When I began this blog in 2001, I was appalled by President Bush's headlong rush to an illegal war (we were not in fact under attack). As time wore on and Bush began his assault on the Constitution and any people bold enough to criticize, I believed that "the republic is endangered more by actions of our own government than by those of any terrorist." With the election of a high-minded, compassionate, intelligent man like Barack Obama, my fears have ceased.
"Honor them with peace, not war"
United for Peace
Friday, January 10, 2003
The Washington Press Corps has become a timid lot over the past 30 years. Ever since Dan Rathersassed President Nixon,1 and the press corps was briefly emboldened, they've been back-pedalling, it seems. We are perilously close to another era like the days in the 1950s when Sen. Joseph McCarthy was rooting out from every nook and cranny those he claimed might be tainted with knowing or having known someone who was or might have been in the past a communist.
Edward R. Murrow, revered in America for his WWII broadcasts from London, was one of the few who could take him on -- and did.
The North Carolina State university library has a biography of Murrow on its web site. Murrow was a North Carolina native, child of Quaker parents. I would guess it was from the Society of Friends that he got his willingness to speak out against injustice, to speak the truth to power.
__________
1. A panel of reporters interviewing Nixon near the end of his first term, doggedly focused on Watergate questions, expecially young Rather. In an attempt at humor, Nixon said, What are you doing, Dan, running for something? And Rather snapped back, No, Mr. President, are you?
Copyright © 2001-03 Pam Shorey
(except the specific sources credited in quotes)
Speak up, speak out, do not be afraid. Speak even if you are afraid.
The Washington Press Corps has become a timid lot over the past 30 years. Ever since Dan Rathersassed President Nixon,1 and the press corps was briefly emboldened, they've been back-pedalling, it seems. We are perilously close to another era like the days in the 1950s when Sen. Joseph McCarthy was rooting out from every nook and cranny those he claimed might be tainted with knowing or having known someone who was or might have been in the past a communist.
Edward R. Murrow, revered in America for his WWII broadcasts from London, was one of the few who could take him on -- and did.
We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were for the moment unpopular. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of the Republic to abdicate his responsibility.Read a paean to Murrow at Evesmag
The North Carolina State university library has a biography of Murrow on its web site. Murrow was a North Carolina native, child of Quaker parents. I would guess it was from the Society of Friends that he got his willingness to speak out against injustice, to speak the truth to power.
__________
1. A panel of reporters interviewing Nixon near the end of his first term, doggedly focused on Watergate questions, expecially young Rather. In an attempt at humor, Nixon said, What are you doing, Dan, running for something? And Rather snapped back, No, Mr. President, are you?
Palema
4:35 PM
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Copyright © 2001-03 Pam Shorey
(except the specific sources credited in quotes)
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