A Very Dangerous Terrorist

We are now holding a very dangerous terrorist and, thanks to Rummy and his buddies, we can’t take him to trial and can’t convict him and we don’t know exactly what to do with him.
by Charlie Leck

Since writing this blog I have come across a very serious and profitable discussion of this issue, involving a number of talented voices. It's in the New York Times section called "Room for Debate." On this particular issue the questions I raise below are discussed and the possible solutions are presented and debated by 5 different experts in the field. [Take a look!]

There’s an extremely significant story in the Washington Post of 14 January 2008 about the 20th Hijacker of the 9-11 planes. Susan J. Crawford told investigative reporter Bob Woodward: “There’s no doubt in my mind he would’ve been on one of those planes had he gained access to the country in August 2001. He’s a muscle hijacker.”

Crawford is a Pentagon official responsible for deciding whether to bring detainees to trial. She’s determined that Mohammed al-Qahtani was tortured while detained at Guantanamo.
"His treatment met the legal definition of torture,” Crawford said, “and that's why I did not refer the case…"

The torture has tainted the case against him and Crawford has determined he can’t go to trial. If he can’t go to trial, what’s to be done with him? Do we release him? Put him back out into the world now that he hates us even more than he did before?”

Crawford added: “He’s a very dangerous man. What do you do with him now if you don’t charge him and try him? I would be hesitant to say, ‘Let him go.”

Susan Crawford is a retired military judge and a former Pentagon inspector general She knows her stuff. She has flatly stated that she would not allow the prosecution of al-Qahtani.
Isn’t this a wonderful mess? Such wonderful gifts the likes of Rumsfeld—Cheney—Bush have given us![Read the story and see what a mess this torture has created!]

There were many people who were predicting our policy of torture in the Guantanamo prison would lead to problems like this. Now, here’s living proof. We have a monster among us and, legally, we can’t do anything about it.

And don’t say, “Forget the legalities!” That’s what got us into this mess in the first place. It is not the American way!

Another ominous warning some military people have been giving us about our program of torture at Guantanamo is that it endangers our own military personnel who might get captured. Those in charge of their incarceration will know about Guantanamo and what we did there and they will likely believe it gives them “cover” if they use the same techniques on our citizens.

An interesting web site, freedetainees.org, revealed the list of interrogation techniques, approved by Donald Rumsfeld, that could be used against Mohammed al Qahtani.

• Beatings


• Severe sleep deprivation combined with 20-hour interrogations for months at a time


• Threats of rendition to other countries that torture


• Explicit threats made against his family, including female members of his family


• Strip searches, body searches and forced nudity, at times in the presence of female personnel


• Sexual humiliation


• Humiliation by forcing him to bark like a dog, dance with a mask on his face, and pick up piles of trash with his hands cuffed while he was called “a pig”


• Denial of the right to practice his religion, including prohibiting him from praying for prolonged times and during Ramadan


• Threats to desecrate the Koran in front of him


• Attacks by dogs


• Forcible administration of frequent IVs by medical personnel during interrogation


• Being placed in acute stress positions for hours at a time


• Being placed in tight restraints repeatedly for many months or days and nights


• Exposure to low temperatures for extended periods of time


• Exposure to loud music for prolonged times


• At least 160 days of severe isolation
  

Inaugurals in Times of Peril

I recommend a very good video on the NY Times web page!
by Charlie Leck

For those of you who enjoyed my series reviewing some of the great inaugural speeches, I recommend a very good video the NY Times has running right now, called Inaugurations in Times of Peril. [Go here and then select it to view]. It’s less than 6 minutes long.

Harlem Collage

I created this little collage of Harlem from photographs I took during my visit -- from my hotel on the far right to the extraordinary New York transit system on the far left top. More photos follow.

Harlem: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
by Charlie Leck

My little visit (5 days) to Harlem over the New Years Weekend has set me to thinking about that place -- about the image and visceral feeling the name calls to mind, and about the realities of Harlem as it was, is and will soon be.

What does the mention of Harlem bring to mind? Violence and black segregation? Malcolm X and his assassination in 1965? The freeing of the slaves? Black migration into the north? Black music and cultural accomplishment?

As a child and young boy, I thought of Harlem as that part of the world into which one did not venture. Once, when I was probably about 11 or 12 years old, at a subway stop at 125th Street and Lexington Avenue, I slid off my #6 train that was headed into downtown, where I was to meet up with my older sister. The train is elevated at that point and I wandered over to a part of the station where I could look out over the world of East Harlem. There was no way that I would have ventured down the staircase to the street. It was enough of a daring adventure to get off the train to look out over this magical, black part of the city.

Harlem encompasses an area of uptown Manhattan north of 96th Street (north of the Park), moving north all the way to Washington Heights. It's bounded on the east by the Harlem River and runs west to Saint Nicholas Avenue and beyond.

I'll present a brief, little history of Harlem, in case you're interested, but, before I do, here are some contemporary photographs.

Correcting a Myth
Before going further, let's stomp on a myth. Harlem is not the largest black community and not even the largest in New York City. Jamaica in the Queens is larger and so is Bedford-Stuyvesant. But, as Manning Marable tried to explain on the Columbia University web site, Harlem is something special for most black Americans.

"...in the imagination of black people throughout the world, and of people throughout the world, regardless of race and culture and ethnicity, Harlem is a site of black urbanism, it's a site of black culture, it's a site of imagination, it's magical terrain, where anything is possible and all kinds of creativity can be, and has been produced."

A good point to hop off...
The following treatment of Harlem is not brief, as I expected it to be when I began writing here. The subject just grew more and more fascinating as I proceeded and, even though I left out much that could have been included, this essay just grew and grew in length. So, if you are not interested in spending the time, learning about the Harlem of yesterday and today, this is a good point for you to hop off. Get off the subway here at 125th Street and head back downtown for more playtime in glorious New York City. We'll see you here at the blog another time.

A Little History of Harlem

The original village of Harlem was established by Dutch immigrants and was called Nieuw Harlem after the Harlem of the Netherlands. It 1658, the Dutch Governor, Peter Stuyvesant, established the village. The eastern portion of the community was flat and moist and it made for wonderful farming. The more hilly, rocky and rugged western portion of the area became home for many of New York City's most illustrious early families -- the Delanceys, Bleekers, Rikers and Hamiltons. They built and maintained large estates that looked out over the lower farmland to the east.

Things changed for Harlem in the 1830s, when the farmland got played out and tough economic times visited the entire nation. The great Harlem estates were closed down and broken up into small plats and the farms were abandoned. The neighborhood became a refuge for those who could not afford property in other parts of the city and the destitute built up shantytowns. Compared to the rest of Manhattan, the area remained very rural in character.

The entire New York metropolitan area began to grow rapidly following the Civil War. Transportation within the entire city was also improving. Harlem was transformed into a middle and upper-middle income neighborhood. In 1881, three elevated rail lines were built to connect upper Manhattan with the rest of the developed city. At first, the lines extended only to 129th Street, but, in 1886 they were extended much further north.

In the 1870s there was a great deal of speculative development in Harlem and many types of new single-family housing was built, including row houses, tenements and luxury apartment houses. Churches were established and many commercial establishments were also built. The western half of Harlem was considered the more fashionable area and was home to the more prosperous of those who established residences there. Many of the residents of the downtown area began to relocate into Harlem.

Additional new transportation routes into western Harlem brought with them even more real estate speculation and market values became very inflated. By 1904, virtually all the vacant land in Harlem had been built upon. The speculation led to overbuilding and there were an enormous amount of vacancies and, finally, a real estate collapse. Property values and rental rates dropped wildly. Loans went unpaid and foreclosures became common. By the end of 1905, landlords had dropped rents to drastically low rates in order to attract tenants.

Philip Payton, an ambitious black businessman, took great advantage of the situation. In 1904, he founded the Afro-American Realty Company, and began acquiring five-year leases on many white-owned properties. His little company managed them and rented them to to African-Americans. New York's black population, anxious for better homes and housing, began renting from Payton's company. They came from other sections of New York where blacks had settled -- Hell's Kitchen, San Juan Hill and the Tenderloin.

Harlem looked like heaven to these African-American families who happily moved there. The community's broad and tree-lined streets and all those lovely, up-to-date homes made it very special. There was no more attractive community in all of America that was also available to African-Americans.

In the period immediately prior to and during World War I, Northern manufacturers kept recruiting southern blacks to come north to work in their factories. The population of cities like Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit and New York grew rapidly, swelled by in-coming southern black folks.

Yet, Harlem was identified as the Capital of Black America. And, the grand Abyssinian Baptist Church seemed to be the Capital Building of the black nation. The massive church is located at 132 West 138th Street, between Lenox Avenue and 7th Avenue (Malcolm X Boulevard and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard). Under the leadership of Pastor Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., the Abyssinian congregation moved into Harlem and broke ground for their current "edifice" in 1922. Organized in 1808, far downtown from their current location, the congregation claims to be the first organized black Baptist Church in the state of New York.

The popular German pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, worshiped frequently at Abyssinian Baptist in the early '30s. It had a great influence upon his thinking and he frequently wrote about it and the effect it had on his decision to stand up to the social and racial injustice of the Nazi Reich. I've written at length, here on my blog, about Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

The big church made significant contributions to the cultural life of Harlem. It was a center for non-secular music and is still today the seat for the great tradition of gospel music in Harlem. Fats Waller's father was a minister at the church for a time. Nat King Cole was married there and the funeral of W.C. Handy ("the Father of the Blues") was held there.

If not still the most powerful institution in Harlem, it certainly remains one of the most powerful ones under the direction of its current pastor, the Reverend Calvin O. Butts.

No name in Harlem rings with a sense of more power than that of Adam Clayton Powell. The Senior Powell turned the leadership of the Abyssinia church over to his son, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., in 1935. At that time, it was the largest Protestant congregation in all of the United States.

The younger Powell used this local church as a power base to rise to a position of virtual leadership of the black political movement in the United States. At the age of 37, he began a 26 year tenure in the United States House of Representatives as the Congressman from Harlem. He was the first African-American elected to Congress from New York. In 1961, he took up the chairmanship of the Education and Labor Committee. During his chairmanship came the passage of a great deal of important social legislation.

Powell played the power game as many white Congressmen had played it before him. He won many favors for Harlem while sometimes staining and straining his own reputation. Nevertheless, he was admired and, perhaps, revered in his own home district. As a first-term Congressman he challenged the "whites only" House restaurant and often brought black constituents into the dining room with him. He also clashed publicly with some of the segregationists within his own party. As a result of Powell's protests and formal complaints, the leadership finally stopped southern, segregationist Congressmen from using the word "nigger" on the floor of the House. In '56, he broke with his party and supported the candidacy of the Republican, Dwight Eisenhower, for President.

Many of New York's most powerful political interests (Tammany Hall) tried to oust Powell from office, but the good Reverend-Congressman always had the support of the huge Abyssinian congregation. By the mid-60s, Powell was constantly criticized for absenteeism and for general mismanagement of his committee budget. He took frequent trips, at public expense, to his personal retreat on the island of Bimini. He also refused to pay a slander judgment back in his home district and that made him subject to arrest, so he spent all his time away from the community he represented. His power base, naturally, began to diminish. Early in '67 he lost his committee chairmanship and the House refused to seat him and finally excluded him. In a special election back in his district, he won his seat back, but never took it. In '69, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the House had acted unconstitutionally when it excluded Powell. Minus his seniority, Powell returned to the House.

Charlie Rangel defeated Powell in a Democratic Primary in 1970 and Powell's political career came to an end. He resigned as Pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church and established his home in Bimini. He died in 1972 at the age of 63.

By 1923, approximately 150,000 blacks lived in Harlem; and by 1930 there were more than 225,000 living there.

The black migration into Harlem continued throughout the 20s. People came in droves from the West Indies and from the southern states. It would be wrong to say there was no racism in New York, but compared to the south, blacks found New York remarkably free. They could go into any store. Eat anywhere. Drink from any water fountain. And, vote! And blacks who came to Harlem from the south wrote home to other blacks in the south and encouraged them to come and join them in this land of freedom and (relative) prosperity.

Rents began to rise dramatically as the demand for housing increased, even while landlords began neglecting routine repairs and general maintenance. Many renters were forced into taking in boarders in order to make payments and, in many cases, families doubled up in units that had clearly been intended for only a single family.

As one walks around present-day Harlem, one is struck by the numbers of churches. They are everywhere. The church has played such a central part in the story of African-Americans and one sees that clearly in Harlem.

Jewish Harlem & Harlem's Grand Churches
Until the period of World War I, Harlem had retained a strong Jewish population. There were several major synagogues in the community and several more not so major ones. Writing in the New York Times, David Dunlaps said: "In its churches, of all places, Harlem reveals its Jewish past."

"The synagogues of Harlem," Dunlaps wrote, "have served as Christian churches far longer than they were used for Jewish worship."

Congregation Ohab Zedek is now the Baptist Temple Church near the corner of Fifth Avenue and 116th Street.

At 25 West 188th Street, the Bethel Way of the Cross Church of Christ was originally built in 1900 as Congregation Shaare Zedek.

The Salvation and Deliverance Church at 37 116th Street was once Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein's Institutional Synagogue.

Tikvath Israel, at 160 East 112th Street, is now Christ Apostolik Church of U.S.A..

Mount Neboh Baptist Church, at 1883 7th Avenue, was once Congregation Ansche Chesed.

Mount Olivet Baptist Church, on the corner of Lenox Avenue and 120th Street, was built in 1907 as Temple Israel.

Temple B'nai Israel on West 149th Street, after some years of abandonment, has become the Gospel Missionary Baptist Church.

"It is as if Jewish Harlem sank 70 years ago beneath the waves of memory, beyond recall.

"At least until you spy the Star of David medallions atop the Baptist Temple Church. Or the cornerstone of the Mount Neboh Baptist Church that says it was built in 5668. Or the marble pediment leading to the baptismal pool at the Mount Olivet Baptist Church, on which is inscribed the Old Testament verse: 'Jehovah is in his holy temple; be silent, before him, all the earth.'"

The over population and the declining living conditions of the 20s and 30s prompted the Jews to flee. They, unlike the black population, were able to move easily into other parts of the city (new buildings were being constructed in the Jackson Heights, Astoria and Grand Concourse neighborhoods of the Bronx, under new tax incentive laws that had been passed by the city in an attempt to meet housing needs) or into the urban areas of bordering states. Nearly 175,000 Jews had once lived in Harlem. In 1920, cencus figures show that 2,260 Jews lived in North Harlem. Only 430 were left in 1930 and there were barely any by 1940.

Harlem's Decline
had its roots in its great popularity and in several economic and real estate disasters. In the 20th Century it would never again be that elegant and lovely African-American community that black people the world over had found when they began arriving there in the early 1900s.

Now, until stalled by the most recent economic crisis, there appeared to be a rebirth and a reconstruction going on in Harlem. Certainly, that recovery and renewal will have to take a momentary breath as the nation recovers from this recession, but it looks like Harlem is on the rise again. It's becoming one of the more affordable in-places to live and one senses that the white population in Harlem is increasing.

Politics in Harlem
Harlem has had a larger influence on politics in America than any other black or African-American region in the country. Why so, for a community smaller than many others? Because it is on the island of Manhattan and that is where things in New York City happen. It's a more prestigious black community than other such neighborhoods in New York City or America.

Harlem has produced a long list of political heavyweights that have had an amazing impact on both New York and the nation. They run from Adam Clayton Powell to Al Sharpton. There are other names instantly recognizable to anyone who follows politics and national politics -- Charlie Rangel, David Dinkins (the only black mayor New York City has ever had), and, of course, Malcolm X.

Famous African-American Residents of Harlem
One would need to go on and on to list the famous residents of Harlem. I can't do that in this space; however, I can give you a teasing taste of a few of these distinguished people.

A. Philip Randolph,
labor leader and Harlem journalist, is best known as the organizer of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first successful African American union. Randolph came to Harlem in 1911, wanting to become an actor. In 1917, with a Columbia student, Chandler Owen, Randolph began to edit and publish the socialist magazine The Messenger. It published union news and stories about world-wide radicals, but it also presented both literary criticism and the creative writing of well-known African American intellectuals, including Paul Robeson and Claude McKay. Randolph was one of the distinguished marchers on Washington in 1963.

Langston Hughes,
Harlem poet and writer, lived "down the street from Columbia, and Columbia never took the time to find out what he was about." So said a Columbia professor at the school's memorial service for Hughes. He "even attended Columbia for a while, and yet he never received an honorary degree from here. When we buried him, then we gave him a memorial. But, after all, that's the experience of the black man down the street from Columbia."

Hughes himself said that "there are many barriers people try to break down... I try to do it with poetry."

He was born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1902 and died in 1967. He wrote his first poetry while he was in high school. Hughes came from Cleveland, Ohio, to New York to study at Columbia University. His father, who lived in Mexico, had agreed to provide the tuition if Hughes would study engineering. Though his grades at Columbia were acceptable, he became much more interested in the activities in nearby Harlem than those at the University.

Hughes spent some time working as a seaman, traveling to West Africa, and then in Paris in the late 20s as part of that ex-patriot community there. He returned to America and enrolled at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and studied as a classmate of Thurgood Marshall. After receiving his degree from Lincoln, Hughes settled down in Harlem and spent the rest of his life there, writing. His remains are interred beneath a floor medallion within the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem.

Many of his poems are exceptionally familiar, but I'm most taken by The Negro Speaks of Rivers:

"I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers"

There's much that could be said about Langston Hughes and his philosphy, his sexuality, his black pride and his poetry style; but it is probably most important to point out that he was at the beginning of the revolutionary movement of "black pride" and he was unashamedly and joyfully black. That attitude permeates his work.

Bayard Rustin,
moved to Harlem, from Pennsylvania, in 1937. He would live there, until his death, for the next 50 years. Though working behind the scenes, he was certainly one of the important civil right activists. He often counseled with Martin Luther King, Jr. on matters of protest and nonviolent resistance. He was one of the organizers of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Toward the end of his life, he became a strong advocate for gay and lesbian causes. His own sexual orientation had led to many attacks upon him by both conservative organizations and government offices, including by Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr..

Just before his death in 1987, Rustin said:

"Twenty-five, thirty years ago, the barometer of human rights in the United States were black people. That is no longer true. The barometer for judging the character of people in regard to human rights is now those who consider themselves gay, homosexual, lesbian."

Thurgood Marshall,
was born in 1908 and lived until January of 1993. A lawyer and jurist, he became the first African-American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. As a lawyer he is most remembered for his success in urging the Supreme Court to rule favorably on Brown v. Board of Education.

Scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Thurgood Marshall on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.

Malcolm X
is familiar to almost all of us. His autobiography is, as it should be, essential and required reading in nearly every liberal arts college in America. I've written about Malcolm X in a previous blog and I refer you to that if you'd like to read about my feelings about him. Suffice it to say here, a major thoroughfare in Harlem, formerly Lenox Avenue, has been renamed Malcolm X Boulevard. One feels this extraordinary man's presence and spirit everywhere in Harlem.

Scott Joplin,
is only one of many great musicians who lived in Harlem. Why would I pick him rather than so many others, like Lena Horne? I guess it's because I liked his music so much myself. Great notes! Great sound! Man!

Joplin was Mr. Ragtime and no figure is regarded as highly in that genre. He was born in 1868 and died, too young, in 1917. Long after his death his music is still popular and certainly enjoyed a burst of popularity after the movie, The Sting, with Paul Newman and Robert Redford

Joe Louis,
was an extraordinary boxer, who became the Heavy Weight Champion of the world when it meant something. He is regarded as one of America's best known athletes. He was born in 1914 and died in 1981.

Paul Robeson,
was an extraordinary example of the man for all seasons and reasons. The tale of his life is nearly impossible to believe because it seems, to we ordinary folks, to be nearly unaccomplishable.

Robeson was an actor, an athlete, a concert singer (Basso cantante), writer, civil rights activist and much, much more. He was multi-lingual. Among other awards during his life, he won the Lenin Peace Prize. He ranks among those Americans I most admire. I urge you to read more about him by clicking here.

He was born in 1898 in New Jersey. He studied at Rutgers University and went on to fame as an athlete, actor and vocalist. He died in 1976.

Harlem,
my trip there made a huge impact on me and I'm so glad I got to know that part of the world better.

References
Welcome to Harlem: A History of Harlem (web site)
Columbia 250: History of Harlem (Columbia University web site)
Kaperman, Libby: When Harlem was Jewish [Columbia University Press, New York, 1979]
Wikipedia (various entries in this on-line encyclopedia)

Great Inaugural Addresses - V

The Second Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln
by Charlie Leck

The is the final blog of this series about great inaugural addresses. Today we deal with the second inaugural address of Abraham Lincoln. It is probably the briefest and the greatest of all such speeches in our history. It is not only the content of the speech itself that makes it so extraordinary, but its historical context also enhances its meaning and power. We should be aware of this moment in history, or this time and place in our national life (sitz im leben), when Lincoln addessed the country. It was a sensitive time and so many important possibilities were hanging in the balance.

The inaugural ceremony took place on Saturday, 4 March 1865. In only a bit more than a month, Lincoln would fall victim of assasination.

It had rained for weeks leading up to Inauguration Day and Pennsylvania Avenue was horribly muddy and, in some places, there was deep, standing water. Of course, as the crowds gathered, the conditions grew worse. Nothing inhibited the crowds, however, and enormous numbers of people gathered in front of the Capitol Building for the swearing in and for Lincoln's speech. The dome on the capitol had only recently been completed and it served as a very real reminder of the fortitude and resolve of Lincoln's administration.

The crowd was nervously excited to hear what Lincoln would say about the war; however, he explained that the public was so well informed that they knew as much as, and everything that, he did.

In the first moments of the speech, Lincoln reminded his audience about the condition of the nation four years earlier, as things stood during his first inauguration.

"On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, urgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came."

And then, Lincoln, speaking with great emotion explained the moral condition of the nation and the exact reasons why it was at war.

"One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could
not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'"

And then came Abe's sudden conclusion. He spoke boldly and loudly and all those before him and behind were totally silent. These words rank among the most famous ever expressed in a Presidential speech in America.

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

Abraham Lincoln was an exhausted man, but he continued on, committed, as this speech makes clear, to seeing things through to their very end and then through all the aftermath of war and the restoration of the union. An assassin would interrupt history, however, and one of our greatest presidents was taken from us too early.

Lincoln prepares to address a large and excited crowd!

This image from Harper's Weekly shows the enormous size of the crowd that had gathered to hear Lincoln's speech. To see a much larger version of this image, click here!

Great Inaugural Addresses – IV

John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address!
by Charlie Leck

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country!”

Does one sentence a great speech make? Perhaps. In this case, this speech is remembered for the line quoted above. If fact, the entire speech was quite extraordinary.

“Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans – born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage – and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.”

The inaugural speech of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) was very carefully crafted. The aides who brought JFK the early drafts had read every single one of the previous inaugural addresses. They were determined that Kennedy’s would be the finest ever. It was worked on and reworked and reworked many times over.

In the end, its delivery seemed to take it beyond prose and closer to poetry.

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

"This much we pledge – and more."

Some historians have ranked the JFK speech among the two best presidential inaugural addresses in our nation's history. High praise!

"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich."

JFK assumed the office of the President of the United States when he was 43 years old. He became the youngest U.S. President in history. The public was very much aware of this shift toward youthful leadership and it also became one of the themes of the inaugural address. However, the cold wars with the Soviet Union and China were at their zeniths and many Americans wondered if this young President had the stuff to stand up to the sly leaders of those two communist nations.

“In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility – I welcome it… The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it – and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.”

Earlier in the speech, JFK had challenged the two super-power communist states to turn toward a “quest for peace,..."

"...before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction."

“So let us begin anew – remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.”

I was 20 years old at the time. I had never heard anything like it. The new President’s voice was mesmerizing and enchanting. His delivery was faultless. His tone was strong and sincere. Americans – Democrats and Republicans – knew they had a very special President taking over the reins of government that day. The public knew this man had been a naval hero and that he understood the high cost of war. In his speech, he also made it clear that he was a man of peace.

The weather on inauguration day in 1961 was miserable. Over eight inches of snow had fallen. Pennsylvania Avenue had to be cleared and so too all the bleachers. The wind-chill, when Kennedy rose to speak, was zero. He removed his top hat and peeled off his topcoat and looked out over the thousands who braved the cold. He moved resolutely through the speech he had rehearsed dozens and dozens of times and reached a soaring climax in his closing words.

“With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.”

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You may read the full text of Kennedy’s address by clicking here!

Here is a remarkable story about Ted Sorenson’s work with JFK to craft the speech. You can also hear an audio of Sorenson explaining the crafting of the speech.

Buddhism and Forgiveness!

Britt Hume has urged Tiger Woods to move toward the Christian Church in order to find forgiveness for himself and to move on!
by Charlie Leck

You know, there was a time when I mildly admired Britt Hume. It was back when he was with one of the major television networks. Was it ABC? I don’t remember any more. That aside, it was clear back then that Hume had some talent. It started with that perfect voice for newscasters. He’s still got the voice but he’s gone very much to the weird side of the news, taking on a very opinionated stance and casting fairness and balance to the wind.

“The extent to which he can recover, seems to me, depends on his faith. He’s said to be a Buddhist. I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgivenss and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith, so my message Tiger would be: Tiger turn your faith, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.”

Oh boy! Let me started with a disclaimer. I’m a Christian and I understand that forgiveness lies at the very heart of our faith. A Christian who cannot forgive doesn’t quite get the meaning of our faith and of the man who died on the cross for us. That being said, I also have some great sympathies toward Buddhism and find it a very reassuring manner of living joyously and also of coming to terms with crisis when necessary.

I think Hume is dead wrong about the concept of forgiveness and the Buddhist faith. To Hume’s credit, he did use the qualifier, “I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith.” So, Hume is correct as far as he goes, but his statement clearly implies Tiger cannot receive the quality level of forgiveness, or the depth of forgiveness, that he could find within the Christian Church. Not so!

Stay where you are Tiger, but take advantage of the marvelous counsel of your faith and you will be able to triumph over the weaknesses you showed in being so disloyal and dishonest to your wife.

Forgiveness for the Buddhist is an act of letting go! One lets go of the past and makes a turn toward goodness and wholeness. That past is not erased – never erased – but forgiveness can eliminate the pain of one’s past. The important thing is that our past, when we are forgiven, no longer drives or determines our future.

Too many Christians think that forgiveness is an automatic thing – that one just confesses and then is awarded forgiveness and redemption. That’s not true, of course. A true sense of sorrow for one’s acts must be felt in the heart and mind. It is that sense of sorrowfulness that allows Christians to turn toward the path of righteousness and to abandon the path of sinfulness.

To the Buddhist, the turn is a wide and graceful one, like the turn a massive, modern tanker ship might make upon the ocean. The arc is large and the movement is slow, providing plenty of opportunity for contemplation about both where we’ve been and where we are going. To me, that concept seems ideal for Tiger Woods.

The Buddhist also believes that there needs to be real human forgiveness as part of the process of spiritual forgiveness. Tiger must feel a sense of repentance and a desire to make amends to those he has so injured.

One thing Hume is correct about is that Tiger needs to find some sense of the spiritual right now. That is not to say that a pure atheist could not solve this problem of feeling forgiven and making amends. Such a thought is foolish. However, for this man Tiger, this huge man of power and transcendence, I think he needs to feel the inner belief that something is much more powerful and important in the universe than he. I would label that power as God. Others would call it something else.

Tiger can recover from this and, indeed, become a whole and good person. I just happen to think he must become smaller and less relevant and more humble. He needs to turn toward the very center and core of being and admit that he is but small and insignificant. Then the wide, slow turn toward healing begins.

Frankly, I think this is more possible and realizable within the Buddhist faith than it is within Christianity, though, for heaven’s sake, I admit it is possible within both. What none of us really knows, in fact, is whether Tiger is a person of faith. Has he even any faith to fall back on now? I hope his current discomfort and search includes the possibility of turning to his faith for forgiveness. It is there just as certainly as it is within the Christian faith.

If you are curious (and I will understand if you are not), I urge you to read this tale of the Buddha:

The Buddha was sitting under a tree talking to his disciples when a man came and spit on his face. He wiped it off, and he asked the man, “What next? What do you want to say next?” The man was a little puzzled because he himself never expected that when you spit on somebody’s face, he will ask, “What next?” He had no such experience in his past. He had insulted people and they had become angry and they had reacted. Or if they were cowards and weaklings, they had smiled, trying to bribe the man. But Buddha was like neither, he was not angry nor in any way offended, nor in any way cowardly. But just matter-of-factly he said, “What next?” There was no reaction on his part.

Buddha’s disciples became angry, they reacted. His closest disciple, Ananda, said, “This is too much, and we cannot tolerate it. He has to be punished for it. Otherwise everybody will start doing things like this.”

Buddha said, “You keep silent. He has not offended me, but you are offending me. He is new, a stranger. He must have heard from people something about me, that this man is an atheist, a dangerous man who is throwing people off their track, a revolutionary, a corrupter. And he may have formed some idea, a notion of me. He has not spit on me, he has spit on his notion. He has spit on his idea of me because he does not know me at all, so how can he spit on me?

“If you think on it deeply,” Buddha said, “he has spit on his own mind. I am not part of it, and I can see that this poor man must have something else to say because this is a way of saying something. Spitting is a way of saying something. There are moments when you feel that language is impotent: in deep love, in intense anger, in hate, in prayer. There are intense moments when language is impotent. Then you have to do something. When you are angry, intensely angry, you hit the person, you spit on him, you are saying something. I can understand him. He must have something more to say, that’s why I’m asking, “What next?”

The man was even more puzzled! And Buddha said to his disciples, “I am more offended by you because you know me, and you have lived for years with me, and still you react.”

Puzzled, confused, the man returned home. He could not sleep the whole night. When you see a Buddha, it is difficult, impossible to sleep again the way you used to sleep before. Again and again he was haunted by the experience. He could not explain it to himself, what had happened. He was trembling all over and perspiring. He had never come across such a man; he shattered his whole mind and his whole pattern, his whole past.

The next morning he was back there. He threw himself at Buddha’s feet. Buddha asked him again, “What next? This, too, is a way of saying something that cannot be said in language. When you come and touch my feet, you are saying something that cannot be said ordinarily, for which all words are a little narrow; it cannot be contained in them.” Buddha said, “Look, Ananda, this man is again here, he is saying something. This man is a man of deep emotions.”

The man looked at Buddha and said, “Forgive me for what I did yesterday.”

Buddha said, “Forgive? But I am not the same man to whom you did it. The Ganges goes on flowing, it is never the same Ganges again. Every man is a river. The man you spit upon is no longer here. I look just like him, but I am not the same, much has happened in these twenty-four hours! The river has flowed so much. So I cannot forgive you because I have no grudge against you.”

“And you also are new. I can see you are not the same man who came yesterday because that man was angry and he spit, whereas you are bowing at my feet, touching my feet. How can you be the same man? You are not the same man, so let us forget about it. Those two people, the man who spit and the man on whom he spit, both are no more. Come closer. Let us talk of something else.”

The Ganges flows on. That is what Tiger must understand! Oh, my goodness, life is exciting!

Great Inaugural Addresses – III

George Washington’s first inaugural address!
by Charlie Leck

For you, I have chosen a series of some of the inaugural addresses of the Presidents of the United States that I think stand out as particularly and historically significant. In some cases the speech’s greatness comes from its content and/or its delivery; while in other cases, the greatness of the speech might come from the historical context in which it was delivered. The latter is certainly the case in the first inaugural address of George Washington.

Before proceeding to that speech, let me assure you that the 1841 inaugural address of William Henry Harrison will not be included in this series. His speech was nearly two-hours long. Even dumber than that, it was delivered during a snow storm in severely cold weather and the new President was not wearing a hat or overcoat. As a result, he came down with a very bad cold that grew into a major respiratory infection. He was dead within a month. Enough of such asides.

At the inauguration of George Washington, the first President of the United States of America, he and those to whom he spoke must all have been wondering if this new experiment in federal government was going to work. For years, some of the wisest men in the nation had been debating what structure and form the government should take. The debate was not over and the constitution was still being tweaked. Nevertheless, on 30 April 1789, in New York City, Washington road alone in a state coach from his quarters in Franklin Square to Federal Hall on Wall Street. On the drive, Washington’s vehicle was preceded by Troops of the City and members of Congress. Behind him followed many ministers of foreign countries and the general public. The city was crowded with both townspeople and visitors.From the balcony of the Senate Chamber at Federal Hall, as the members of Congress watched from behind and the general public and distinguished visitors witnessed from below, Washington took the oath of office. Then, Washington reentered the chamber and delivered the very first inaugural address.

A service of worship was held at Saint Paul’s Church following the address and there was a fireworks display for the public in the evening.The speech follows, interrupted only occasionally by my comments.

“Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

“Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years—a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who (inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the duties of civil administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead me, and its consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality in which they originated.”

Well, did you make it through that paragraph? George had slipped into a gentle mode of retirement, enjoying his estate on the Potomac River and planning its expansion and dabbling with the possibility of making the river navigable to the west. Yet, he could not say no to the call of the people to take up the office of President.

Washington then offered his prayers for guidance to the Almighty.

"Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge.”

That, readers, was one sentence. Washington continues by expressing his firm belief that the Almighty was far more involved in the formation of this new form of government in America than He usually is in such matters of men.

"In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a
new and free government can more auspiciously commence.”

Now, Washington is about to get down to the real matters of government by presenting a list of recommendations for consideration by the Congress. In fact, Washington made only one serious policy recommendation, asking that a “bill of rights” be added to the Constitution, saying that it would add “a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen and a regard for the public harmony…”

“By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty of the President ‘to recommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge
necessary and expedient.’ The circumstances under which I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject further than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are assembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so, on another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.

“Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it will remain with your judgment to decide how far an exercise of the occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution is rendered expedient at the present juncture by the nature of objections which have been urged against the system, or by the degree of inquietude which has given birth to them. Instead of undertaking particular recommendations on this subject, in which I could be guided by no lights derived from official opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in your discernment and pursuit of the public good; for I assure myself that whilst you carefully avoid every alteration which might endanger the benefits of an united and effective government, or which ought to await the future lessons of experience, a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen and a regard for the public harmony will sufficiently influence your deliberations on the question how far the former can be impregnably fortified or the latter be safely and advantageously promoted.To the foregoing observations I have one to add, which will be most properly addressed to the House of Representatives. It concerns myself, and will therefore be as brief as possible. When I was first honored with a call into the service of my country, then on the eve of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated my duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in no instance departed; and being still under the impressions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to myself any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the executive department, and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I am placed may during my continuance in it be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require."

Washington had served the revolutionary military forces without pay. He insisted on receiving only expenses; however, those expenses added up to well over $400,000, which seems like an extraordinary amount in those times. We need to be reminded that the Continental Dollar was well nigh worthless in those days and purchases of supplies took extraordinary amounts of dollars.

The new President made the same offer to the Congress for his term in office as President. However, Congress, in its wisdom, insisted on creating a salary for the office and Washington was paid handsomely -- $25,000 per year in a time when the dollar had stabilized and was in good health. Had a precedence of voluntary, unpaid service been established it would have limited the office only to the very wealthy.

“Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for the security of their union and the advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend.”

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You may read the full text of the address by clicking here!

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That is I, yours truly, sitting on the box, with whip in hand, having pulled up to one of the stops along the way where George Washington would climb down to meet some of citizens of that particular community.

In 1989, at the invitation of Chief Justice Warren Burger, we were honored to participate in a reenactment of George Washington’s drive from Mount Vernon to New York City to celebrate the same event that took place 100 years earlier when Washington made the trip to attend his own inauguration. We took four of our Hackney Horses and one of best and most appropriate antique carriages and, with a number of other horse people, we drove various segments of the trip.

A talented, patient and determined actor played the part of George Washington magnificently and we took him to various community celebrations, to schools, to churches and to government facilities where he would climb down from the carriage to greet those who had turned out to see him.

That's Anne (above) pulling away from a school where George Washington had just paid a visit. Anne is a far better whip than I and she handled all the difficult sections of the journey including any tight urban driving.