So you could imagine what Britain would do for the man, Sir Winston, who was the hero and savior of the British Empire. Right…they voted him out of office! How, HOW, on God’s green earth could the British citizens reject Churchill in the election of 1945 after all he did?!
I learned why at the end of my tour of the Cabinet War Rooms. Among famous original documents, letters Churchill’s speeches was a letter from his daughter, Sarah, following her father’s defeat. The letter, which I have attached in my email linking this site (along with a pic from my favorite “brown bar” in Amsterdam which had among its odd assortment of bric-a-brac pictures of Churchill AND Jesus—imagine my delight after quite a few brews and…never mind) explains why the voters chose Labour over the Churchill’s Conservative party in a landslide.
Thing is, before the war there were the few very rich and the many very poor in British society. The war-induced scarcity forced the government to institute strict rationing and welfare programs like healthcare, unemployment insurance and education. This meant that many of the poor, the ones fighting, dying and manufacturing, to keep Britain free and intact were getting more than they ever had—some meat, some new clothes, some gas, etc.
And, as Sarah noted, they didn’t want to go back: “You see the people I know who are labour, don’t vote labour for ideals or belief, but simply because life has been hard for them, often an unequal struggle and they think that only by voting labour will their daily struggle become easier…they are decent people who want an easier and gayer life but certainly wouldn’t tolerate any form of totalitarianism.”
She went on to say, “Because socialism as practiced during the war did no one any harm, and quite a lot of people good. The children of this country have never been so well fed or healthy, what milk there was, was shared equally, the rich didn’t die because their neat ration was no larger than the poor, and there is no doubt that this common sharing and feeling of sacrifice was one of he strongest bonds that unified us. So why, they say, cannot this common feeling of sacrifice be able to work as effectively in peace?"
Why indeed. The Labour Party won in a landslide, installing as the new Prime Minister Clement Atlee, whom Churchill once described as “A sheep in sheep’s clothing” and “A modest man, who has much to be modest about.” Perhaps so, for Sir Winston returned as Prime Minister in 1951 till his retirement in 1955, but the social welfare system was well in place by then.
I rather like this assessment of Churchill from HowToFoldSoup.com:
“Churchill's death in 1965, like that of Queen Victoria in 1901, marked the end of an era in British history. Born into a Victorian aristocratic family, he witnessed and participated in Britain's transformation from empire to welfare state, and its decline as a world power. His true importance, however, rests on the fact that by sheer stubborn courage he led the British people, and with them, the democratic Western world, from the brink of defeat to a final victory in the greatest conflict the world has ever seen.”
One final word, tonight, on Sir Winston. He was a warrior first class, but only out of true “back to the wall” necessity. As he said, “To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.” I will apply that philosophy and Churchill’s times with the situation now facing our world in another installment.
Until then, please remember that “If you are going through hell, keep going!”
Moo on, RFD 8/24/04
Monday, August 23, 2004
Sunday, August 22, 2004
“We’re not Watusi. We’re American, with a capital “A”!
Don’t know why exactly but Bill Murray’s infamous line from Stripes came to mind today as I visited a local campus (Go BLUE!) music store and found an obscure used cd called Great Speeches of the 20th Century.” On it was Lou Gehrig telling his fans that he was “the luckiest man in the world.” Kentucky’s favorite son (after Muhammad Ali) Happy Chandler introduced the Babe, whose aged, raspy voice belied an uncommon humility during his farewell address at Yankee Stadium in 1947.
But ‘twas the century’s great political leaders what got me to writing. Chief among them was Churchill’s inspired exhortation girding his countrymen for the impending German attack on their island fortress:
“Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire…. Hitler knows he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad sunlit uplands. But if we fail then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister and perhaps more protracted by the likes of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty, so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealths last for a thousand years men will still say THIS was their finest hour!”
It is quite fashionable to quote Churchill today and in fact both liberals and conservatives are quick to do so. My personal “discovery” of the man and his importance began with my Uncle Willie, who was mayor of Hazard, KY for 20 years from the from the 50’s on. Uncle Willie was the oldest of my dad’s 11 siblings and my first entrée into the political world. I will always remember him giving me a commemorative silver dollar with John F. Kennedy’s call for us to “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
Uncle Willie also quoted Churchill and with his Dobbs hat (hats went out of style after the hatless JFK entered office) and ever-present cigar I always tended to associate each with the other. But it wasn’t until my post law school European trek in the summer of ‘79 that I began to more fully appreciate Churchill and his importance. In London I stayed at Chelsea College, where students there filled me in.
Coincidentally, one evening we watched a BBC theatrical presentation of Churchill during the height of the war. Wherever I went in London—Parliament, Big Ben, the Tower, Hyde Park, Piccadilly, Victoria—his visage was my constant companion, his indomitable spirit, it seemed, everywhere.
Years later I visited the Cabinet War Rooms, the underground labyrinth where Nazi bombers had forced Churchill and his team to conduct their defense of the free world for most of 1940. The rooms have been restored to exactly as they were back then, a sepia-toned bunker, complete with maps, ration stamps, full size replicas of the generals and Churchill himself, his bed, nightstand, ashtray (with cigar) and brandy snifter (“I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me”).
Suddenly sirens blare their warning of yet another Nazi bomb strike. You could sense the utter horror a Brit would feel, wondering if they’d be blown to smithereens like a neighbor or relative on a previous raid. Then, Sir Winston’s comforting words.
Churchill’s speech above was quite true: had Britain succumbed the world would look much, much different today. Literally and factually all that stood between a Hitlerian empire of the Dark Void and our Walt Disney World of Wonder and Goodness was the stout-hearted British people. As Churchill noted, “It was the nation …that had the lion’s heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give it the roar.”
Whether Sir Winston was being uncharacteristically humble or not, it is evident to me that certain individuals placed at certain points in time affect for both good and bad the future course of world events. No Hitler--no WWII. No Churchill--no Greatest Generation, no Marshall Plan, no United Nations, no GI Bill, no Israel. Game over. Period.
Such was his importance, as if his whole life had pointed to this one decisive moment and purpose: to steel his countrymen, to rally American support and prevail against the Godless scourge of Nazi fascism.
Churchill himself believed this. He was raised a devout low church (no ornamental or popish ritual) Christian by his doting nanny, Mrs. Elizabeth Anne Everest, or “Woom” as boy Winston called her. A poor student, he resolved to catch up with more learned peers as a soldier in India. He devoured books of literature and philosophy and so became acquainted with scholars who systematically destroyed everything he’d been taught about religion.
He became angry that so many “myths” had taught to him as divine truths: “…I passed through a violent and aggressive anti-religious phase…My poise was restored during the next few years by frequent contact with danger.” To wit, his miraculous escape from a Boer prison camp in South Africa, where he had to cross 300 miles in hostile territory.
At rope’s end he found a house, which turned out to be the ONLY one for 20 miles that was British! Churchill later said that he “felt like a drowning man pulled out of the water and informed he has won the Derby!”
The experience brought him back to God: “I found no comfort in any of the philosophical ideas which some men parade in their hours of ease and strength and safety… I realized with awful force that no exercise of my own feeble with and strength could save me from my enemies, and that without the assistance of that High Power which interferes in the eternal sequence of causes and effects more often that we are always prone to admit, I could never succeed. I prayed long and earnestly for help and guidance. My prayer, as it seems to me, was swiftly and wonderfully answered.”
Stephen Mansfield’s book on Churchill, “Never Give In” says that Churchill saw himself as a knight, a standard bearer for the British Empire in the conflict between Christendom and the forces of blackest paganism. Compared to other leaders of the day who floated in a sea of moral relativity, Churchill’s moral compass provided the firm foundation from which he early and accurately identified Hitler as “this wicked man” and the Nazis as “sinister forces of evil.”
How similar to today’s enabling war cry to “rid the world of evil” that both Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair used to attack Iraq, and still use as reason enough to attack wherever necessary henceforth. Whether it is an apt comparison is a topic for another day.
For now we can take comfort in Sir Winston’s assessment: “You can count on America doing the right thing—after they’ve tried everything else.”
Moo on! RFD 8/22/04
But ‘twas the century’s great political leaders what got me to writing. Chief among them was Churchill’s inspired exhortation girding his countrymen for the impending German attack on their island fortress:
“Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire…. Hitler knows he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad sunlit uplands. But if we fail then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister and perhaps more protracted by the likes of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty, so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealths last for a thousand years men will still say THIS was their finest hour!”
It is quite fashionable to quote Churchill today and in fact both liberals and conservatives are quick to do so. My personal “discovery” of the man and his importance began with my Uncle Willie, who was mayor of Hazard, KY for 20 years from the from the 50’s on. Uncle Willie was the oldest of my dad’s 11 siblings and my first entrée into the political world. I will always remember him giving me a commemorative silver dollar with John F. Kennedy’s call for us to “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
Uncle Willie also quoted Churchill and with his Dobbs hat (hats went out of style after the hatless JFK entered office) and ever-present cigar I always tended to associate each with the other. But it wasn’t until my post law school European trek in the summer of ‘79 that I began to more fully appreciate Churchill and his importance. In London I stayed at Chelsea College, where students there filled me in.
Coincidentally, one evening we watched a BBC theatrical presentation of Churchill during the height of the war. Wherever I went in London—Parliament, Big Ben, the Tower, Hyde Park, Piccadilly, Victoria—his visage was my constant companion, his indomitable spirit, it seemed, everywhere.
Years later I visited the Cabinet War Rooms, the underground labyrinth where Nazi bombers had forced Churchill and his team to conduct their defense of the free world for most of 1940. The rooms have been restored to exactly as they were back then, a sepia-toned bunker, complete with maps, ration stamps, full size replicas of the generals and Churchill himself, his bed, nightstand, ashtray (with cigar) and brandy snifter (“I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me”).
Suddenly sirens blare their warning of yet another Nazi bomb strike. You could sense the utter horror a Brit would feel, wondering if they’d be blown to smithereens like a neighbor or relative on a previous raid. Then, Sir Winston’s comforting words.
Churchill’s speech above was quite true: had Britain succumbed the world would look much, much different today. Literally and factually all that stood between a Hitlerian empire of the Dark Void and our Walt Disney World of Wonder and Goodness was the stout-hearted British people. As Churchill noted, “It was the nation …that had the lion’s heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give it the roar.”
Whether Sir Winston was being uncharacteristically humble or not, it is evident to me that certain individuals placed at certain points in time affect for both good and bad the future course of world events. No Hitler--no WWII. No Churchill--no Greatest Generation, no Marshall Plan, no United Nations, no GI Bill, no Israel. Game over. Period.
Such was his importance, as if his whole life had pointed to this one decisive moment and purpose: to steel his countrymen, to rally American support and prevail against the Godless scourge of Nazi fascism.
Churchill himself believed this. He was raised a devout low church (no ornamental or popish ritual) Christian by his doting nanny, Mrs. Elizabeth Anne Everest, or “Woom” as boy Winston called her. A poor student, he resolved to catch up with more learned peers as a soldier in India. He devoured books of literature and philosophy and so became acquainted with scholars who systematically destroyed everything he’d been taught about religion.
He became angry that so many “myths” had taught to him as divine truths: “…I passed through a violent and aggressive anti-religious phase…My poise was restored during the next few years by frequent contact with danger.” To wit, his miraculous escape from a Boer prison camp in South Africa, where he had to cross 300 miles in hostile territory.
At rope’s end he found a house, which turned out to be the ONLY one for 20 miles that was British! Churchill later said that he “felt like a drowning man pulled out of the water and informed he has won the Derby!”
The experience brought him back to God: “I found no comfort in any of the philosophical ideas which some men parade in their hours of ease and strength and safety… I realized with awful force that no exercise of my own feeble with and strength could save me from my enemies, and that without the assistance of that High Power which interferes in the eternal sequence of causes and effects more often that we are always prone to admit, I could never succeed. I prayed long and earnestly for help and guidance. My prayer, as it seems to me, was swiftly and wonderfully answered.”
Stephen Mansfield’s book on Churchill, “Never Give In” says that Churchill saw himself as a knight, a standard bearer for the British Empire in the conflict between Christendom and the forces of blackest paganism. Compared to other leaders of the day who floated in a sea of moral relativity, Churchill’s moral compass provided the firm foundation from which he early and accurately identified Hitler as “this wicked man” and the Nazis as “sinister forces of evil.”
How similar to today’s enabling war cry to “rid the world of evil” that both Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair used to attack Iraq, and still use as reason enough to attack wherever necessary henceforth. Whether it is an apt comparison is a topic for another day.
For now we can take comfort in Sir Winston’s assessment: “You can count on America doing the right thing—after they’ve tried everything else.”
Moo on! RFD 8/22/04
Friday, August 20, 2004
Gomer (joy) to the world!
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, don't put the kind-hearted soul, Gomer Pyle, in the same sentence with Mr. Bush. An esteemed writer described President Bush as a “thuggish Gomer Pyle.” While he accurately observes that Bush seems both oversimple and ruthless, he quite unintentionally miscast Mr. Pyle.
Gomer was always a personal hero of sorts. He literally walked out of step with everybody else, but he had an innate trust in goodness. No matter how bad things got they always ended glowingly with Gomer.
Gomer was full of joy that he also wished for anybody he was around. He was the living embodiment of FDR optimism. While Gomer never wore God on his sleeve it was obvious, to me at least, that His spirit was living through Gomer.
This is not to say that the same is not also true for Mr. Bush. It is not for me to stand in such judgment. In fact, I pray for him, his family and team and that they make decisions that best benefit our world.
However Gomer's fruit was sweet, flavorful and eagerly digested. For much of the world Mr. Bush's fruit is, well…bitter is the nicest way to put it.
It’s a tad early for Christmas, but I wish us all Gomer’s sense of peace, good will and sunny optimism.
Oh and by the way, cousin Goober says “hey!”
Moo on! RFD 8/20/04
Gomer was always a personal hero of sorts. He literally walked out of step with everybody else, but he had an innate trust in goodness. No matter how bad things got they always ended glowingly with Gomer.
Gomer was full of joy that he also wished for anybody he was around. He was the living embodiment of FDR optimism. While Gomer never wore God on his sleeve it was obvious, to me at least, that His spirit was living through Gomer.
This is not to say that the same is not also true for Mr. Bush. It is not for me to stand in such judgment. In fact, I pray for him, his family and team and that they make decisions that best benefit our world.
However Gomer's fruit was sweet, flavorful and eagerly digested. For much of the world Mr. Bush's fruit is, well…bitter is the nicest way to put it.
It’s a tad early for Christmas, but I wish us all Gomer’s sense of peace, good will and sunny optimism.
Oh and by the way, cousin Goober says “hey!”
Moo on! RFD 8/20/04
Monday, August 16, 2004
MOOOving past the hate
Time for confession. I have had, let's see...how should I term it...ill will, spite, enmity--as I search my Word thesaurus for just the right word, ummm--loathing? disgust?, OH, there it is--EXTREME DISLIKE! Nah, that's two words.
No sense in trying to sugar coat it, all these words are just a slightly more civil--and wrath-of- God avoiding--way of saying HATRED. I've had it there for Mr. Bush, for the Republicans since the time of Newt, and even for supposed Democrats who follow the path that roused my consternation.
That path: acts that I consider totally against the public interest--which they are sworn to serve--and instead for their own or their benefactors' special interests. George Bush has taken this to new lows by "marketing" said decisions with totally deceptive names like "Clean Air Act" or the "Healthy Forest initiative". Such lies epitomize the totality of the Bush Administration and, yes, make me mad as heck.
To be fair, my hatred is for their actions, not them personally. My GOP friends ask whether I would feel the same if a Democrat acted similarly. No problem--YES! Just like when they voted for every Bush tax cut, or voted to go to war. It's true that both sides engage in corrupt acts, but to my mind the Republicans have done far more over the last 10 years. Perhaps Enron is a good example: 75% of their donations went to the GOP, 25% to the Dems.
But the point of this log is not to try to justify my contempt, but to find a way through it, to help reach a more constructive plateau. To that end I have discovered three techniques:
1) I stop and think that maybe, just maybe, they think their decisions ARE in the best interest of the citizens, which undoubtedly some of them are, the ones that are BI-PARTISAN in nature, issues like Welfare reform;
2) I remember that my GOP friends and I share much love and laughs, so how can something like politics disrupt that;
3) I know that people of any party, if a complete stranger was in need they would do anything to help them in an emergency and wouldn't wonder for a second what party they were in.
Such are the bonds of commonality we share--and that we must fight to restore. In my mind that starts with hate radio and the purveyors of dis: dis-information, dis-gust, dis-temper, dis-tress: Rush, Boartz, O'Reilly. We should petition stations to take them off!
Then we need to affirmatively change the dialogue by looking for chances to bend over backwards in accommodating "the other." Now, we're doing just the opposite by not even admitting obvious merit for an opponent's position or fault with our own.
There is no doubt that we CAN get back to harmony and unity. We need but take the first bold steps to truth, to fairness and, dare I say it... to LOVE.
Hoof on!
Richard F. Dawahare
No sense in trying to sugar coat it, all these words are just a slightly more civil--and wrath-of- God avoiding--way of saying HATRED. I've had it there for Mr. Bush, for the Republicans since the time of Newt, and even for supposed Democrats who follow the path that roused my consternation.
That path: acts that I consider totally against the public interest--which they are sworn to serve--and instead for their own or their benefactors' special interests. George Bush has taken this to new lows by "marketing" said decisions with totally deceptive names like "Clean Air Act" or the "Healthy Forest initiative". Such lies epitomize the totality of the Bush Administration and, yes, make me mad as heck.
To be fair, my hatred is for their actions, not them personally. My GOP friends ask whether I would feel the same if a Democrat acted similarly. No problem--YES! Just like when they voted for every Bush tax cut, or voted to go to war. It's true that both sides engage in corrupt acts, but to my mind the Republicans have done far more over the last 10 years. Perhaps Enron is a good example: 75% of their donations went to the GOP, 25% to the Dems.
But the point of this log is not to try to justify my contempt, but to find a way through it, to help reach a more constructive plateau. To that end I have discovered three techniques:
1) I stop and think that maybe, just maybe, they think their decisions ARE in the best interest of the citizens, which undoubtedly some of them are, the ones that are BI-PARTISAN in nature, issues like Welfare reform;
2) I remember that my GOP friends and I share much love and laughs, so how can something like politics disrupt that;
3) I know that people of any party, if a complete stranger was in need they would do anything to help them in an emergency and wouldn't wonder for a second what party they were in.
Such are the bonds of commonality we share--and that we must fight to restore. In my mind that starts with hate radio and the purveyors of dis: dis-information, dis-gust, dis-temper, dis-tress: Rush, Boartz, O'Reilly. We should petition stations to take them off!
Then we need to affirmatively change the dialogue by looking for chances to bend over backwards in accommodating "the other." Now, we're doing just the opposite by not even admitting obvious merit for an opponent's position or fault with our own.
There is no doubt that we CAN get back to harmony and unity. We need but take the first bold steps to truth, to fairness and, dare I say it... to LOVE.
Hoof on!
Richard F. Dawahare
Sunday, August 15, 2004
Welcome to a quest for Peace and Justice
Do you see contradictions all around you--like billionaire Donald Trump filing for bankruptcy? Or sweet saintly grandmas gambling like like there's no tomorrow, thereby giving the Good Housekeeping Seal to what was once a decidedly evil vice.
Maybe it's just the nagging concern about living a life of plenty in America, when the large swath of the earth enabling our bounty suffers greatly. If you're Christian do you see inconsistencies with political leaders who proudly don their Christian faith, yet act--and vote laws--that oppose Jesus' teachings?
If so, then walk with me, talk with me, as we explore the path to the Highest truth. The goal is to define just how to be good Citizens Of the World--the COW in PeaceCow. [Also, I love cows as they provide us so much--from food and apparel to beautiful pastoral scenes, and all they do is placidly chew and melodiously moo].
I must add that just today my friend (yes, I've really got one!) Mike Dickerson, encouraged me to start a Blog to discuss my political/philosophical views. I therefore thank him and hope I can further the cause of Peace and Justice in our world.
Looking forward to the journey, Richard F. Dawahare Lexington, Kentucky
Maybe it's just the nagging concern about living a life of plenty in America, when the large swath of the earth enabling our bounty suffers greatly. If you're Christian do you see inconsistencies with political leaders who proudly don their Christian faith, yet act--and vote laws--that oppose Jesus' teachings?
If so, then walk with me, talk with me, as we explore the path to the Highest truth. The goal is to define just how to be good Citizens Of the World--the COW in PeaceCow. [Also, I love cows as they provide us so much--from food and apparel to beautiful pastoral scenes, and all they do is placidly chew and melodiously moo].
I must add that just today my friend (yes, I've really got one!) Mike Dickerson, encouraged me to start a Blog to discuss my political/philosophical views. I therefore thank him and hope I can further the cause of Peace and Justice in our world.
Looking forward to the journey, Richard F. Dawahare Lexington, Kentucky
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