11.18.2025 – democracy most

democracy most
fragile thing on earth, it rests
upon you and me

Democracy is the most fragile thing on earth, for what does it rest upon?

You and me, and the fact that we agree to maintain it.

The moment either of us says we will not, that’s the end of it.

It doesn’t rest on anything but us; it doesn’t rest on armed force, the moment it does it isn’t democracy.

It isn’t something to kick around or experiment with.

From the preface page to the 2017 Edition of the book, Advise and Consent by Allan Drury (WordFire Press: Colorado Springs, Colorado , 2017).

Advise and Consent is one of those books AND film adaptations that I can read or watch again and again.

Watching the movie today I have to laugh the Minority Whip of the Senate arrives a the Capitol Building in a cab, walks to a news stand and buys and paper and only then learns what the President did overnight.

In today’s instant news coverage, I marvel that anything got done back in 1959.

I mean the poor guy woke up, got dressed, had breakfast and got to work before he had any news on which to plan his day.

According to Wikipedia, “Advise and Consent is a 1959 political fiction novel by Allen Drury that explores the United States Senate confirmation of controversial Secretary of State nominee Robert Leffingwell, whose promotion is endangered due to growing evidence that the nominee had been a member of the Communist Party. The chief characters’ responses to the evidence, and their efforts to spread or suppress it, form the basis of the novel.”

A Mr. Tom Kemme, in his book, Political fiction, the spirit of the age, and Allen Drury (Bowling Green State University Popular Press: Bowling Green, Ohio. 1987), writes that, “The basic assumption underlying Drury fiction is that totalitarian Communism is intrinsically evil and that Communism’s ultimate goal is world domination, an end or goal that Communists will strive to achieve by whatever moral, immoral, or amoral means are expedient, including propaganda, lies, subversion, intimidation, infiltration, betrayal, and violence.”

Had anyone been able to tell Mr. Drury that such a threat would be coming, not from Communists buy from within the Government, he would have dismissed the plot as impossible to believe.

But if we make one slight change, that phrase can be read …

The current administration is intrinsically evil and that the current administration‘s ultimate goal is world domination, an end or goal that the current administration will strive to achieve by whatever moral, immoral, or amoral means are expedient, including propaganda, lies, subversion, intimidation, infiltration, betrayal, and violence.

Just that last bit is worth repeating.

The current administration will strive to achieve [its goals] by whatever moral, immoral, or amoral means are expedient, including propaganda,

lies,

subversion,

intimidation,

infiltration,

betrayal,

and violence.

It’s worth repeating Mr. Drury’s warning.

Democracy is the most fragile thing on earth, for what does it rest upon? You and me, and the fact that we agree to maintain it. The moment either of us says we will not, that’s the end of it. It doesn’t rest on anything but us; it doesn’t rest on armed force, the moment it does it isn’t democracy. It isn’t something to kick around or experiment with.

It isn’t something to kick around or experiment with.

11.11.2025 – obscurely fallen

obscurely fallen
by death, something that we can
look upon with pride

Adapted from the poem, Ode in Memory of the American Volunteers Fallen for France.

Ay, it is fitting on this holiday,
Commemorative of our soldier dead,
When—with sweet flowers of our New England May
Hiding the lichened stones by fifty years made gray—
Their graves in every town are garlanded,
That pious tribute should be given too
To our intrepid few
Obscurely fallen here beyond their seas.
Those to preserve their country’s greatness died;
But by the death of these
Something that we can look upon with pride
Has been achieved, nor wholly unreplied
Can sneerers triumph in the charge they make
That from a war where Freedom was at stake
America withheld and, daunted, stood aside.

As published in Poems By Alan Seeger, (New York Charles Scribner’s Sons: New York ,1918).

In the Introduction to the book, Poems, one William Archer, a Scottish author, theatre critic, wrote, “He had hoped to have been in Paris on Decoration Day, May 30th, to read, before the statue of Lafayette and Washington, the “Ode in Memory of the American Volunteers Fallen for France,” which he had written at the request of a Committee of American residents; but his “permission” unfortunately did not arrive in time. Completed in two days, during which he was engaged in the hardest sort of labour in the trenches, this Ode is certainly the crown of the poet’s achievement. It is entirely admirable, entirely adequate to the historic occasion. If the war has produced a nobler utterance, it has not come my way.”

Margraten in The Netherlands, one of 14 permanent overseas military cemeteries set aside for America’s World War II dead that the U.S. government maintains in perpetuity.

Today in the New York Times, is the opinion piece, If Only More Americans Could See This Place by Jonathan Darmen.

It is an article about visiting a cemetery in Holland for US servicemen who died in Europe in World War 2.

Mr. Darmen writes, The American service members buried in the soil of Europe grew up in a country where many respectable politicians claimed America had no business preserving peace on the European continent or promoting freedom in the world. There was no NATO, no United Nations, no American-led global order.

When you stoop down on European soil to read an American soldier’s name on a grave, you see how policies sold as “America First” can lead to unthinkable suffering and loss.

Travel through Europe today and you’ll see the war-forged American-European partnership embedded everywhere — in gleaming embassies and in hulking military bases, in ubiquitous English-language ads and in the YouTube clips streaming on teenagers’ phones. But nowhere does the tie between the people on both sides of the Atlantic feel more intimate as in the World War II cemeteries.

In today’s Europe, the need for such a partner remains. At Margraten that August morning, I spoke with a Dutch woman who’d come to visit the cemetery with her young son. He was learning at school about “the problems in the world,” she explained. He’s a little bit nervous, she said, about what would happen “if the Russians come.” She gestured at the rows of graves all around her: “So it’s very important to see everything.”

My son got blown up in Afghanistan and is banged up in lots of other ways.

I have an Uncle who was blown up in Europe with a lot more visible wounds.

I have a Great Uncle who was shot in France.

My Great Grand Father had a confederate bullet in his chest from the day he was shot in Virginia in 1862 until the day he died, 50 years later.

I take my hat off to their service and to all veterans on this day.

On Veterans Day it it good to remember what Mr. Lincoln said at Gettysburg.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

As Mr. Darmen writes: But in their beauty, ambition and scale, the cemeteries have also always sent a message to Europeans, a reminder of the costs Americans were willing to pay to ensure the cause of liberty in the world.

11.5.2025 – people stuck at an

people stuck at an
angle on their phones, not with
us in reality

Adatped from the the article, The ‘pavement vigilante’: why Cameron Roh is naming and shaming bad walking etiquette, by Morwenna Ferrier, the Guardian’s fashion and lifestyle editor, where Ms. Ferrier writes:

Pavement etiquette is “getting worse,” he says, in part due to smartphones. He pauses to point out how many people around us are walking while staring at their phones. “I call these people neck breakers,” he says. “People stuck at a 45 degree angle on their phones, not with us in reality”.

Writing about Mr. Cameron Roh, Ms. Ferrier states:

As a member of gen Z, Roh has always “lived and breathed social media”. Born and educated in Ohio, he got a glimpse of his future at high school, when he had to deal with “hallway rage”. People in corridors, people loitering … “I’m gonna be late to my destination because of you? No way, that’s gotta stop,” he says. “I’ve always been a fast walker, always knowing where I’m going.”

He films people breaking his self-created ‘laws’ of street decorum and posts the videos online – with many viewers expressing their gratitude. So watch out if you’re rushing along on your phone or wheeling a small bag that could be carried …

Given Roh’s reservations about smartphones, the irony that his entire body of work is filmed and parsed through a screen is not lost on him. “The world is so disconnected,” he says. “We’re just consumed by our phones and our AirPods. You think it’s just gen Z and gen Alpha, but it’s everyone now. Age is not even a defining factor. But doing what I do, it’s a way of getting out, an activity, so I’m walking with purpose.”

I admit I hadn’t thought so much about this when walking unless I am Savannah or Beaufort and surrounded by those tourists and the tiny sidewalks.

But driving?

People with the ‘texting gap’ of 50 feet or more in front them while they keep their peripheral vision locked on the road so it won’t interrupt their interaction with their device.

That feeling of knowing where I’m going and they don’t, especially since I live in a ‘vacation paradise’ so you can count on an overly large number of out of town and mostly lost drivers.

I cannot tell you how many times I have been cut off, and I mean dangerously cut off, as someone gets driving directions from their device and ‘have to get over or miss my turn.’

The kicker is WE ARE ON AN ISLAND.

YOU CANNOT GET LOST.

If you miss your turn, you can connect at the next corner BECAUSE THERE ARE ONLY TWO ROADS on this tiny island.

SO there are those.

Then there is my state of mind that says, “I’m gonna be late to my destination because of you? No way!”

That’s what kicks into gear when driving while surrounded by tourons.

Tourons is a term that originated with US Park Rangers at Yellowstone Park to identify those drivers who stop all traffic so they can take a photo of squirrels and other wild life.

I just LOVE being behind tourons when I drive home at night.

We get to the bridges and suddenly cars are going 20mph and swerving back and forth because we are ON A BRIDGE …over WATER!

OH COME ON!

I’m gonna be late to my destination because of you?

No way!

BOY Howdy but Geeeeeeeeeeeee whiz!

Those People stuck at a 45 degree angle on their phones.

Not with us in reality.

People like … me.

10.25.2025 – this office has been

this office has been
a sacred trust and an honor
beyond words, measure

“When people tell me that I became President on January 20th, 1981, I feel I have to correct them. You don’t become President of the United States. You are given temporary custody of an institution called the Presidency, which belongs to our people. Having temporary custody of this office has been for me a sacred trust and an honor beyond words or measure.”

Remarks of President Ronald Reagan at the Republican National Convention, New Orleans, LA (8/15/88).

As a measure of how far things have gone, I am quoting Ronald Reagan.

Truth be told, I didn’t like him very much, but the farther away he gets, the better he looks to me.

Just for this quote alone and the important points Mr. Reagan makes about the office.

And for the recognition of that all important word, temporary.

There seem to be two ends to this story.

That guy in office wins out, history is rewritten, he goes down as the greatest President, The Art of the Deal is given a red cover, is placed in all churches and the little red book becomes required reading for all starting in 4th grade, the Washington Monument comes down and new gold tower is raised in its place and along the way, the United States apologizes to Germany for making them feel bad about WW2.

Or all this is temporary.

The Burgermeister Meisterburger’s picture falls off the wall and is thrown away.

The folks who currently hold offices like the President, The Chief Justice, and the Speaker of the Voice are all remembered as some of the worst office holders in the history of the nation.

And lets be fair here.

That bar to succeed in these offices is low.

When you get the job, you get a rule book called the Constitution of the United States and you follow the rules and you are assured of at least passing grades if not really high marks in the record book of History.

And the Country survives and goes on after a really bad bump in the road.

Doesn’t look like there are other options at this point.

There, for me, is truly no parallel in history to this guy.

And, for me, there is is truly no parallel in fiction to this guy.

Not even Tom Clancy in his wildest novels came up with a scenario like the one we are dealing with.

The closest thing I can come up to match is some of the odder villains in James Bond movies.

But I am telling you this much.

Had you gone to Hollywood with a plot with the evil nemesis of the world would in one week, blow up the minions of his perceived enemies by shooting missiles at motorboats, tear down part of the White House, demand that the Government that he directed pay him $300 Million dollars while releasing cartoons of himself wearing a crown, flying fighter jet, dropping poop on American citizens, you would have been thrown out before your butt hit the leather.

Mr. Reagan looks better and better every day.

10.24.2025 – whole world was watching

whole world was watching
and other nations could not …
help but be impressed

I’ve never been a Nixon-hater, and I felt no pleasure when he resigned.

But if it had to be, I’m glad it happened the way it did.

A president fell and a new president took over, and yet there was no scuffling, no guns, no harsh bickering, no crowds in the streets— not so much as a fistfight.

The whole world was watching, and other nations couldn’t help but be impressed.

After all, when leaders fall, their governments usually collapse as well.

But our transition was orderly and by the book, and this period, as much as anything in our history, showed the strength of our great democracy.

Man of the House : the life and political memoirs of Speaker Tip O’Neill by Tip O’Neill (New York: Random House, 1987).

I have to ask, what has the recent effort to make America great again achieved over this?

About the last 10 years there is little to contribute to writing that this period, as much as anything in our history, showed the strength of our great democracy.

Mr. O’Neill concluded his book with an epilogue titled, What I Believe.

He wrote:

I BEGAN my political career in 1936, on a slogan of “work and wages.” Today, more than half a century later, I’m still a bread-and-butter liberal who believes that, every family deserves the opportunity to earn an income, own a home, educate their children, and afford medical care.

That is the American dream, and it’s still worth fighting for. In my view, the federal government has an obligation to help you along the line until you achieve that dream. And when you do, you have an obligation to help out the next group that comes along.

What a dreamer and what a dream.

Let’s repeat those last two sentences.

The federal government has an obligation to help you along the line until you achieve that dream.

And when you do, you have an obligation to help out the next group that comes along.

Just boil it down to the simple statements that the federal government has an obligation to help you and you have an obligation to help the next group.

Those two statement as much as anything in our history, show the strength of our great democracy.

That is where the focus should be if anyone wants to make America great again.

Speaker Tip O’Neill was Speaker of the House from Gerald Ford to Ronald Reagan and most likely that last of Speaker of House to hold real power in politics.

When he died, President Bill Clinton paid tribute to him, saying, “Tip O’Neill was the nation’s most prominent, powerful and loyal champion of working people… He loved politics and government because he saw that politics and government could make a difference in people’s lives. And he loved people most of all.“

AS KIND OF A POSTSCRIPT, Mr. O’Neill also wrote:

God has been good to America, especially during difficult times.

At the time of the Civil War, he gave us Abraham Lincoln.

And at the time of Watergate, he gave us Gerald Ford—the right man at the right time who was able to put our nation back together again.

Nothing like Watergate had ever happened before in our history, but we came out of it strong and free, and the transition from Nixon’s administration to Ford’s was a thing of awe and dignity.

Making an assessment based on the folks now in Government, I think God doesn’t like us much right now.