April 16, 1953. President Dwight David Eisenhower:
"The way chosen by the United States [after World War II] was plainly marked by a few clear
precepts, which govern its conduct in world affairs.
"First: No people on earth can be held, as a people, to be an enemy, for
all humanity shares the common hunger for peace and fellowship and
justice.
"Second: No nation's security and well-being can be lastingly achieved in
isolation but only in effective cooperation with fellow-nations.
"Third: Every nation's right to a form of government and an economic system of its own choosing is inalienable.
"Fourth: Any nation's attempt to dictate to other nations their form of government is indefensible.
"And fifth: A nation's hope of lasting peace cannot be firmly based upon
any race in armaments but rather upon just relations and honest
understanding with all other nations.
"In the light of these principles the citizens of the United States
defined the way they proposed to follow, through the aftermath of war,
toward true peace.
"This way was faithful to the spirit that inspired the United Nations: to
prohibit strife, to relieve tensions, to banish fears. This way was to
control and to reduce armaments. This way was to allow all nations to
devote their energies and resources to the great and good tasks of
healing the war's wounds, of clothing and feeding and housing the needy,
of perfecting a just political life, of enjoying the fruits of their
own toil....
"The worst to be feared and the best to be expected can be simply stated.
"The worst is atomic war.
"The best would be this: a life of perpetual fear and tension; a burden
of arms draining the wealth and the labor of all peoples; a wasting of
strength that defies the American system or the Soviet system or any
system to achieve true abundance and happiness for the peoples of this
earth.
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired
signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not
fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
"This world in arms is not spending money alone.
"It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
"The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.
"It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population.
"It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals.
"It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement.
"We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat.
"We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.
"This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking.
"This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of
threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
These plain and cruel truths define the peril and point the hope that
come with this spring of 1953.
"This is one of those times in the affairs of nations when the gravest
choices must be made, if there is to be a turning toward a just and
lasting peace.
"It is a moment that calls upon the governments of the world to speak their intentions with simplicity and with honesty.
"It calls upon them to answer the question that stirs the hearts of all sane men: is there no other way the world may live?
Monday, October 22, 2012
Early Voting: Day Five
Monday, October 21, 20012. 270 voters cast their votes today. Votes to date: 1239.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Early Voting: Day Four
Pamlico County One-Stop early voting was open four hours today (Sunday). Eighty-five voters cast ballots, an average of 21 per hour. On Saturday, we were open eight hours and one-hundred thirteen voters cast ballots, an average of 14 per hour.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Voting: Third Day
Early voting in Pamlico County fell off quite a bit today - only 113 votes were cast.
That's pretty consistent with past experience. Fewer voters cast ballots on Saturday than on week days. I imagine Saturday is, for most families, the day for chores and errands.
Tomorrow will be a new experience. We have never opened for early voting on a Sunday. We will be open on the 21st and 28th of October.
That's pretty consistent with past experience. Fewer voters cast ballots on Saturday than on week days. I imagine Saturday is, for most families, the day for chores and errands.
Tomorrow will be a new experience. We have never opened for early voting on a Sunday. We will be open on the 21st and 28th of October.
Seventy Years Ago: Operation Liberate North Africa
You're right. We didn't call the invasion of North Africa anything like "Operation Liberate North Africa." That's the sort of thing we do now, when military operations and their names have been taken over by Public Relations Experts.
The real name was "Operation Torch."
Guadalcanal was "Operation Watchtower."
Such names were meant to conceal, not reveal, the purpose of the operation. And certainly not to gloat.
Allied Commander of Operation Torch was Dwight David Eisenhower, Major General, United States Army. Little over a year earlier, he had been Colonel Eisenhower, in charge of the Army's Louisiana Maneuvers. A decade in the future, he would be elected President.
Presidential Scholar Richard Neustadt describes outgoing President Truman's speculation about Eisenhower's difficulties should he win the election: "He'll sit here," Truman would remark (tapping his desk for emphasis), "and he'll say, 'Do this! Do that!' And nothing will happen. Poor Ike-it won't be a bit like the Army. He'll find it very frustrating."
Neustadt thought Truman's prediction was accurate and that Eisenhower found the presidency frustrating.
I think Truman was wrong. No one knew better than Eisenhower how to persuade reluctant and egotistic subordinates to do what he wanted done.
An example of what Eisenhower had to deal with and how he proceeded is set out in a long letter from him to Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall dated October 20, 1942. It was very far from "do this!" and "do that!" The letter can be read here.
Neustadt's essay on presidential power, from the introduction to a later edition of his book, can be read here. It is well worth taking the time to read it. Better yet, read the whole book.
The real name was "Operation Torch."
Guadalcanal was "Operation Watchtower."
Such names were meant to conceal, not reveal, the purpose of the operation. And certainly not to gloat.
Allied Commander of Operation Torch was Dwight David Eisenhower, Major General, United States Army. Little over a year earlier, he had been Colonel Eisenhower, in charge of the Army's Louisiana Maneuvers. A decade in the future, he would be elected President.
Presidential Scholar Richard Neustadt describes outgoing President Truman's speculation about Eisenhower's difficulties should he win the election: "He'll sit here," Truman would remark (tapping his desk for emphasis), "and he'll say, 'Do this! Do that!' And nothing will happen. Poor Ike-it won't be a bit like the Army. He'll find it very frustrating."
Neustadt thought Truman's prediction was accurate and that Eisenhower found the presidency frustrating.
I think Truman was wrong. No one knew better than Eisenhower how to persuade reluctant and egotistic subordinates to do what he wanted done.
An example of what Eisenhower had to deal with and how he proceeded is set out in a long letter from him to Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall dated October 20, 1942. It was very far from "do this!" and "do that!" The letter can be read here.
Neustadt's essay on presidential power, from the introduction to a later edition of his book, can be read here. It is well worth taking the time to read it. Better yet, read the whole book.
Reverence Or Sacrilege?
Kountze, Texas (Hardin County). A group of high school cheerleaders painted Bible verses on large paper "run-through" banners that the high school football team runs through at the beginning of every football game.
The Kountze school district prohibited use of the banners, but a state district court judge has ruled they may continue this practice for the rest of the season. Gov. Rick Perry and Attorney General Greg Abbott came to the cheerleaders’ defense. They called the efforts by the Kountze school district to prohibit the banners “a great insult” that was out of step with a state law requiring districts to treat student expression of religious views in the same manner that secular views are treated.
According to the New York Times, the case has "galvanized" Christians in East Texas and has upset some of the usual suspects such as the Anti-Defamation League.
My question: are there any genuine Christians in East Texas? Let me get this straight: young cheerleaders mark up large paper banners with Bible verses, so that football players will run through them and destroy them? This is supposed to demonstrate religious fervor and devotion? Why not encase a bible in plastic and throw it around the field in a game of ultimate frisbee?
Has anyone caught up in this madness looked up the word "sacrilege?"
I have often wondered, in a similar fashion, about taking our symbols of worldly wealth or "mammon" and imprinting on those symbols the phrase "in God we trust." Is this intentional or merely unintentional mockery of God?
What has become of our sense of the sacred?
The Kountze school district prohibited use of the banners, but a state district court judge has ruled they may continue this practice for the rest of the season. Gov. Rick Perry and Attorney General Greg Abbott came to the cheerleaders’ defense. They called the efforts by the Kountze school district to prohibit the banners “a great insult” that was out of step with a state law requiring districts to treat student expression of religious views in the same manner that secular views are treated.
According to the New York Times, the case has "galvanized" Christians in East Texas and has upset some of the usual suspects such as the Anti-Defamation League.
My question: are there any genuine Christians in East Texas? Let me get this straight: young cheerleaders mark up large paper banners with Bible verses, so that football players will run through them and destroy them? This is supposed to demonstrate religious fervor and devotion? Why not encase a bible in plastic and throw it around the field in a game of ultimate frisbee?
Has anyone caught up in this madness looked up the word "sacrilege?"
I have often wondered, in a similar fashion, about taking our symbols of worldly wealth or "mammon" and imprinting on those symbols the phrase "in God we trust." Is this intentional or merely unintentional mockery of God?
What has become of our sense of the sacred?
Friday, October 19, 2012
Voting: Second Day
Pamlico County One-Stop early voting turnout fell off a bit today - to 328.
That is, five fewer voters turned out today than yesterday.
Total in-person votes to date: 661. Early voting days left: 15.
Total Absentee By Mail Votes reviewed by Board of Elections: 110
Total Ballots cast to date: 771+ (more absentee by mail votes to be reviewed 10/23)
Total Registered Voters: 9,361
2008 Registered Voters: 9,556
2008 Ballots Cast: 6,848
2008 Voter Turnout: 71.66%
Bottom Line: After two days, Pamlico County Voters have already cast 11.26% of ballots cast in 2008 and there are 15 more days of early voting, plus election day on November 6. We could see a new record.
That is, five fewer voters turned out today than yesterday.
Total in-person votes to date: 661. Early voting days left: 15.
Total Absentee By Mail Votes reviewed by Board of Elections: 110
Total Ballots cast to date: 771+ (more absentee by mail votes to be reviewed 10/23)
Total Registered Voters: 9,361
2008 Registered Voters: 9,556
2008 Ballots Cast: 6,848
2008 Voter Turnout: 71.66%
Bottom Line: After two days, Pamlico County Voters have already cast 11.26% of ballots cast in 2008 and there are 15 more days of early voting, plus election day on November 6. We could see a new record.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Voting: First Day
Pamlico County had a good turnout for the first day of early (one-stop) voting. Today's turnout was 333 voters. That's almost 100 more voters than turned out on the first day of one-stop in 2008.
Good job.
Good job.
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