure out how to once again limit government’s intrusion into our lives. 

Quote of the day:   Terry Bradshaw :   “Marriage is what tells men that they aren’t perfect.”

(On the pre-game show on Fox, November 9, 2008; Bradshaw is the great quarterback of the five time super bowl Pittsburgh Steelers;  being a Baltimore Colt fan at the time Bradshaw was playing, I refused to admit his superior qualities as a quarterback and team leader.  But, as I grow older, it seems less important to cling to old rivalry positions.  He was a superb quarterback.)

 

                                                HOPE YOU SAID ‘THANKS’ ON VETERANS DAY

Veteran’s Day:  November 11.  One of the holidays that the Congress finally decided to celebrate on its traditional date, instead of serving as another three day week-end for government employees. 

The manner in which the nation views our military services has changed enormously since I was a youth.  “From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli”, “Anchors Away My Boys”, and “ the Caissons Go Rolling Along”  were musical words which moved people, inspired them, and made them proud to be Americans.  When the flag was paraded, no one kept seated, with hat on head, while the flag  passed.  I notice now that when the Star Spangled Banner ends, people sit, and the flag is retired from the field without visible honor.  Some of us old timers still stand, but we decrease in numbers by the day.

Things changed measurably with the Viet Nam war---a very unpopular war, with anti-war forces turning blame on the veterans.  None of the men and women who fought in Viet Nam started that war, they simply answered their nation’s call for service.  Just as men and women have answered the call to every war, including the Afghanistan conflict which was warranted as a search for bin Laden.  They  also answered the call to Iraq, a far less justifiable war.    And, for a time, anti war protesters disrupted funeral services, intruding on the grief of families who had nothing to do with the political decision to go to Iraq.  I have believed from the start that those protesters, as the protesters to Viet Nam, committed the most Un-American travesty of the century.  Protest against the wars, yes, if that was their conviction.  But, not against the men and women who answered the call.

As my wife Lodice began saying during the Viet Nam protests, “if all members of Congress, their sons and daughters, and the president, had to lead the troops into battle, there would be fewer wars.”  As in most things, she was right.

But, for this year, hopefully the thoughts of  most of us turned toward gratitude.  Tuesday was an historic  day on which the USS Intrepid  was  officially re-opened as the Air-Sea Museum in the port of New York.  She made her magnificent return to the port in October, sailing from Staten Island past the Statue of Liberty to her rightful place of honor.

The Intrepid is one of the most storied warships of the Second World War, continuing her battle history through the Viet Nam War.  After her critical contribution to the successful re-claiming of the Marshall Islands from Japanese control in 1944, she sailed to Truk, a Japanese stronghold that needed to be neutralized.  During ensuing battles, a torpedo hit the Intrepid’s rudder.  The captain  used excellent seamanship to right the course of the ship which started “going in circles” after the hit.  Then, she turned toward Tokyo, a direction the captain says he was “not prepared to go right then”.  Using  old fashioned American sea sense, the crew “jury rigged”  sail cloth for an old-fashioned, traditional sailing ship return to a straight course.

The re-opening of the Museum was a fitting tribute to all Veterans who have given so much of their lives, their selves to defend the right of Americans to speak, to vote, to live free.

The day also saw the announcement of a new  Fisher House,  from the deck of the Intrepid.  Fisher Houses are built by a private corporation which uses public donations from professional sports teams, school children, and members of the general public.   Initiated in 1990 by the late Zachary Fisher, houses now are open at 49 sites across the nation.  They provide housing and support for families of injured Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who are being treated near the sites.  A veteran’s family can live in a Fisher House with several other families who provide emotional support to each other.  Once again, proof that private industry can do better than the government can do. 

Hopefully, the next Administration will put a higher priority on medical treatment (mental and physical) for the veterans of the current horrible wars in the desert.  Hopefully, the new wave of officials will also put a higher priority on the “GI Bill of Rights” which offers educational and re-training support to our veterans in the mold of the original GI Bill which eased the transition of World War II veterans back to civilian life.

There are two immediate ways we can honor veterans every day of the week.   One is to make a contribution or continuing contributions to Fisher Houses.  The process for contributing is set forth on the internet site for “Fisher Houses”

 The second is a matter of a simple “thanks”.   Last Christmas Eve, after Mass, I reached over and touched the shoulder of a young sailor attending the service with his mother.  He looked at me, as did she.  I said simply “thank you for serving for me”.  His eyes lit up and he said “thank you sir”.  A simple exchange, but the look on his face and the look of pride on his mother’s face warmed the night air for me.  Since then,  I walk up to service men and women while traveling and just say “thanks for what you do for us.”  The look in the eyes is a warming reward for a simple statement.  Try it, you’ll like it.

The Washington Post  features the story of a Black Man who served 8 presidents, beginning as a pantry man and elevating to butler in the White House.  It is a moving story, relating his tenure to the strict segregation in existence when he began his service in 1952, and to changes in race relations which, of course, were not civil.  He and his wife of 62 years looked forward to voting on Tuesday, excited about the  prospect that Obama could actually become the first Black president.

                One of the high points in the story is the tale of the day when Nancy Reagan came to him on the day that the German Chancellor was going to dine at a state dinner.  He hastily explained to her that he was already well on the way to finalizing plans.  But she explained that was not her purpose in the visit.  She told him that he and his wife were invited to dine as the President’s guests at the dinner that evening.  They became, as guests of President Ronald Reagan, the first White House butler and wife to ever dine at a state dinner.             

When he tried to awaken his wife on Monday morning to begin getting ready for a doctor’s appointment, he found that he had died in her sleep.  He voted on Tuesday, but she was not able to share with him the experience of voting for Obama and then waiting for the victory.  Like my wife, Lodice, she looked forward anxiously to the opportunity to see history made, but did not get to experience the event in the physical presence of their loved ones.

It is an uplifting story, even with the bitter sweet ending.  See the article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/06/AR2008110603948.html?sid=ST2008110604101&s_pos=

After reading yesterday’s post, a friend asked how Lodice and I managed 51 years of marriage with her being a democrat and me being a republican.  She was indeed a pure democrat, and proud of it.  The daughter of a Utah coal miner who had mined through the depression and through the days of the “company store” and “company housing”, she could have been nothing else.  Her father adored Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman, and could see that no republican had ever done a thing for the “working man”.

But, the mistake that my friend made was to assume that I have been a republican.  Never.  I am a conservative, more a libertarian than a republican, but not even linked to libertarian policies as such.  I have voted for democrats and republicans and third party candidates.  I voted for John Fitzgerald Kennedy with Lodice. 

I never voted for Richard M. Nixon, but I couldn’t vote for the democrat in either election, so I wrote in a name.  I did vote for Gerald Ford because I believed he was a conservative and deserved a term of his own because of the way he tried to heal the nation and put together the ethics of the Department of Justice by bringing in Dean Edward Levi of my law school to serve as Attorney General. By doing so he began to restore the dignity of a Department decimated by the Nixon-John Mitchell days.   Lodice was torn in that election, and finally voted for Jimmy Carter in spite of Ford’s appointment of Levi.  She regretted that decision later as Carter and his attorney general took apart the telephone system which was the finest communication system in the world.     

I voted for Bush I in both the first and second elections.  She bit her tongue and voted for Bush because she was so disappointed in Carter’s performance.  I did not vote for Clinton either time he was on the ballot.  Neither did she.    Of that fact we both remained proud.

In 2000 we both voted for Ross Perot.  In 2004, we both wrote in a name.  In 2008 she would have voted for Barack Obama, guaranteed.

So, we didn’t differ a lot in voting, and in fact as Carter and then Clinton lead the country further and further down a road to bigger government and bigger debts, she moved closer to the Independent status.  Neither she nor I ever felt bound to vote for a candidate simply because a party decided he was the candidate.  In fact, during our later years, we became convinced, as I still am, that there isn’t that much difference between the parties from the standpoint of constitutional government:  they both promulgate central government at a much more powerful and pre-emptive status than intended by the framers of the Constitution.

She would be looking forward to this coming administration, and would have been very pleased with Obama’s first announcement that Congressman Emanuel would be his chief of staff.   After all, the man is from Chicago, and Lodice believed that Chicagoans in politics get things done.  They don’t just talk, they get things done.  I believe the same.  Hold on folks,  you may not like what happens,  but there will be happenings in the next four years because no successful politician from Chicago stands still  in his tracks.  If he did, he wouldn’t still be in politics in Chicago.

Lodice is so proud tonight of the United States of America for turning the corner and making true the promise of the Constitution that men and women of all races are equal.
She was always ahead of her time in believing that someday a woman, some day a Black could be president.  When she and I listened to Barack Obama's opening statement in Springfield that he was running for president, she cried and said that he would be President and she would be alive to see the change that she always longed to see.
 
As Bishop Jaker in Houston said tonight, his father was murdered and thrown into a river because he was Black, and now a Black man is president.  Columnist Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post cried and told about calling his mother and father in South Carolina a few minutes ago and was so glad they lived to see this day, people who lived under the siege of "no coloreds allowed".  Iremember that my grandfather, Big Daddy, told me when we stopped to watch a Black pickup baseball game in a cotton field, "freddie, some day coloreds will
play in the big leagues",but even he, fair to the core although he lived with complete segregation, would not have dreamed that "some day a colored will be president."
 
I am proud that my sister Deanie worked so hard for this turn of history in this nation---from the beginning she supported and worked hard for this man who had the "Audacity to Hope".  I am proud of Jon, voting in his first presidential election, for accepting completely this turn in history, and Staci who has supported him openly even in hostile areas.
 
And, my pride in the nation for this historical turn, is strengthened by the fact that my prediction that the vote would be so close that we wouldn't know by January was dead wrong.  Senator, now President elect Obama carried Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nevada, California, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii,Colorado, New Mexico, Florida---all the states which were supposed to be too close to call.  He is winning in a landslide of electoral votes, even getting one of five from Nebraska.  And, he is winning not just through coalitions of minority special interests---but through a coming together of Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Men, Women, and most particularly Young People.
 
It is now a country of Young People.  And, the only thing that mars this night for them is the extreme mess that those of my generation have prepared for them.  For the first time in history, young voters went to the polls in mass and spoke strongly that they reject what my generation has presented to them.  What they have done tonight, Lodice and I shared in as young people when we voted for John Fitzgerald Kennedy in our first opportunity to vote for president.
 
It took audacity for Barack Obama to subject himself and his family to what he knew would be a brutal campaign.  Tonight, I think the young people and their historic leader will indeed have the "Audacity to Win."

 

Fred