Great Inaugural Addresses - II

First Inaugural Address of Dwight David Eisenhower
by Charlie Leck

“We are summoned by this honored and historic ceremony to witness more than the act of one citizen swearing his oath of service, in the presence of God. We are called as a people to give testimony in the sight of the world to our faith that the future shall belong to the free.”

Dwight David Eisenhower (IKE) was first and foremost a war hero. His presidency was not the primary star of his personal history. His military career outshines his time in politics even though he was an efficient and capable President. In World War Two, he was the Commander in Chief of the Allied invasions of North Africa, Sicily, and Italy; he was the Allied Commander for the invasion of Europe and the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Military from 1945 to 1948. He also served as the President of Columbia University from 1948 to 1950 and then as the Supreme Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Forces in Europe during 1950 through 1952 as the cold war against the Soviet Union commenced.

He was sworn in as President of the United States on 20 January 1953. The oath was administered by the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Frederick Vinson. IKE, though he was considered a talented writer, was not a great orator. He was bland and rather monotone; yet he was steady and unhesitant. He basically read his speeches and did not make steady eye-contact with his attendant listeners or his film and television audiences. Of course, this was in the days previous to teleprompters. He sounded better as a speaker when listened to on the radio. Nevertheless, a careful reading of the address shows it to be more brilliant than ordinary and if it failed it was because of its delivery and not its content.

At the time of his inauguration, the nation was involved in a great “police action” in Korea. The government and its people were torn by the mission, and tired of it, and wanted out. It was difficult for politicians, who painted the war as an action to stop the spread of communism, to make the conflict seem purposeful. IKE would successfully lead the nation toward an armistice that ended fighting 6 months after his inauguration; however, we kept heavily armed forces in South Korea for many decades thereafter. Communism was the massive evil of the day and IKE’s speech cannot be properly understood without that in mind. The threat of communism seemed to be everywhere and a great paranoia existed throughout America. IKE opened by saying the following:

“The world and we have passed the midway point of a century of continuing challenge. We sense with all our faculties that forces of good and evil are massed and armed and opposed as rarely before in history.“This fact defines the meaning of this day.”IKE called for us to testify, through the ceremony of his inauguration, with the entire world watching, “that the future shall belong to the free!”

“We have passed through the anxieties of depression and of war to a summit unmatched in man’s history. Seeking to secure peace in the world, we have had to fight through the forests of the Argonne, to the shores of Iwo Jima, and to the cold mountains of Korea.”

Even though he was a hero of war, the nation had elected IKE to bring us peace. We were exhausted by the challenges of the depression, World War II, the rise of communism and now the war in Korea. We felt we needed a military hero to lead us through the dangerous swamp.

This is a public domain (U.S. Government) photograph of Pfc. Julias Van Den Stock of Company A, 32nd Regimental Combat Team, 7th Infantry Division, resting on a Chinese Communist bunker with a Russian DP light machine gun, along the slope of Hill 902 north of Ip-Tong. [NARA FILE#: 111-SC-3605083]

“How far have we come in man’s long pilgrimage from darkness toward light? Are we nearing the light – a day of freedom and of peace for all mankind? Or are the shadows of another night closing in upon us?”

America wanted to move toward the light and away from darkness; yet, the battles against Germany and Japan had taught us that we must forever be strong and mighty.

“Science seems ready to confer upon us, as its final gift, the power to erase human life from this planet.”How well I remember, as a boy, the rehearsals of what we were to do at a time of atomic attack. Did we really believe that the silly basement boiler rooms would actually protect us from the A-bomb? IKE painted the communist threat as horrific and horrible.

“The enemies of this faith know no god but force, no devotion but its use. They tutor
men in treason. They feed upon the hunger of others. Whatever defies them, they torture, especially the truth.“Here, then, is joined no argument between slightly differing philosophies. This conflict strikes directly at the faith of our fathers and the lives of our sons. No principle or treasure that we hold, from the spiritual knowledge of our free schools and churches to the creative magic of free labor and capital, nothing lies safely beyond the reach of this struggle.“Freedom is pitted against slavery; lightness against the dark.”

My goodness, are you old enough to remember the fear that existed in those days? Communists were everywhere and Senator Joe McCarthy would soon try to prove it. Fear was everywhere assembled. One of IKE’s great failures in office was his handling, or lack of handling, of Joe McCarthy and Roy Cohen (pictured above).

One of the key elements of IKE’s first inaugural address were the principles he laid out for both friend and foe to understand. They are principles that I wish so much the George W. Bush administration had understood.

“ (1) Abhorring war as a chose way to balk the purposes of those who threaten us, we hold it to be the first task of statesmanship to develop the strength that will deter the force sof aggression and promote the conditions of peace. For as it must be the supreme purpose of all free men, so it must be the dedication of their leaders, to save humanity from preying upon itself. In the light of this principle, we stand ready to engage with any and all others in joint effort to remove the causes of mutual fear and distrust among nations, so as to make possible drastic reduction of armaments. The sole requisites for undertaking such effort are that—in their purpose—they be aimed logically and honestly toward secure peace for all; and that—in their result—they provide methods by which every participating nation will prove good faith in carrying out its pledge.“

(2) Realizing that common sense and common decency alike dictate the futility of appeasement, we shall never try to placate an aggressor by the false and wicked bargain of trading honor for security. Americans, indeed all free men, remember that in the final choice a soldier's pack is not so heavy a burden as a prisoner's chains.“

(3) Knowing that only a United States that is strong and immensely productive can help defend freedom in our world, we view our Nation's strength and security as a trust upon which rests the hope of free men everywhere. It is the firm duty of each of our free citizens and of every free citizen everywhere to place the cause of his country before the comfort, the convenience of himself.‘

(4) Honoring the identity and the special heritage of each nation in the world, we shall never use our strength to try to impress upon another people our own cherished political and economic institutions.“

(5) Assessing realistically the needs and capacities of proven friends of freedom,
we shall strive to help them to achieve their own security and well-being. Likewise, we shall count upon them to assume, within the limits of their resources, their full and just burdens in the common defense of freedom.“

(6) Recognizing economic health as an indispensable basis of military strength and
the free world's peace, we shall strive to foster everywhere, and to practice ourselves, policies that encourage productivity and profitable trade. For the impoverishment of any single people in the world means danger to the well-being of all other peoples.

"(7) Appreciating that economic need, military security and political wisdom combine to suggest regional groupings of free peoples, we hope, within the framework of the United Nations, to help strengthen such special bonds the world over. The nature of these ties must vary with the different problems of different areas.

“(8) Conceiving the defense of freedom, like freedom itself, to be one and indivisible, we hold all continents and peoples in equal regard and honor. We reject any insinuation that one race or another, one people or another, is in any sense inferior or expendable.

“(9) Respecting the United Nations as the living sign of all people's hope for peace,
we shall strive to make it not merely an eloquent symbol but an effective force. And in our quest for an honorable peace, we shall neither compromise, nor tire, nor ever cease.

“By these rules of conduct, we hope to be known to all peoples.

“By their observance, an earth of peace may become not a vision but a fact.

“This hope—this supreme aspiration—must rule the way we live.”

You can see that this was a mighty, military speech delivered to serve notice to all nations that we were ready and willing to defend ourselves, but that we also meant the entire world only good will and friendship. IKE’s strong statement of support for the United Nations was historically important. Then, as now, a strong right wing element in the nation wanted the UN to be discontinued. Then, IKE reached a crescendo when he said gently, but firmly:

“We must be ready to dare all for our country. For history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.”

_____________________________________________

[To read the speech in its entirety, click here!]

Great Inaugural Addresses – I

Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first inaugural address
by Charlie Leck

“This nation is asking for action and action now!”

As we inch, so painfully slowly, toward Inauguration Day and the inaugural address that President-Elect Barack Obama will deliver, I have begun to think of past, extraordinary inaugural addresses. I thought a short series about the greatest of these addresses might be in order and might be a meaningful gift to my readers.

We are all expecting a rousing and assuring address from our next President. We have already seen and heard his oratorical genius. On such an occasion, this can be a meaningful and important ability. Personally, I await the address with great anticipation and expectation. It will, I am sure, be an extraordinary speech.

I begin this historical series with the 1933 inaugural address of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). It is an appropriate speech to review because Roosevelt was coming into office with the nation in a financial crisis. Some would say it is an unfair comparison to what Obama will face, but I am not sure it is. Only this weekend, Paul Krugman, in the New York Times, suggested that we are only inches away from our own Great Depression.

“The fact is that recent economic numbers have been terrifying, not just in the United States but around the world. Manufacturing, in particular, is plunging everywhere. Banks aren’t lending; businesses and consumers aren’t spending. Let’s not mince words: This looks an awful lot like the beginning of a second Great Depression.“So will we ‘act swiftly and boldly’ enough to stop that from happening? We’ll soon find out.”

On a Saturday, in early March of 1933, FDR rode to the nation’s capitol with out-going President Herbert Hoover. He took the oath of office from the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Charles Evans Hughes.

Four years earlier, the stock markets had utterly crashed and the Great Depression began. Roosevelt had been Governor of New York. It was clear that whoever gained the nomination of the Democratic Party in 1932 would be elected to the nation’s highest office. When nominated by his party, Roosevelt, in an attempt to show his energy, flew to Chicago to become the first nominee to address his nominating convention.

Millions of people around the nation were glued to their radios to hear the Inaugural Address in which FDR announced his plans for the New Deal. Following the speech, the new president assembled his cabinet at the White House and went into meetings that lasted throughout the day and into the evening.

At his inauguration, Roosevelt had the dual task of appearing strong and demanding to the new Congress, while he was also assuring and confident to the American people. It was a brilliant and historic speech. This is the way FDR began.

“I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our nation impels. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. The great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyses needed efforts to convert retreat into advance…

In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.”

Polio had severely crippled Roosevelt. Many talked and wrote of his condition as symbolic of the nation itself – a nation paralyzed both economically by the great crash and psychologically by immense fear. However, while Roosevelt found it difficult to hide his physical condition, he showed not an ounce of fear or retreat from the compelling and demanding battle ahead.

“The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit…

“Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This nation asks for action, and action now.”

It is quite educational and inspiring to look at some of the photographs from the era of the Great Depression. One, at which I am now glancing, shows a long line of people waiting in a food line, to pick up what meager handouts they could get for their families. These were not vagabonds standing in that line. There were gentlemen in three-piece suits and handsome fedoras and ladies in proper dresses and hats. The time, as my father described it, was “as humiliating, degrading, frightening and terrible as you could imagine.” FDR understood that.

“Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.”

It is similar to our President-Elect’s talk of rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure by putting people to work on building and rebuilding our roads and bridges, our transportation systems and our schools, parks and playgrounds.

FDR talked of redistributing an overbalanced population, making a better use of the land and “by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products.” He addressed the growing loss of homes and farms to foreclosure. He demanded that both federal and local governments reduce their costs on government services.

The new President did not ignore international relations, but recognized the importance of getting along and building solid trade partners.

“In the field of world policy I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor – the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others – the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.”

FDR made a strong point of the interdependence of Americans on each other.

“…that we can not merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective."

To constitutional scholars, perhaps the most dramatic moment in FDR’s speech came when he said that he would proceed with or without Congress. It was a dire warning to Congress and its meaning has been carefully studied ever since the day of his inauguration:

“I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.“But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.“For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less.”

From there, carefully, FDR moved to his quiet and humble conclusion.

“We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.“In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come.”

Because of the historic moment, it was one of the most extraordinary of all the great presidential inaugural addresses.

_____________________________________________

[To read the address in its entirety, go here!]

[To hear an audio of swearing in and inaugural address, go here!]

This past December, we visited a special photography exhibit at the
Minneapolis Institute of Art and this compelling photograph from the
depression era was on display. Remarkable! Sad!
___________________________________________-

I am pleased to have here in my library, in beautifully bound editions, all the inaugural addresses of all the Presidents of the United States. I have read most of them and many of them have brought me great comfort and hope.

A Happy New Year Greeting

(a castle sketch by David Williamson)

A Happy New Year Greeting from Van Peebles land!

by Charlie Leck

I’m a very regular reader of a blog called VanPeebles Land by David Williamson. His New Years Day blog was a treat; because it also takes us through a litany of the extraordinary anniversaries we will celebrate in 2009.

I strongly urge you to read this blog for the New Year. You’ll enjoy it immensely. I certainly did.

Van Peebles Land calls itself “the sporadic postings of an Irishman in Wales.” Mr. Williamson is a very wise, artful, energetic and sensitive young man, as well as an Irishman in Wales.

A few years ago, Williamson wrote about some of the responsibilities of the Christian. One of the things he wrote caused me more than a touch of anxiety and stirred my conscience, but I haven’t done much about it. Nevertheless, I wrote it down and posted it in a spot on my desk where I see it regularly. Perhaps, if your call yourself a Christian, it will stir you, too.

“I cannot quite see how a Christian… can say meeting with fellow Christians for prayer and praise and celebration of communion is optional.” [David Williamson, 24 January 2006]

Jimbo’s with Gilead

Next time you’re at 125th Street and Lennox Avenue, here’s a tip for you!
by Charlie Leck

On New Years Day in Manhattan – in Harlem – it was cold. As they say around Lake Wobegon, “it was colder’n all get out.”

I didn’t sleep well and, early, I left my little hotel looking for a place to have breakfast. At the hotel they had recommended an Italian Bakery up the street, but it turned out to be closed. So, I wandered up Lennox Avenue and found Jimbo’s just before I got to 125th Street. The sign in the window announced breakfast, so I hastened in to warm up.

There was one long fountain (counter), at which to sit, with shaky looking fixed stools all extending toward the back of the deep, narrow joint. I slid into an empty stool and realized I was hearing only Spanish all around me. The manager, however, recognized a gringo when he saw one and asked me in perfect English if I wanted coffee.

“Yes, please!” I spoke loudly so he’d understand me.

“How?”

I stuttered for just a moment over that question before figuring out its meaning.

“With a little cream,” I said. The manager shouted the instructions in Spanish to a fellow back by the giant coffee cookers. Then he turned back to me. “Breakfast?”

I had been studying the complex menu on the signboard that hung above all the grills and sinks and burners, right out in front of me.

“Western!” I said to him.

“Home fries or hashed?”

“Home,” I said, “and an English muffin.”

“No English muffin,” he said, “only white, wheat, rye, hot bun or grilled french bread.”

“Rye,” I answered, wanting to order the hot bun, but unsure of just what it might be.

Lots of instructions were shouted in Spanish and some of it produced laughter and a few of the short-order cooks turned to look at me and giggled. It made me curious. I was dying to know what was so funny about me, but I’d never get to figure it out.

I settled into my wonderful book and waited. The coffee came in a paper cup with a plastic lid on it. I took the lid off and the amount of cream looked perfect. I sipped the hot beverage and it tasted fine – also just about perfect.

I’m reading Marilynne Robinson’s new book, Home. Her novel Gilead is the best book I’ve read in many years. I’ve strongly recommended it here.

After standing in the airport bookstore, looking at the dust jacket on this one, and reading that it is an “independent… work,” but a continuation of the earlier story, switching this time from the home of Reverend Ames to the household of Reverend Boughton, I hesitated to buy this one. I’m not much on sequels and I could sense the publisher’s great pain to explain that it wasn’t that even though it was. I bought in anyway, just because Gilead had been so wonderful.

Ten pages in, waiting for the plane to board, I was deeply hooked and terribly happy that I’d made the purchase.

Off to my left there were raised voices in English.

“No, no, Sally, the last time you walked out without paying. You owe me a dollar ninety. Now you want free, free, free.”

“Not free. I’ll pay you very soon.”

“You pay the dollar ninety first.”

“It’s only a dollar,” the woman shouted. “I told you I paid Manuel a dollar last time and told him I’d pay this week.

“No, no. I waited on you. You walked out without paying.”

“Okay,” the woman said more softy, “Look at what I got for you. You can have it all for ten bucks.”

From an old, tattered cloth bag she pulled out three plastic jugs of laundry detergent and two jugs of Minute Maid orange juice. She put those things on the counter.

“Ten bucks,” she repeated. The manager shrugged and said something in Spanish.

The woman pulled out a large jug of Clorox bleach and added it to the assortment. The guy checked the freshness dates on the orange juice.

“Ten bucks,” she said firmly. The guy reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of cash. He peeled off a ten-dollar bill and then rang up $1.90 on his register. He put the ten spot in the till and made change. He handed her eight dollars and ten cents.

“Coffee and a hot bun,” the woman said firmly and proudly. The manager sent the order on to his cooks in their native tongue.

My omelet arrived on a paper plate just as Jack Boughton was gently lifting his papa into his arms to carry him up the creaking staircase to the old man’s bedroom. His sister, Glory, watched him handle the old man so easily and caringly. She envied his strength and compassion.

Robinson must be the best pure writer in America right now. Her prose is spectacular. It is sometimes mysterious, but it is spectacular and it sometimes demands you read a sentence twice just to make sure you got all of its richness.

I squeezed ketchup all over the omelet and broke a big piece of it off with my plastic fork. I delivered it on target. Lord, it was good – hot and tasty – with all those peppers, onions, cheese, bacon and ham melding together so perfectly in the fluffy eggs. The rye toast oozed under a blanket of melted butter.

I was so glad to be back in Gilead. Jack had returned, as his father always knew he would, after a twenty-year absence. He had unsteady hands and a nose reddened and slightly purplish. The old, old man was delighted to see him and knew, all along, that God would answer his prayers.

A fellow next to me jabbed my elbow with his and said something in Spanish, pointing to the salt and peppershakers off to my left. I realized he had been trying to get my attention and I was too deeply engrossed in my visit to Gilead.

“Sorry,” I uttered, wishing I knew how to say even that little amount in Spanish. I handed him the shakers.

“Gracias,” he said.

I finished up my breakfast and headed back out into the cold. I wasn’t ready to put Robinson’s new book down, however, and I headed toward a Starbucks on the corner. I ordered a silly coffee and found a little table and sat down with Glory, Jack and Reverend Boughton.

The time flew by. It’s a wonderful book.

“As good as Gilead?”

“I’m glad you asked. Yes, every bit as good and every bit as beautiful. If you liked Gilead, you’ll like this incredible sequel.”

“Glory went up to the attic, the limbo of things that had been displaced from current use but were not in the strict sense useless. If civilization were to collapse, for example, there might be every reason to be glad for this hoard of old shoes and bent umbrellas, all of which would be better than nothing, however badly they might fare in any other comparison. Other pious families gave away the things they did not need. Boughtons put them in the attic, as if to make an experiment of doing without them before they undertook some irreparable act of generosity. Then, what with the business of life and the passage of time, what with the pungency of mothballs and the inevitable creep of dowdiness through any stash of old clothes, however smart they might have been when new, it became impossible to give the things away. From time to time their mother would come down from the attic empty-handed, brushing dust off herself, and write a check to the orphan’s home.”
(Robinson, Marilynne: Home [Farrar, Sraus and Giroux, New York, 2008] pps 93-94)

War and the Best and Worst

War brings out the best and the worst in people!
by Charlie Leck

The My Lai massacre of over 500 unarmed Vietnam people, mostly women, children and elderly, by American troops on 16 March 1968 was a low moment in American history and one of the lowest moments of my life. If you want to resurrect old and sad memories you can read the PBS report about the awful event.

I’m not going to go back to it. Though war sometimes brings out the greatness and heroism of a soldier, it sometime brings out the absolute worst of his character. It was the latter that surface at the little village of My Lai in ’68.

Now an awful report about American military brutality is coming out of Afghanistan. It hasn’t even hit the mainstream papers and news organizations yet. It’s a story filed by Jerome Starkey from Kabul. Starkey’s reputation is mixed but his worked is basically trusted. In case you haven’t read about this, here’s Starkey’s story.

Western troops accused of executing 10 Afghan civilians, including children
by Jerome Starkey In Kabul

December 31, 2009 "The Times" --American-led troops were accused yesterday of dragging innocent children from their beds and shooting them during a night raid that left ten people dead.

Afghan government investigators said that eight schoolchildren were killed, all but one of them from the same family. Locals said that some victims were handcuffed before being killed.

Western military sources said that the dead were all part of an Afghan terrorist cell
responsible for manufacturing improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which have claimed the lives of countless soldiers and civilians.

“This was a joint operation that was conducted against an IED cell that Afghan and US officials had been developing information against for some time,” said a senior
Nato insider. But he admitted that “the facts about what actually went down are in dispute”.

The allegations of civilian casualties led to protests in Kabul and Jalalabad, with children as young as 10 chanting “Death to America” and demanding that foreign forces should leave Afghanistan at once.

President Karzai sent a team of investigators to Narang district, in eastern Kunar province, after reports of a massacre first surfaced on Monday.

“The delegation concluded that a unit of international forces descended from a plane Sunday night into Ghazi Khan village in Narang district of the eastern province of Kunar and took ten people from three homes, eight of them school students in grades six, nine and ten, one of them a guest, the rest from the same family, and shot them dead,” a statement on President Karzai’s website said.

Assadullah Wafa, who led the investigation, said that US soldiers flew to Kunar from Kabul, suggesting that they were part of a special forces unit.

“At around 1 am, three nights ago, some American troops with helicopters left Kabul and landed around 2km away from the village,” he told The Times. “The troops walked from the helicopters to the houses and, according to my investigation, they gathered all the students from two rooms, into one room, and opened fire.” Mr Wafa, a former governor of Helmand province, met President Karzai to discuss his findings yesterday. “I spoke to the local headmaster,” he said. “It’s impossible they were al-Qaeda. They were children, they were civilians, they were innocent. I condemn this
attack.”

In a telephone interview last night, the headmaster said that the victims were asleep in three rooms when the troops arrived. “Seven students were in one room,” said Rahman Jan Ehsas. “A student and one guest were in another room, a guest room, and a farmer was asleep with his wife in a third building.

“First the foreign troops entered the guest room and shot two of them. Then they entered another room and handcuffed the seven students. Then they killed them. Abdul Khaliq [the farmer] heard shooting and came outside. When they saw him they shot him as well. He was outside. That’s why his wife wasn’t killed.”

A local elder, Jan Mohammed, said that three boys were killed in one room and five were handcuffed before they were shot. “I saw their school books covered in blood,” he said.

The investigation found that eight of the victims were aged from 11 to 17. The guest
was a shepherd boy, 12, called Samar Gul, the headmaster said. He said that six of the students were at high school and two were at primary school. He said that all the students were his nephews. In Jalalabad, protesters set alight a US flag and an effigy of President Obama after chanting “Death to Obama” and “Death to foreign forces”. In Kabul, protesters held up banners showing photographs of dead children alongside placards demanding “Foreign troops leave Afghanistan” and “Stop killing us”.

Hekmatullah, 10, a protester, said: “We’re sick of Americans bombing us.” Samiullah Miakhel, 60, a protester. said: “The Americans are just all the time killing civilians.”

Nato’s International Security Assistance Force said that there was “no direct evidence to substantiate” Mr Wafa’s claims that unarmed civilians were harmed in what it described as a “joint coalition and Afghan security force” operation.

“As the joint assault force entered the village they came under fire from several buildings and in returning fire killed nine individuals,” he said.

“That,” as Walter Cronkite used to say, “is the way it is!” Let’s hope the report turns out to be untrue.

I Have Never Not Loved New York

Even in the cold and slush, I love this wonderful city!
by Charlie Leck

There are only a few real cities in the world. Places like Los Angles and Dallas, which are simply prime examples of mega-sprawl, don’t qualify. A real city has a strong urban core and a vital life of its own, without dependency on the suburbs. If you’re in New York or Chicago, you don’t going rushing out to the suburbs for dinner or to catch a show. Everything you want out of life is right there is the city itself.

The only cities I know that could be put in the same category are Toronto, London, Hong Kong, Madrid and Paris. There are probably a few others I haven’t visited. However, none of them comes close to this city with an exciting, beating heart.

I love it here, even in this cold and slushy time of the year, and I often wonder how I could ever leave it.

Our baby lives here now and she’s thinking of making this place home. I suppose a lot of parents would discourage her and try to bring her to her senses. Not I. I see it as a wonderful choice among the options. What possibilities and opportunities here.

We're looking for a home for her! That reality smacks us in the face a bit. New York is not a cheap place to live – au contraire! She’s lived here for two years now, renting. She knows Manhattan well. She knows where she wants to live and she’s comfortable there – even though it’s not one of the fashionable parts of town. It’s where she works and she knows the people in the community and she respects them. Whether its Lake Wobegon or Manhattan, that’s what you’re after as a human being, so I tell her to go for it. It’s her life and not mine.

I’d need to be on the Westside, near the park, or, perhaps, downtown. She’s cool! She moves around well in her neighborhood. She has the right attitude and temperament. This will be home for her and she’ll be a good neighbor and a good citizen.

You can be sure there is life here. There’s brilliant color and laughter and music and the constant, marvelous aroma of cooking food. And there are people everywhere -- running, walking, dancing, delightful people. Transportation is simple and always available. You can get to Times Square in 15 minutes and to the Village and Downtown in 20. The airport is a half-hour away and there are beaches that close also.

Want do you want to do? A great show? Wonderful music? A sunny walk in the park? Art? Libraries? Sports? Shopping? Spectacular dining and down-home wonderful meals? The best of all those things are all within 15 minutes to a half hour. And, if you yearn for the beautiful countryside and some rural life, you can hop in a car and be in the beauty of New York State’s parks, trails, small towns and farmland in a half-hour.

I was born out in the Bronx – on Saint Anne’s Avenue – and left the big city for the “sticks” of New Jersey when I was two; however, I could never cut myself free from New York. I came back in as often as I could. It didn’t matter to me what borough I was in because I loved it all – Brooklyn, the Bronx, Long Island or Manhattan (uptown, downtown, all around the town). I can’t find a real deli anywhere else. I can’t walk into a neighborhood Italian restaurant in any other city and be so assured that I’ll be overwhelmed by the quality of the meal. This morning I had breakfast, early and by myself, in an Itailian bakery a couple of blocks from the hotel. Mama mia! What a delight, this rich strong, Itailian coffee and pastries. No where in my wondeful Minnesota city could I find anything like this little joint on Lennox Avenue.

Sure there’s traffic and noise. To love New York you also have to love that and just go with the flow and be a part of it. I get a thrill when I hear the loud clicking, clacking and rumble of the elevated trains. And I never buy the Midwestern comments about New York being an unfriendly place. I never have trouble getting assistance, help or a pleasant conversation in New York. I call New Yorkers the friendliest people on earth. You musn't be afaid of them or they will overwhelm you. If you show them respect, you can't find kinder people.

The taxi ride in from the airport was like a dangerous carnival ride that doesn't get inspected by local and state officials often enough. It is an accident waiting to happen. Luis, the driver, terrorized me, passing trucks and cars on the far left at high speed and then squeezing through a narrow opening on the right, nearly touching rear-view mirrors with the cars he passed, but he got me to my hotel in incredibly fast time and beamed with pride when, with a heavy Spanish accent, he said, "Fourteen minutes! How's that?" I gave him a ten dollar tip and vowed to take the bus when I returned to the airport.

One of the wonderful things about New York is that you can isolate yourself and find great privacy and quiet, peaceful thinking, working time; or you can surround yourself with people and excitement and adventure. It’s really at one’s own option. Or, one can go with one approach one day and another the next day. It’s easy here!

There are problems and I could write about them, but everywhere I hear New Yorkers talking about those problems and how they are going to address them. Young people, by and large, are staggeringly obese. The mayor has a plan to attack that problem and New Yorkers have vast energy and they‘ll do it – just like they attack and solve all their problems. The infrastructure is old and needs attention. It will get it!

I think New York has become the world’s city. It seems the center of the universe. That’s why it’s more in danger than most of the world’s cities, but that’s something they know, too, and they live with it and keep a wary eye out for trouble.

Oh, how I love my home on the farm up there in Minnesota, near Lake Wobegon, but it is difficult to pull myself away from New York and all its pleasures.

New York! New York! What a wonderful town.

__________________

In the afternoon yesterday (News Years Day), we drove out to Jersey, to the town where I grew up. I showed her the old store, the elementary school I attended and then we went over the mountain, as we used to call the trip when we were kids, up to the high school from which I graduated 50 years ago. We just peeked at it from the car as we drove by. She didn't seem curious enough to get out and walk around. We slipped into a little town, Long Valley, near my old home town, and had a nice mid-afternoon meal in a fashionable, yuppy kind of joint where they brew their own beer. You know the type! There was nothing like that around when I was a kid. I don't know if that's good or bad. Others will have to debate it. It's just different.

Today, we'll do the tour of condos and we'll begin working on the numbers.

Oh yes, Saturday night we're going some place nice for dinner and the little kid said something interesting to me today.

"Dad, can I invite someone to come along to dinner. I've been dating him for awhile and I want you to meet him."

Oh, oh!

Why I Blog

I’ve explained before, but people keep asking!
by Charlie Leck

I’ve been blogging steadily now for well over two years. Yup, I’ve written hundreds of these entries – from a paragraph long to 5 or 6 pages long. All types! Lots of subjects! Informational! Personal! Autobiographical! Sports! Politics! Human Relations! Theology! Interpersonal relations! Psychology! Literature! Movie reviews and reviews!

When I began, I thought I’d be writing for a half dozen friends who would faithfully come to the site to read my daily rants. Amazingly, now there are about 5,000 visitors to the blog site every week. I’m told you can assume about two-thirds will at least begin reading to see if they’re interested. Based on those projections, I am assuming about 3,300 people come to the blog each week and do some reading. These aren’t overwhelming numbers, but I never dreamed that even a fraction of that amount would visit.

Interestingly – at least to me – I’ve got a number of very regular readers who rarely miss a blog. They might not come every day, but they come regularly enough that they can catch up on all the blogs I’ve written since their last visit. Most of these folks are good friends and family from around the country, though a few are people I’ve never met, but now consider friends.

Why do I do this? Several of you keep asking. I answered that question in a blog just a bit over a year ago (13 January 2008). I won’t try to refine that answer because it still holds true; however, my motivation is much higher now, knowing I have so many faithful readers.

“One good, old friend from New Jersey posed an interesting question last week in response to my series of memories. “Why do you write?” He asked it sincerely. He wondered about the huge effort it must require to post a few essays each week.

“Certainly you are not driven by readership,” he stated bluntly.“I guess that comment brought me back to reality. I’m read regularly by somewhere between a few dozen and a few hundred people. I’ve been impressed by those numbers, though I clearly shouldn’t be.

“Why then do I do it? Why do I write?“I’m not sure how many people will understand this; however, I’ll try to explain it. Or, as Lucy’s husband used to say on that TV show we all liked so much: ‘Let me splain myself.’

“I write for those little ones up there – the ones in that photo. They are my grandchildren. I hope, someday, long after I am gone, they may have some urge to figure out just who their old grandfather really was.

“I’ve often wondered that about my grandparents. I barely knew them. Oh, I can remember times in their homes and sitting around the great, long Thanksgiving Day table with them, listening to them chatter away; yet, I really didn’t get to know
them. For that matter, I didn’t even get to know my parents very well. What was inside them? What made them tick? What did they like about life? What enraged them? What drove them? What were their hopes? Their fears? Their weaknesses? ow deeply did they love? Were they people of real faith?

“My grandchildren don’t live nearby. I don’t get to see them all that often. We don’t have much opportunity to get to know each other.

“One day, if they wonder about me, as I wonder so constantly about my grandparents, they will be able to pull this massive pile of papers from the boxes on a shelf, and read to their hearts content about dear, old Grandpa Charlie. Or, they’ll shove a disk or chip or some other wondrous device of the future into a computer and up will pop the strange writings of their odd, old grandfather.

“Am I being vain to think they will even care? Perhaps! I don’t know. I can only tell you how I’ve yearned to know more about my grandparents, and their grandparents, and I always feel sad that I can’t learn anything about them…

“…And, if some day my grandchildren’s grandchildren happen upon these papers, I’d like to say hello and let you know that I hope you are well and happy. I hope, too, that you are kind and caring people; for there is nothing in all of life more important than that. My daughter, Jennifer, has a computerized signature on all her email messages that quotes Kurt Vonnegut, one of the great authors of my time, saying this same thing: “Damn it, children, you’ve got to be kind!”

“So that’s why I write. It is because I don’t want to leave this world all together and completely. I want some little part of me to hang around and hang on just as long as possible. Is that ego driven? Does it reveal some base insecurity of mind? Have I an inflated sense of my own importance? Duh-know!

“I just want to write it for them. The blog is a perfect discipline for me. It’s hanging out there in the wonderful, spectacular Internet, and [several] times each week I post something on it and the stack of papers and materials left behind for my grandchildren keeps growing. Go figure!”

So, there you are! As we start another year – a new year in which to blog – you have the clearest possible answer I can give you about why I blog – along with a new set of photos of our grandchildren.