Contrasts

Unsilenced Cal Contrasts 8These words were spoken by an eloquent speaker of Boston’s elite, Charles Sumner: “My mind, soul, heart are not improved or invigorated by the practice of my profession ( law); overhauling papers, old letters, and sifting accounts, in order to see if there be any thing on which to plant an action. The sigh will come, for a canto of Dante, a Rhapsody of Homer, a play of Schiller.” These words are from the ending of Sumner’s peacenik speech on July 4th, 1945: The grandeur of nation would come not in warfare but “in moral elevation, enlightened and decorated by the intellect of man.” Then would come a “true golden age.” Then “shall the naked be clothed and the hungry fed. Institutions of science and learning shall crown every hill-top; hospitals for the sick...shall nestle in every valley; while spires of new churches shall leap exulting to the skies... The eagle of our country, without the terror of his beak, and dropping the forceful thunderbolt from his pounces, shall soar with the olive of Peace into untried realms of ether, nearer to the sun.” Sumner with only notes on statistics spoke for two hours in 1845. At this time of the death of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, we might remember three great men, three eagles who soared who across the world stage simultaneously - Reagan, Pope John Paul II and the Iron Maiden - exuding strength not weakness. We can learn two lessons from history, Peace comes through strength embodied in the simple eloquence of a genuine leader. Eloquence is not enough. Lady Thatcher told George W. Bush not “go wobbly” before the 1st Gulf war. Our President Obama is not only wobbly but an actual bobble–head. Unfortunately Thatcher, Reagan and Pope John Paul II shared a common thread of debilitating declines before their deaths - strokes, Altzheimers and Parkinsons. Sumner’s beating forced him into years of decline and an early death. Yet none ever wobbled in their principles or actions. What will old age hold for our bobble-head, Obama? For empty eloquence ghost written? For the unprincipled man? For our Machiavelli?