I like you!

 When I was young, our family tradition was for my father's family to gather at the farm.  My father had inherited the home where he and his siblings had been raised.  His brother's family lived only a few miles away, and one of his sisters lived about an hour's drive away.  However, the other two sisters lived in California and Texas.  The sister in California did not visit regularly, but the family from Texas came nearly every year.  

It was a dream come true for all the cousins.  Usually, they came after wheat harvest and planting, so my father was not so busy.  We kids roamed the farm unsupervised, climbing trees, creating hide-aways in the sandhill plum thickets. playing hide-and-seek, roaming, and making up our own games.  I thought cousins were the best!

Anne Frank's Journal

Not long after a family visit, my mother and I had gone to Hutchinson, a small city--at least it seemed a city to me.  Unlike my freedom to roam at the farm, I was told to stay near my mother.  Suddenly, I saw someone remarkable.  A black man, or perhaps a boy, was standing nearby.  I was delighted, and I called out to him, "I like you.  You are my cousin."  It was the best compliment that I knew.

He smiled back, but my mother was flustered.  I had no idea why, but she rushed me away from my new friend.  He smiled, and I smiled back as my mother pulled me away.  Many years later I still remember my confusion.  I didn't think I had done anything wrong, but I could see that my mother was upset.  Certainly, telling him that he was my cousin was the friendliest thing I knew to do.

Years later I had married, and my husband and I were in college.  Most of the students were like us, from farming communities or the small towns that serviced farming.  We both crammed our classes into the morning so that we could rush to our jobs, working until the stores closed.  A social life was slim. Among the classes I took was one that awakened me to different populations and the mistreatment of minorities.

Our trips home were limited, because of the class loads we took and the jobs we both had.  I was very close to my father, and he was interested in the classes I was taking.  I must have been especially excited about the social science class, and I was sharing what I had learned in that class.  As I expounded on the importance of fare treatment of others, my father agreed.  He began to describe a man he had worked with at the Kansas Forestry, Fish, and Game, before returning to the farm.  All of his comments were positive, until he closed with what he thought was a compliment by saying "and he knew his place."  I immediately responded.  "And what place was that?"  My question confused him, for he had never considered what he had said as demeaning.

After graduation my husband was stationed in New England as a young lieutenant. I taught High School English, with the variety of students to be expected in a city.  Students, soldiers, others were black, white, and brown, as were my students, and it was all so different from my Kansas background that I simply accepted it as an introduction to America.  One of my student's parents had tattooed numbers on their arms, and I had to be told why.  I was embarrassed to have been so ignorant about WW II that my student had to explain to me why his parents were tattooed.  Our eyes were opened to the Melting Pot that America is, and we took it all in as a discovery of history and the uniqueness of our nation.    

A lot has changed for the little girl who saw the black young man as just someone new friend to meet.  As I reflect on my innocence, I cannot but ask myself if we have become too fearful of others who are different from us, missing the opportunity to meet a new "cousin", as I had done as a child.

I close with Anne Frank, who knew the horror of the war and the danger around her, but she wrote in her journal "in spite of everything I believe that people are really good at heart.  I hear the ever-approaching thunder which will destroy us too, and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again."  Of course, we know that what she had believed too horrible to happen lead to her death in a concentration camp. 

History warns us, yet we ignore the messages from the past and the dangers of the present.  I was right when I told the dark-skinned boy that he was my cousin.  He understood that it was my way of wanting to be friends.  The world needs to listen to the child who saw a brown skinned boy as her cousin.  We need to listen to the Jewish girl who believed that cruelty would end and peace and tranquility would return.  Our leaders need to listen to the innocence of children.    

 

   

Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine

 It is important to remember that the American colonies began by fighting for rights, not separation from England.  When those efforts were exhausted, they fought for freedom; however, that transition was not easy.  Perhaps no one had greater influence in that transition than Thomas Paine.

He had recognized that it took more than the shouts of anger and hate to bring patriots together to create an independent nation.  Paine had helped inspire soldiers with his pamphlet, "The American Crisis."  In fact, in 1776, Washington had ordered his troops to read Paine's pamphlet before crossing the Delaware River to defeat the British army's best troops.  Washington understood the influence of Paine's writing.  He was not alone.  Among the leading patriots familiar with Paine were Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and others.

 Paine understood that it was one thing to inspire troops but quite another thing to convince patriots to separate from England.  He carefully planned.  He chose language that common people would understand, in order to convince them that negotiating with an unwilling King had failed, that shouts of anger and hate would not succeed.  His responsibility was to make patriots see that the time had come to leave England and the King behind and become an independent nation, a democracy, with a written constitution that allowed trade with other nations, and to be able to live within their own laws.  

The significance of Paine's book," Common Sense", a pamphlet really, influenced the common people to whom he was writing, but also influential educated men.  It is believed that his carefully chosen words achieved more than any other single person in the determination to become independent.

If that is so, why do we not celebrate Thomas Paine Day, in the same way we celebrate other American heroes.  Why is he largely forgotten?  Some of the explanation rests upon himself.  When he disagreed with someone, he was outspoken about it, including a disagreement with his friend George Washington.

Another explanation concerns his faith.  He was a deist, believing in God as a creator, but disagreeing with how organized religions saw God.  There were other deists of prominence at that time.  However, Paine was outspoken about faiths that believed in miracles, supernatural healings, and other things he found irrational.  Clearly, he was an outspoken man, and as deism declined and other religions increased, Paine lost his earlier reputation.  

He died June 8, 1809, age 72, and was buried on his farm.  Four years later he was removed from the original grave, perhaps with a good intention to bury him in a different place.  However, whatever the reason, his bones were lost, and his final resting place is unknown.  

While there seems to be no monument in our Capitol, there are some memorials elsewhere. One is in downtown Manhattan, near City Hall, others in various places, including one in Paris.  Although not entirely forgotten, he has not received the recognition of other Founding Fathers.

     

  

Teddy Roosevelt's Unique Achievements

 I have mentioned Teddy Roosevelt in other blogs, but I want to share what a monumental influence he left, things we do not always think of when remembering presidents.  He is rather special to Kansans because of his friendship with W. A. White, including many visits to Red Rocks, the home of the well-known news man in Emporia.  

Roosevelt & Muir 

He was such an interesting person, starting from his childhood, when his intelligence and curiosity impressed adults.  He wanted to learn how things work, his collection of birds, some of which he learned how to preserve, being a particular advanced hobby.  His respect for nature continued into adulthood, and in the office of President, he applied his respect for nature in establishing approximately 230 million acres of public lands, including 55 federal bird reservations, 150 national forests, 5 national parks, and the first 18 national monuments.  His establishment of the Antiquities Act in 1906 was continued by Presidents that followed.  For me, this may be one of his greatest achievements, for without his interventions to protect these natural wonders they might have been destroyed.   

I have such respect for those who preserve irreplaceable things, leaving them for unborn people to experience.  That alone is reason to appreciate Roosevelt.  His passion for hunting and killing trophy animals seems rather contradictory, but at that time perhaps it seemed the natural reproduction of animals was capable of constant replenishment.  Generations have enjoyed them, and our responsibility is to protect them for future generations.

After holding many state and national offices, he was the Vice President...not entirely popular with Republican leaders.  The assassination of President McKinley left many powerful Republicans doubtful of Roosevelt's ability to maintain the alliance between business and government.  He tried to assure them by retaining McKinley's cabinet, but even that was not enough.  There was also the concern about the Populists, and his breaking of norms, such as inviting Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House, shocked many. 

Despite all of that, he moved forward, aware of the importance of the connection with business but willing to prosecute those that he thought to be "bad trusts."  He went after those Indian Agents who had been cheating Native American Tribes.  He worked with Democrats to correct unfair rates imposed on those shipping their products by rail.  He tried to correct the abuses of the food packing industry.  He condemned what he called "Predatory Wealth."  He was unlike any other president. 

Out of office, he became so displeased with the management in Washington that he ran for office again, and while campaigning a delusional man tried to kill him.  Showing the uniqueness of his character, he called out to the crowd and the police not to harm the man in making the arrest.

 He did not win his attempt to return to the presidency, but his voice was not silenced.  There is no question about the impact he made on the nation.  

The Importance of John Adams

  

A quote from John Adams:  Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

  

 Our founding fathers understood that their actions, should England prevail, and the dreams of a free United States of America fail, they would be treated as traitors, subject to punishment and probably death.  Yet, they risked their lives to establish this nation.  They had definite concerns, particularly about how long such a nation could survive.  The concerns they expressed are worth considering, particularly in our current times.  

 Although John Adams served as Vice President for George Washington, our first President, for two terms, and was elected as president following Washington, he is less well known.  However, he played important roles in the drafting of our constitution and the various roles he played, both during the colonial years and in the early years of our independence.

He was born in 1735, the son of a farmer and shoemaker.  The family could be traced back to the first generation of Puritan settlers in New England.  He had two younger brothers, but being the oldest, his father wanted him to become a minister.  He attended Harvard, still uncertain about his future, teaching for a while before settling on the law.  Although he did not become a minister, as his father had hoped, he did marry a minister's daughter.  History indicates that she was a perfect match for him.

He was an important leader from and before the Battle of Bunker Hill, and that continued when he served as a delegate for Massachusetts at the Continental Congress.  He assisted Thomas Jefferson in drafting the Declaration of Independence.  He had been the primary author of the Massachusetts Constitution, and it became influential in the drafting of the United States Constitution.  He served as Vice President under George Washington for his two terms and was elected as President following Washington. 

The disagreement between Adams and his former close friend, Thomas Jefferson, is well known, and they did not speak for many years, but it was Adams who reached out to his old friend later in life, and their correspondence in the later years of their lives is a part of American history.

If I had to select one of the greatest achievements of Adams, besides selecting Abigail as his wife, it was probably selecting his Secretary of State to be the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.  John Marshall shaped the court during his long service, and the respect for him among the other members of the Court established rules and practices that had not been particularly defined until Marshall took the bench.

Adams served only one term in the White House, but although he would probably have preferred to return home to be with Abigail, he continued to serve his country.  His peers did not always believe he was the right man for the jobs he was asked to do.  As Benjamin Franklin summarized, "He means well for his country, is always an honest man, often a wise one, but sometimes, and in some things, is absolutely out of his senses."

I believe that his warning to future Americans that our nation depends on our morality for it to survive is true.  We are a people of many religions, ethnicities, and nationalities, probably more that he may have imagined, but his warning that the survival of America depends on our morality rings true.

 

       

Sometimes a Maverick

 

The way we choose our Presidents is sometimes less than logical.  I recalled the day an intelligent, thoughtful young women made a comment to me about John McCain, who was running for president.    She said something like, "I just find the odd way he holds his hands and shoulders sort of creepy."  

She had no idea of the reason his hands and shoulders were held that way, but on that alone she had made a judgement about him.  In other words, it is unlikely that she would have voted for him because of the strange way he held his shoulders.

She did not know that McCain had been an American pilot.  His plane was shot down and both arms and a leg were fractured.  He parachuted into a lake and could have drown, but he was taken prisoner and was bound so tightly that it caused more harm to his shoulder.  He was beaten every 2 or 3 hours for 4 days by different guards, and his left arm was broken again and again, together with the repeated cracking of his ribs. 

After years of solitary confinement, he was offered release, as a moral trick by the enemy to make it seem that he had been given privileges, while those imprisoned longer were left behind.  He refused.

My point is that an educated young woman might have avoided voting for John McCain because she found the way he carried himself to be "creepy," unaware of his service to the nation or his character.   Sometimes all of us make our voting decisions carelessly.

Another example of McCain's character occurred during his run for the presidency in 2008.  A a political rally a woman called Obama, McCain's political rival, "an Arab."'  It was at the height of the time that Obama's birthplace and whether he was a native born American was being challenged.  McCain could have let the woman's words go, but instead he spoke up.  "No ma'ma, he's a citizen and a decent family man that I just happen to have disagreements on fundamental issues, and that's what this campaign is all about."  The crowd applauded him.  He did not win the election, but he gained the respect of many Americans.  It may also be true that it might have lost him some votes as well, but the point is that voters would know where he stood.  Just as he refused to be sent home early, he also refused to let lies against his opponent go uncorrected. 

He did not win the election, but he served his state as the six-term Senator of Arizona, and his final role is a further example of his determination to vote as he thought was right.  Health Care was a cause he championed, but he was displeased with what his party had put together.  From his perspective, so many things had been negotiated that the Republican proposal had been unacceptably weakened.

Although he had been diagnosed with brain cancer, he returned to Washington to cast his vote, which he concluded that his party had rendered unacceptable by all the concessions they had made with each other to weaken the original bill.  By joining two moderate Republicans, two independents, and every Democrat, he voted against his own party to defeat their proposal. Despite his very poor health, he forced Republicans and Democrats to find something better than the bill he voted against.  He didn't get all that he wanted, but he did stop something he opposed, and he did it according to the rules.    Sometimes a stubborn maverick is called for!