Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Mr. History? To the back of the line!
U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote:
Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror
by Peter Grose, Special to the New York Times (9/4/1967: p. 2)
WASHINGTON, Sept. 3-- "United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting.
According to reports from Saigon, 83 per cent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong.
The size of the popular vote and the inability of the Vietcong to destroy the election machinery were the two salient facts in a preliminary assessment of the nation election based on the incomplete returns reaching here.
......................A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson's policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam. The election was the culmination of a constitutional development that began in January, 1966, to which President Johnson gave his personal commitment when he met Premier Ky and General Thieu, the chief of state, in Honolulu in February.
The purpose of the voting was to give legitimacy to the Saigon Government, which has been founded only on coups and power plays since November, 1963, when President Ngo Dinh Deim was overthrown by a military junta."
More here.
This isn't suggesting that the political environment in Iraq is identical to Vietnam, but it is interesting to see how quickly good news can become bad news.
Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror
by Peter Grose, Special to the New York Times (9/4/1967: p. 2)
WASHINGTON, Sept. 3-- "United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting.
According to reports from Saigon, 83 per cent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong.
The size of the popular vote and the inability of the Vietcong to destroy the election machinery were the two salient facts in a preliminary assessment of the nation election based on the incomplete returns reaching here.
......................A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson's policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam. The election was the culmination of a constitutional development that began in January, 1966, to which President Johnson gave his personal commitment when he met Premier Ky and General Thieu, the chief of state, in Honolulu in February.
The purpose of the voting was to give legitimacy to the Saigon Government, which has been founded only on coups and power plays since November, 1963, when President Ngo Dinh Deim was overthrown by a military junta."
More here.
This isn't suggesting that the political environment in Iraq is identical to Vietnam, but it is interesting to see how quickly good news can become bad news.
Monday, January 31, 2005
To Build a Fire
Many have begun to message me asking how the weekend went, and to save time, I'll talk about it here.
As I've mentioned before, I intended the trip to be a surprise for Liz's birthday, but and illness prevented her from coming up on the crucial day, so the whole thing had to be moved to the following weekend.
I left mid-afternoon on Friday. Liz was visiting a friend in NC (she's seeing a lot of friends as she's about to go off to Australia for 5 months) and so was to meet me in Brevard. I took a different route than the one that we took so many years ago, this time taking me through the towns of Liberty and Pickens and then up one of those spiral mountain roads. An hour later I was at the Ingles in Brevard, buying food for the weekend.
I was careful to buy enough to last us straight though the weekend, as reports of the coming snow and ice convinced us (rightfully so) that we were going to be stuck there the entire weekend. Liz met up with me at Ingles, and we drove to the cabin which was 15 minutes away.
Ash Grove was run by two middle-aged southern men named Mark and Steve. While it was never explicitly stated, Liz and I agreed that Mark and Steve were probably gay. A statement about "acceptance" on their website and the fact that their e-mails were jointly signed already had caused me to suspect, but upon our arrival all the evidence began to pile up.
Mark and Steve were both very nice, and we learned that except for the pair of them that lived 10 minutes down the road, their entire 'resort' consisting of 4 cabins, a score of campsites and RV areas and a public bathhouse and hot tub, were all vacant due to the off-season. This didn't bother us a bit.
I cooked that night and we watched several movies, warm and snug as the air began to chill around the cabin. When we fell asleep that night, we knew that we probably weren't going anywhere the next morning.
The snow crept up on us, as I woke up randomly at 6 am to find that several inches had already settled around the entire site. Sure enough, when we got up the next morning, travel was pretty much out of the question.
One brief attempt in Liz's sister's jeep convinced us to stay put, and we resigned to walking around in the cold, having lunch and watching stand-up comedy together, and otherwise just letting the day waste away.
One does not truly understand the meaning of cold until they experience the climate change of jumping out of the snow into a hot tub, then back again.
The next morning was spent slowly getting up, cleaning, and saying goodbye to our temporary refuge. It really was about as perfect as a weekend could get.
After a goodbye to Mark and Steve, and a Mexican lunch in downtown Brevard, Liz and I parted ways, knowing that next weekend will be our last.
Liz attempts to roast marshmellows over a candle (we only had a gas fire)
As I've mentioned before, I intended the trip to be a surprise for Liz's birthday, but and illness prevented her from coming up on the crucial day, so the whole thing had to be moved to the following weekend.
I left mid-afternoon on Friday. Liz was visiting a friend in NC (she's seeing a lot of friends as she's about to go off to Australia for 5 months) and so was to meet me in Brevard. I took a different route than the one that we took so many years ago, this time taking me through the towns of Liberty and Pickens and then up one of those spiral mountain roads. An hour later I was at the Ingles in Brevard, buying food for the weekend.
I was careful to buy enough to last us straight though the weekend, as reports of the coming snow and ice convinced us (rightfully so) that we were going to be stuck there the entire weekend. Liz met up with me at Ingles, and we drove to the cabin which was 15 minutes away.
Ash Grove was run by two middle-aged southern men named Mark and Steve. While it was never explicitly stated, Liz and I agreed that Mark and Steve were probably gay. A statement about "acceptance" on their website and the fact that their e-mails were jointly signed already had caused me to suspect, but upon our arrival all the evidence began to pile up.
Mark and Steve were both very nice, and we learned that except for the pair of them that lived 10 minutes down the road, their entire 'resort' consisting of 4 cabins, a score of campsites and RV areas and a public bathhouse and hot tub, were all vacant due to the off-season. This didn't bother us a bit.
I cooked that night and we watched several movies, warm and snug as the air began to chill around the cabin. When we fell asleep that night, we knew that we probably weren't going anywhere the next morning.
The snow crept up on us, as I woke up randomly at 6 am to find that several inches had already settled around the entire site. Sure enough, when we got up the next morning, travel was pretty much out of the question.
One brief attempt in Liz's sister's jeep convinced us to stay put, and we resigned to walking around in the cold, having lunch and watching stand-up comedy together, and otherwise just letting the day waste away.
One does not truly understand the meaning of cold until they experience the climate change of jumping out of the snow into a hot tub, then back again.
The next morning was spent slowly getting up, cleaning, and saying goodbye to our temporary refuge. It really was about as perfect as a weekend could get.
After a goodbye to Mark and Steve, and a Mexican lunch in downtown Brevard, Liz and I parted ways, knowing that next weekend will be our last.
Liz attempts to roast marshmellows over a candle (we only had a gas fire)
Rights schmights
According to this CNN.com article, about 1 in every 3 high school students says that the First Amendment gives us too many rights. Only half of the same students in the study supported a media free to publish without government approval. Only 83% said that people should be allowed to express unpopular views.
Now, this could be a constant view among youngsters that changes with time, or it could be a sign of changing times. We are growing more and more used to having our rights violated in this country, and perhaps young students who have seen both US rights and global rights take a plunge in recent years are beginning to be desensitized to it.
Or it could be just a result of a lack of knowledge about our constitution. One of my favorite ex-KKK Democratic senators, Robert C. Byrd, one of the few democrats who always speaks his mind, is apparently attempting to force schools to teach some constitutional education. The article also states that kids who are involved in journalism-based activities support freedom of speech more, although many schools are making cutbacks in their journalism focus.
Either way, it's an extremely scary prospect if it's not a historically typical attitude for highschoolers, and one that should be addressed immediately.
Now, this could be a constant view among youngsters that changes with time, or it could be a sign of changing times. We are growing more and more used to having our rights violated in this country, and perhaps young students who have seen both US rights and global rights take a plunge in recent years are beginning to be desensitized to it.
Or it could be just a result of a lack of knowledge about our constitution. One of my favorite ex-KKK Democratic senators, Robert C. Byrd, one of the few democrats who always speaks his mind, is apparently attempting to force schools to teach some constitutional education. The article also states that kids who are involved in journalism-based activities support freedom of speech more, although many schools are making cutbacks in their journalism focus.
Either way, it's an extremely scary prospect if it's not a historically typical attitude for highschoolers, and one that should be addressed immediately.
