No audio of the speech today, so the merits must be weighed on the sense of the words and sentiments.
In my earliest knowledge of Wilson, I remember feeling badly that the man had worked so diligently on the League only to be thwarted by his homeland in its failure to ratify the document, later this feeling of sympathy gave way to a sense that Wilson must have been out of touch with the country - and thus not a very good president. Still, might not a president be called upon to set aside the immediate desires of his country in order to choose a course that will better benefit them in the long run.

The world had just come through the horror of trench warfare - an entire generation lost. It is tempting to muse what might have happened had the world really thrown it's weight behind the League of Nations, particularly when in the penultimate paragraph he speaks of a power using land for it's European purposes. He is obviously talking about colonialism, but one's mind quickly jumps to Hitler's lebensraum. Would that progression have been stopped had the world truly formed a league of peace, willing to get involved in the matters because the concord of the world was at stake? When Wilson called the document a guranty against things which nearly brought civilization to ruin, could he even have imagined the destruction of the atom bomb or the fear of MAD?

Who knows? It's a fruitless question, and the answer is probably not. I don't think any country was willing to sacrifice its interests for the sake of the league of peace - how much use could it be if you'd already fought the war to end all wars. The situation reminds that some sacrifice is required in order to reach larger purposes. This lesson however, seems perpetually hard to learn. Even as the developed nations are calling for alternatives fuels and reduced emissions, India is seeking to develop a national car affordable for its citizens. The argument is put in print that those nations think they should have the same opportunity as their developed cousins - still all humans know that it's best to learn from the mistakes of others if you can, sometimes that means giving up what we want to gain what is better.

What else could Wilson have imagined? Coule he have thought that there would come a day when things would be instantly publishable?

We may not always get it right, but surely it's something if we keep trying to improve. The league of nations is not an obsolete idea, nor the United Nations an antiquated body if we choose for them not to be. Who can really argue with a league dedicated to the peace of the world?

Wilson's optimism shines through in his speech, and as in previous speeches there has been a call to become something better and more noble than what we are currently - and I think this is what endures in these speeches, the challenge to become what we believe we could be.

Lady Bird wore black:
His mouth is drawn tight, the chamber subdued and in dark clothing, it is 5 days past Kennedy's assination, and what on earth can anyone say?

This speech is both a mourning and call. It is perhaps impossible to listen to in the same trust of government that accompanied that time before Vietnam, and Watergate and all the rest of it. It is difficult to hear Johnson speak of peace while knowing that a war that would rend the American fabric was brewing in Asia.

But on that day, it was still in the future, and the nation had suffered a "profound shock."

While hearing Johnson speak of what would later become his sweeping social reforms, it begs of the question of how much of that is Kennedy's own dream, and how much Johnson. I've read in an article from a Johnson aide, that those were more his issues than his predeccesor's.

It is clear that he is more comfortable a member of the senate fraternity, than burdened with the presidency. And he is most compelling when he acknowledges that in the office he did not seek, and which was thrust upon him by cruel fate, he is in need of the help of all Americans.

Some of what he said is much like what President Bush has said - that we will be loyal to our friends, but foes to those who would impose the tyranny of terror.

Once he reaches the phrase "Let us continue," the speech shifts in tone to a call to action.

From accent to sentiment he is unmistakeably Texan - there is no doubt in my mind that when he utters the phrase "I promise..." he means it to his very core. His name is his word, he is loyal to allies and friends, earnest in knowing and acting right - these are creeds that I also know to my very core and it is my own knowledge that recognizes it in him. In the Texas where I was young, we wore our boots and waved our flags, learning early that the word Texas meant friend, learning early that to betray a friend was an unimaginable act, that to promise something was to put your name and honor on the line. Though in our post-Vietnam country, it is hard to hear or hold these things without seeming or being judged naive, and I don't know how many people still do.

His call for all Americans to respect and understand one another, his call to end the teaching and preaching of hate and violence, his call to turn from fanatics and bigots and other poisoners remains inspiring and lifting today.

And though he may have felt more comfortable on the other side of the speakers podium, when he invokes Lincoln, calling the body to "highly resolve," that Kennedy "shall not have lived or died in vain," it is clear that he is mantling the Presidency - having given his word, what else could he do?

"Have you no sense of deceny"
Who, I asked, was Joseph N. Welch? No doubt, my mother knew, as now do I.
As chief counsel for the Army during the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954, Welch went toe to toe with Joe McCarthy in a manner that censured the Senator for his reckless cruelty, yet sacrificed none of Welch's own dignity.

The hearings were televised over about 188 hours, and it was seeing McCarthy in his slouching infamy that in part caused him a fall from popularity.

It is the word "infamous" that comes to mind while watching McCarthy spitefully impugn the professional character of a young lawyer not even present at the hearings out of obvious dislike and disrespect for Welch, an older partner in the young man's firm. McCarthy is avenging the perceieved baiting of his assistant counsel Cohn by Welch. And it is clear he expects to embarrass Welch by revealing that the young man belonged to an association linked with Communism.

Ah, but Welch, calm in his fury, recognizes McCarthy for what he is - a spiteful, cruel man. He already knows of the association of the young man. Rather than back pedal and defend himself or his firm in the face of the powerful senator, Welch sticks vocieferously to the young man, saying he will continue to be at the firm.

Although McCarthy has more airtime, it is Welch that we remember for so clearly showing up McCarthy's lack of decency in attacking someone who cannot defend themselves. With no histrionics, with no table pounding, with no shouting, but in contained tone and well chosen words, in speaking simple truth Welch shows himself a cooler head, and wiser and better man than the junior senator bullying and badgering those around him.

Of note is that, one assumes, this remarks are from the cuff - and yet from the cuff, we have words that are long remembered - that is an impressive accomplishment.

Of other note is perhaps the larger lesson that when you are in the right, when you speak from a place of integrity and truth, the weight of those things alone are enough to win the day. So the table pounding, arm waving and shouting those who feel themselves right often engage in is nothing but a red herring meant to distract from what is lacking in their arguments.

Truth, as they say, will out

Best Laid Plans:
My mother sent me this link to the "100 Great Speeches" - there are some absences, notably Bryan's "Cross of Gold," as well as one of Teddy Roosevelt's whose title escapes me.

At a time when much is being said of inspiration in speeches, and in a time where it would seem great futures are being decided, I have chosen to add to my morning routine a speech a day from 100 to 1.

Today began the forward march with Eleanor Roosevelt's address to the 1948 assembly of the United Nations calling for the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

She is in this speech the voice of her country, as well as a clarion call to other member states. She firmly, but without rancor, denounces the Soviet Union's ammendments which would "change the fundamental character of the document."

I found of note her quotation of Canadian Gladstone Murray saying:
The central fact is that man is fundamentally a moral being, that the light we have is imperfect does not matter so long as we are always trying to improve it … we are equal in sharing the moral freedom that distinguishes us as men. Man’s status makes each individual an end in himself. No man is by nature simply the servant of the state or of another man … the ideal and fact of freedom -- and not technology -- are the true distinguishing marks of our civilization.

Also noteworthy was her willingness to give the last word to someone else, saying that she knew no better call to action than the words of Secretary Marshall, and therein reiterated his words calling for the adoption of the document. No commentary of her own followed, which marks the speech as selfless and the speaker as not seeking her own aggrandizement.

That the document has hardly become a standard for nations, or a modern magna carta, as she hopes in the speech, diminishes neither the quality nor the reason of her remarks. We must judge the speech in the context of it's time and place, and so we judge that she spoke well of herself, her country and the body of the United Nations.

Dear Mama and Daddy,

It’s high summer and I’ve been reminded by a good man that it’s been ages since I blogged.

I bought a bicycle. And have been biking to work. She’s a blue beauty with more than one speed. And this shows up one of the fundamental differences between the old roommate, who also has been biking to work, and me.

Everyday the roommate bikes the 2 miles to her work thinking “I’m saving the earth, I’m green and urban chic.” Everyday I bike the 3 miles to work thinking “Ha,ha gas at over $4 a gallon, stuff it.” And the ka-ching of my poor bank account roughly finds the rhythm of my pedals changing gears.

Of course the blue beauty needed a name and on a bike ride this week, I came upon the perfect one somewhere between Massachusetts and Pennsylvania Avenues. What’s a girl from Texas who cut her teeth on Carole King, Joan Baez and Janis Joplin supposed to name her bike?

What else, but Bobby McGee. Me and Bobby McGee.

I figured you’d approve.

Lots of Love,
Elizabeth