A welcome to readers

As a resident of this planet for more than four fifths of a century, I have enjoyed both successes and disappointments in a wide variety of vocations, avocations, and life experiences. This blog satisfies my desire to share some thoughts and observations--trenchant and prosaic--with those who are searching for diversions which are interesting, poignant and occasionally funny. I also plan to share recommendations about good/great movies I've watched and books and articles which I've found particularly mind-opening, entertaining, instructive. In addition, I can't pass up the opportunity to reflect publicly on how I am experiencing the so-called Golden Years. Write anytime:
markmarv2004@yahoo.com

Friday, July 29, 2011

Political Interlude

My old friend, Don Gordon, Yale '56, Penn '58, author and educator extraordinaire, sent me a copy of his letter to Representative Cantor which I think merits the attention of a broader audience.  Don gave me his permission to reprint it here. 

"
Rep. Kantor:

I am old enough (77) to be your father and, as an American cultural historian with two Ivy degrees, am neither  as stupid and ignorant 
let alone rabid as many of your  Tea Party supporters.     You are a child of Reaganism and know nothing better than that so you are 
now willing to  hold hold more than half our population hostage to the Great Republican God of ideological purity uber alles.   

You are doubtless aware that  section 4 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution does indeed bind the US to honor--to pay--its debts,
 thus maintaining the "full faith and credit" of the US established largely by Hamilton in Washington's first term.    The inherent corollary 
 to this is that  presumably this must be accomplished--in extremis--by finding a way, over time, of  securing a  manageable way to  
pay down debt which threatens the overall economy, not solely by placing your desire to defeat a sitting president, for ideologically
 pure reasons,  in the upcoming election.

In short, your duty is to country first, then party, and only then your ideological biases.     You are reversing  these three and trying 
to sell that despicable inversion to the nation at a time of national emergency.     

This is a good time for you to consider the words of two pre-Reagan notables...   First, the great jurist Leaned Hand , who in 1944 
spoke to a crowd in Central Park, NY, noting that "the spirit of liberty is the spirit of  those who are not sure they are right."   
(Italics mine)      And also, in another desperate time, in England in the 17th century, Cromwell's advisory to Parliament:  
"I beseech thee, in the bowels of Christ, consider that ye may be mistaken."

Your lust for purity betrays a deeper flaw in your character: namely, that of certitude, the ultimate weakness  of the terminally 
arrogant.

You are a servant, surely, of your  ambition, namely to use the country's health--however recklessly--to unseat a president 
and in so doing establish in his place a narrow--but pure!--vision of  plutocratic rule over the lives of 300 million + citizens.       
You don't need to wake up--for you are already awake--but you surely do need to grow up.

Don Gordon
in Santa Fe
 
Amen: Mark in Denver


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