Tag: President Nixon

Most hazardous, dangerous, greatest

October 6, 2024

Most of us have heard the clips of the speeches that John Kennedy made where he challenged the US to go to the moon. The emphasis that we hear every few years when we celebrate the Apollo 11 moon landing is a time to replay this sound and video bite. Most of the time we see the address from May 1961 to the Congress.

JFK began the space race with this appeal to our legislators because they would need to provide the funds that were needed. We all know that our country succeeded in this project. We continued to work with others to establish the International Space Station which still orbits our planet.

What we have not heard is the way he ended this talk at least on one occasion. In 1962 President Kennedy spoke at Rice University, Houston, Texas. When he concluded that speech, it was by saying, “As we set sail, we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous, dangerous, and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked. Thank you.”

I believe we need to look at this and other speeches by our presidents over the decades to see how they used to encourage us and our ancestors. Kennedy was a great communicator. History has proven that. I was a child and still remember hearing his voice on television. What you hear today we got live on the tube.

I would be amiss if I did not share another Kennedy quote from his inaugural address in 1961. “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” I am attaching a video of that speech. If you have never heard it, please listen to it.

There is no other Presidential speech that is more well known than Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Both the introduction “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation” and the ending “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” give me chills when I think of them.

I was not around when Abe delivered those words. I also did not have to live through either the war between the States or World War II. I have heard President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s words on December 8, 1941. It went out around the country on the radio, “December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy.” He continued speaking to Congress and all Americans when we declared war on Japan for the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Hawaii was not a state at that time. It was a location for a naval and air base to defend our friends in the Pacific Ocean.

Ronald Reagan was also a well-respected orator. His address in Berlin in 1987 contained the words, “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace. If you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

If you did not study it in school, he spoke of what is known as the Berlin Wall. It separated democratic West Germany from USSR-dominated Eastern Germany. They were separated after the Second World War. We came from the West and Russia from the East to defeat Hitler. The two Germanies I knew as a kid are now one.

One last quote from the man who was President when I was born. Dwight Eisenhower said, “Pessimism never won any battle.” Remember this is one of the many famous sayings attributed to the 34th President. In this election year, we need to remember these sayings as we listen to what the current candidates say.

©Copyright 2024 by Charles Kensinger

Where were you: 1974?

August 9, 2022

On this day in 1974, I was in Springfield, Missouri preparing to transfer to Southwest Baptist College. The Bolivar college was my choice to continue my education after accepting the call to ministry. My original plan had been to enter the Journalism school at MU in Columbia.

What is so special about this date in that year was that it was the day President Nixon resigned. Gerald Ford was sworn in as president of the United States. For those of you who were not around then, I will fill you in.

Spiro T. Agnew had been sworn in as VP when Richard Nixon and he won the 1972 election. This team had been re-elected after serving in 1969. Agnew had resigned over his own scandal and been replaced by Ford in 1973. That placed the former senator into a position to become the only president to not be elected as either Vice President or President.

During the 1974 presidential campaign, there was a break-in at a hotel in Washington, D.C. The Democratic National Committee Office was the target. Some of Nixon’s campaign staff were involved. It was discovered that the Oval Office in the White House was subject to the recording of audio. These tapes were subpoenaed for the investigations and trials of those being charged with the burglary.

Richard Nixon was referred to as King Richard by some and just as rumors were rampant about Franklin Roosevelt not wanting to leave the elected office. It seems that our two-party political system has gotten out of control. President Johnson that succeeded Lincoln after his assassination was the first to be tried for impeachment.

Since Nixon resigned it seems that we have a lot of politicians that push the limits of what is acceptable in our legal system. We no longer allow elected officials to sweep things under the rug. Both the Demicans and Republicrats have those members that consider themselves above the law.

The supporters of former President Trump who claim that the investigation of the attack on the capital is political in nature have nothing on President Nixon’s supporters. It was said that only Democrats were upset over the Watergate affair. As the cover-up was discovered, even Republicans had to admit that the country could not accept this kind of action by either party.

President Nixon stopped the draft just in time to keep me from having to deal with the draft board. He is still my favorite president because of that. Will those who believed Donald Trump was a good president admit that he was at least complicit in the attempt to overthrow a legally elected administration? If it is determined that he should be censored or imprisoned for encouraging the attack, they will do what was done for Nixon as soon as they retake the presidency.

This is my problem with political parties. Many believe their party members can do no wrong. They are the first to condemn the other party’s officials for the same type of infraction. Drunk driving, deaths in traffic accidents, adulterous acts, spousal abuse, and even child abuse accusations cross the aisles in our government houses.

We all have seen these types of situations represented in TV series. No producers ever deal with the problem of political parties in the same manner that we see on the network news reports. Which will be the first network to air a made-for-TV movie that replicates the January 6th events?

Covid has made it into the TV schedules last season. We should see an influx of programs that feature political turmoil and attempts to overthrow our government by groups inside our own borders. Remember that this isn’t the first time politicians have disappointed us. We survived Watergate and Teapot Dome. We’ll survive January 6th, 2001.

 ©Copyright 2022 by Charles Kensinger