Harry S Truman on The Presidency

[Harry S Truman]
In his postpresidential notes, Harry Truman was candid about the tricky nature of democracy. Yes, much of the nation's fate lies in the hands of the president, but the voters have the ultimate Authority. “The country has to awaken every now and then to the fact that the people are responsible for the government they get,” Truman wrote. “And when they elect a man to the presidency who doesn't take care of the job, they've got nobody to blame but themselves.”

(Source: The Soul of America - The Battle For Our Better Angels - by Jon Meacham, Page 265)

Dick Henthorn
13 Feb 2019

African American History Month - 2019

[In October 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House.]

Roosevelt knew the notices were rough. “As things turned out I'm very glad that I asked him,” he wrote a correspondent after the Washington dinner, “for the clamor aroused by the act makes me feel as if the act was necessary.” TR’s reflections on the invitation tell us much about the era. Though asking Washington to dine was a pioneering act, the president was not a civil rights pioneer in the ways we, from a different century and a different context, might hope to find. For his time, however, Roosevelt was closer to the side of the angels than many other Americans were. “I have not been able to think about any solution to the terrible problem offered by the presence of the Negro on this continent,” he wrote but one thing I am sure, and that is that inasmuch as he is here and can neither be killed or driven away, the only wise and honorable and Christian thing to do is to treat each black man and each white man strictly on his merits as a man, giving him no more and no less than he shows himself worthy to have,” continuing:

I say that I am “sure” this is the right solution. Of course I know that we see through a glass dimly, and, after all, it may be that I am wrong; but if I am, then all my thoughts and beliefs are wrong, and my whole way of looking at life is wrong. At any rate, while I am in public life, however short a time that may be, I am in honor bound to act up to my beliefs and convictions.

(Source: The Soul of America - The Battle For Our Better Angels - by Jon Meacham, Page 87 and 88)

Dick Henthorn

12 Feb 2019

Anybody Can Be President

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President.

I'm beginning to believe it.

(Clarence Darrow, 1857-1938: Irving Stone Clarence Darrow for the Defence (1941)

Dick Henthorn

6 March 2018

A President Must

A President Must

A president "... must be willing to listen to his advisers and department heads; must encourage consideration of conflicting views; and must acknowledge errors and learn from them ... must be disciplined, control emotions, and act only after reflection and careful deliberation ... must maintain cordial relationships with leaders of countries of different backgrounds and must have their respect and trust," and must be able and willing "to separate truth from falsehood" ..
(Diane Jhueck, L.M.H.C.,D.M.H.P., chapter “A Clinical Case For The Dangerousness of Donald J. Trump,” in the book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump by Brandy Lee, p. 191)

Dick Henthorn
18 Dec 2017

We Won

... catching up and patching up are poor substitutes for keeping up in the first place.  (Larsen and Hegarty, Believing In Myself, 13 October)

******

The President has announced that he will pull the troops out of Iraq by the end of the year.  

• What does this mean?  
• Does he mean all of them?  
• Did we win the war?
• Will we keep some presence there for the next fifty years?  
• What about all of the material and equipment?
• Will we move the equipment somewhere else where we need it?
• How many millions of dollars will we spend to replace these abandoned resources?
• Did we accomplish our mission?
• What were we doing there in the first place?

Last night I listened to the Friday night Grand Ole Opry.  There were some good acts.  Hometown success story, Eddie Stubbs, was the announcer.  On the bill were: Jimmy Dickens, The Whites, Riders In The Sky, Mike Snynder and Mandy Barnett.

Mr. Dickie

22 October 2011

In My Opinion

If a friend is in trouble, don't annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it. (Edgar Watson Howe in The Book Of Choices by Mike Magee, M.D., p. 146)

******

I spent a good deal of time yesterday working on my project to seize control of the management of our money from banks that are no longer serving our best interests. It's shocking how much time I'm spending on these projects. I'm trying to keep in mind that the effort will reap long-term benefits.

All of the contradictory talk coming out of Washington continues to be very upsetting. It's becoming more and more evident that our failure to insist that the members of Congress and the Administration carry out the duties they were elected to perform is now coming home to roost.

In my opinion it's time to:

• provide affordable health care to everyone,
• more tightly regulate health care, banking, real estate and stock market business,
• revamp tax law,
• install term limits,
• eliminate earmarks,
• give the President the line-item veto
• insist that no wars be started unless debated and approved in Congress.

As I once asked my immediate supervisor, "Do you know when Hell will freeze over?"

Mr. Dickie
14/Apr/2011 7:59

Average Citizen

In this country of ours the average citizen must devote a good deal of thought and time to the affairs of state as a whole or those affairs will go backward. (Theodore Roosevelt, p. 44, in The Wit & Wisdom of Our American Presidents) 13/Jul/2010 9:17