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Historical Notes
by V. Neil Wyrick
Teddy Roosevelt - Christopher
Columbus - Davy Crockett
John Smith - Ben Franklin - Thomas
Jefferson - Abraham Lincoln
Dear America:
As 26th President of the United States let me offer a few insights on your 21st century problems. As I see it, the first thing you need to do to bring back economic prosperity is to stop being emotional wimps and start believing that most corporations still play by the rules. All CEO’s are not citizens of the Nation called Greed.
And yes, Americans have got to stop running around like chickens with their financial heads cut off, moaning how about much they have lost. A little positive thought about how high the stock market went, before it plummeted, means that many and hopefully most are still well ahead in the game.
And if your knowledge of history is so bad you are inclined to I don’t know what I am are talking about, let me remind you that we had Robber Barons in my day, just as you have now. They had different names, of course, J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Edward H. Harriman , but their attitudes were the same. They wanted to build fiefdoms and if they had to do it on the dry bones of fired or underpaid employees, so be it.
So what should you do now almost one hundred years later? Well, for openers stop making speeches and start doing the kind of things I did. I sued forty-three corporations who were out of line. Set up a Bureau of Corporations with powers to inspect the books of all businesses engaged in interstate commerce. Revived the all but forgotten Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Indeed, it’s time to make more of those guilty of white collar crimes wear prison gray.
Your problem is your leadership pays too much attention to polls. Me? Often I just did what I thought ought to be done without permission from congress or the agreement of the people and then later asked for forgiveness. Otherwise, nothing would ever have gotten done.
There is no doubt that I had a big mouth, and used it. That I believed in the bully pulpit and would today make it loud and clear that business leadership will not be allowed to sup at the public trough whenever and however they please. I call on your 21st century Americans to find some old fashion ethics, and go after those who are breaking them. I did. Went after some judges bribed by a man named Jay Gould. Though I gave it my all I still lost, but did that stop me next time around? Not in a thousand years. Because in losing, I made it clear that when you did wrong Teddy Roosevelt would soon be banging on your front door.
Remember the Armour Meat Packing Company. Well, one day its founder and owner P. D. Armour, because his employees in a certain department had done such a wonderful job, decided he would offer each of them a new suit. In order to take advantage of such a generous offer, one young man ordered a suit costing $150, a very healthy sum at this particular point in history. Receiving the bill, Mr. Armour called for the clerk to have him vouch for its accuracy. Finding that the billing was correct he assured the young man it would be paid. However, as the clerk was leaving Mr. Armour said, "I wish to say to you that I have processed a great many hogs in my time, but this is the first time I have ever dressed one."
I have noted that those guilty of playing accounting games constantly assert they have not broken any laws or changed the rules, but rather have only abided by that which is currently right and legal. Nonsense! As Billy Sunday said in my time, "When a man starts arguing that stealing is not a sin, don’t argue with him… search him."
I was watching a movie on your television the other day and the actor gave an impassioned speech underlining the importance of greed. "Greed," he said, "is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies. Greed will save the United States." Really? The rich getting richer while the poor get poorer will save our country? A CEO with millions in the bank and thousands of employees in the poor house? Salvation from stinginess? Come on.
Sincerely,
Theodore Roosevelt
A Letter from Christopher Columbus
Dear America,
What is it inside some men that will not let them be content with the status quo? Why is our breed so willing to endure hardships for the opportunity to map the uncharted and conquer the unknown? I feel a close and wonderful kinship with any of you who are willing to take an extra step in this adventure called life. Who have not just kept pace but run ahead of the pack.
There are questions that need to be asked about who I was and what I did or did not do. Questions such as, did a Chinese Buddhist land in Mexico in the 5th century? Or an Irish monk named Saint Brendan, or Prince Madoc of Wales, or Leif Erikson land in Greenland before me. I do not chose to argue with what they did or did not do but rather simply remind you that what happened after 1492 rather than after any of these other dates.
What counts is that it taught me that victory without challenge is triumph without glory and that if you believe in yourself you will less often shake hands with defeat. Whether it is 1492 or the year 2002 be persistent and consistent in your dreams and you will measurably increase the odds they will come true.
It is why I finally got my ships, turning stumbling blocks into stepping stones. I searched for help in Portugal and King John told me "No." I received the same kind of negative response from King Charles in France and parsimonious King Henry of England (parsimonious, a high sounding word that means cheap). King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain told me NO three times but as these birds of discouragement flew over my head I refused to let them make a nest in my hair.
I always believed it was my destiny to be a watery explorer. After all, I had been born on a ship, somewhere between Spain and Italy. And was not I named Christopher after St. Christopher, the Patron Saint of travelers? And when, at the age of 42, I sailed into the unknown Ocean Sea in 1492 I had already been fulfilling this fate for 28 years. For all those years I had been either a sailor or captain.
I lived midway between the Renaissance and the Middle Ages. It was a time, such as your own time, of great opportunity for anyone willing to stretch the imagination. The Indies, Indonesia, China, Japan, Burma and India were magnets to Europeans. Caravans laden with riches crossed Asia to Constantinople and then by ship, pack-train and wagons made their way to our markets. But opportunities, as always, were not without problems. Routes were becoming more dangerous. Land pirates and taxes were gobbling up profits. Men of imagination were busy looking for a better way to transport the treasures of the East. I argued for the shorter distance of a straight line, due west.
"Stop believing Columbus. Give up on your dream, Columbus," echoed the cries of doubters and cowards. But I only listened to my inner voice that said, "Stop believing in yourself and your dream and you become one of the living dead."
Perhaps this is why I have been asked to make regular commentary to your 21st. Century on what I see happening because there is always the need for dreams and courage. That is if you will accept my definition of courage, that courage is not the absence of fear but the mastery of it.
Yes, I, of a fiery temper to match my fiery red hair, was no wimp before adversity as must you be in your present crisis. What made me think that I would succeed? The same thing that can help you to succeed in international matters and personal problems. It is not how hard you hit bottom but how high you bounce.
What if? It is a game we all play from time to time What would have happened if on my first voyage, three days short of land, I had heeded my sailors’ demands to turn around? What if some Englishman had followed my fate and found my challenges one hundred years later in 1592? Or some Frenchman not that much later in 1668? Or an Italian or German even closer to your time? Or what if a Japanese ship had touched the American shores for the first time in 1941?
The dominos of cause and effect always have their day. So do not just idly ask the question "What if?" Pursue the deed and then learn from the answer.
Christopher Columbus
Dear America,
Some, includin'
myself, said I was born for luck though it would be difficult sometimes to guess
what sort since I ended up getting' killed at the Alamo.
Most of the time when you think of me you think of me out killin bars'. It ain't
that I didn't do that more than once but you ought also to know that I reckon
I can make some remarks worth listenin' to since I spent three terms in Congress.
Course, some of you may say that that means I really ain't got nothing to say.
One thing I learned early and I might as well share, when in doubt remain noncommittal
until you can make sense of your own speakin'..
I remember my first speech was against a man who could speak prime about government.
I knew right off I couldn't shuffle or cut with him what with my mouth early
on being jammed and crammed chock-full of dry mush. I also learned that lots
of folk didn't know much more about government than I did and so voted because
I could make them laugh and feel good. Somehow, lookin' back, that bothers me
some, how people in your time often ain't no different. Votin' not on what a
fellow stands fer but whether they like him or not. Ain't right you know. Puttin'
people to head government just because they won a popularity contest.
I tried to be honest. Remember more than once when both parties were pressin'
on something I didn't understand, I just say that I couldn' agree with either
of them. Seems to me one thing that's' wrong in your time is all these fellers
runnin' around takin' polls instead of thinkin' things through and makin' up
their own minds. Ain't all fellers in Washington like that. You got some good
ones up there but they are far too few and scattered.
America is a miracle. Ain't no doubt about that and my advice to you. Pay attention
not to what those who are already elected are sayin' but what they been votin'
for. Otherwise you're wastin' your vote and that ain't fair to this great land.
Davy Crockett
Dear America,
My name is John
Smith and you probably remember me best for having founded Jamestown and saving
an Indian maiden named Pocahontas. It all began in 1606 when I and 143 other
colonists sailed from London for Virginia. Only 105 of us disembarked because
only the strong survived an Atlantic voyage. I haven't been on one of your cruise
ships but I am sure it would be a revelation.
What counts most in living successfully and that which I would offer to you
in the 21st century is the importance of being stubborn and resourceful when
things become difficult. We faced starvation and some hostile Indians but as
always the greatest danger to ourselves was whether or not we could remain resolute.
As to the Indians we could have made them enemies or accepted, after their initial
animosity, their friendship. It was obvious we would be making an enemy of common
sense if we did not meet their sociability with the same.
Did it stay this way? Were we later assaulted and killed? Did we sometimes wonder
at the wisdom of leaving civilization back in England? Of course. But we also
knew that no dreams are without nightmares and looking back we realize you would
hardly be where you are without men like us.
Do we ask that you congratulate us these many generations later for our fortitude?
Oh, it would not go unappreciated. But most important we simply ask that you
stop growing so soft. That you thank us by reaching back in time to find a little
extra toughness.
John Smith
Dear America,
Over 200 years ago I held the Constitution in my hand and having thrown it down
upon a table cried out, "I'll give it 200 years." That's all the longer
I thought this great democracy, this on-going Republic would last. Because you
see for America to continue requires a great deal of self-discipline and too
many in your time no longer have it. John Adams said it, "Posterity, you
will never know how much it cost us to win your freedom."
Do I speak too harshly? Well, let me put it this way. You cannot have enough
police or laws to guarantee a civilized society. If moral stability does not
come from within the hearts and minds and souls of enough of its' citizens then
a jungle can be the only results.
Yes, I have returned to an America that has changed no small amount. I expected
no less for change, life, time are inevitable. It is not the fact of change
that bother me but the kind of change- the lack of vigor, a general malaise,
an all too great willingness to sup at the public trough. What I am afraid too
many twentieth century Americans have forgotten is that "honest fatigue
makes a splendid pillow" and "there are no gains without pains."
I may well be of the eighteenth century but I have done my homework on those
years between yours and mine and Abraham Lincoln's words bear remembering. "You
cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen
the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earned by pulling
down the wage payer. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot
help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."
And thrift? In a magazine article some time ago I read that Americans today
save less than anyone else in the world. Could it be that frugality in the year
2002 is confused with stinginess? When I have suggested that individuals, cities,
states and even the Nation live within a budget I have most often been attacked
as if I were trying to destroy the national economy. I found the words of Franklin
D. Roosevelt pleasing to my eye (though he did otherwise), "Any government,
like any family, can occasionally spend a little more than it earns. But a continuance
of that habit means the poorhouse."
All across this land I have talked with Americans who do not understand freedom.
They confuse the terms liberty and equality. They want equality to guarantee
the good life, not comprehending that it must only guarantee the opportunity
to earn the good life. An old Chinese proverb not often enough repeated reads,
'Give me a fish and I will nourish myself for a day. Teach me how to fish and
I will nourish myself for a lifetime."
Over a century ago, a philosopher, DeTocqueville, on preparing to leave America
spoke words approximate to the following, "When in America there is no
longer any continent left to conquer, when there is no longer any west to tame.
When America has grown old, and static and afraid, it's glory will pass like
the morning sun." Well, the West is now tamed, the continent is conquered,
the long, gray welfare lines have shortened but still the uneducated many stammer
before an educational system that put many of them where they are.
I am an old founding father and I love America. I love it with all that is within
me. I hope you will take my words written above in the spirit with which they
were penned. Great love. Great love indeed.
Benjamin Franklin
Dear Fellow Americans,
I, as a past president
two centuries ago and writer of the Declaration of Independence, have been asked
to give a few insights on what I see now happening in this our dear land.
Sometimes one can better describe who and what they are by explaining what they
are not, so let it be said early on that I was not, like Alexander Hamilton,
for big government. It gives too much power to too few and since angels never
run for office, the power of the states must be retained. Otherwise Washington
would have to understand the peculiarities of 50 different pockets of power
and this is impossible.
What bothers me more than having proper government is proper behavior by those
who are governed. For, yes, the greatest danger to freedom is always freedom
itself. It is not capitalism that is the culprit when things go wrong but old
fashion greed.
And immigrants? You the reader of these words are one of these, or certainly
some ancestor was unless you are a native American. Indeed, one of my favorite
stories is of an Irishman who upon being chided for not being born in America
replied, "I would have but my mother wouldn't let me."
What is the greatest challenge to immigrants? To escape tyranny and then having
escaped, resort to bombings rather than bombast, when there are political differences
in their new immigrant communities. It is human nature to not want to give rights
to minority opinion. It is, however, a great part of what America is all about
and those new to our shores must never forget it. Else, what my generation fought
for is wasted sacrifice.
I once wrote that sometimes it has been said that man cannot be trusted with
a government called himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of
others? Are you often disappointed with state and national leaders? Asking always
for the wisdom of hindsight even before a decision is made? One thing is for
sure, if you look for perfection in any governing bodies you will be sorely
disappointed.
Would that America was always without blame in its decisions but it isn't and
never will be. Mistakes have been made and will be made again, but still we
must continue be a country that reaches out to try to help and stabilize the
world. Will we always be appreciated for our efforts? Hardly. More often resented?
Probably. Create jealousy rather than appreciation? It has happened before.
It will happen again. Nevertheless, we must continue to do what is right and
proper and best mirrors the glory of our great heritage.
Tyrannies and communism have never produced what our representative government
has produced. So then citizens of America, love it, salute it and serve it.
And you, the elected leaders, be wise, frugal and without fraud. Behave with
honor and honesty, else this country cannot survive.
Thomas Jefferson
Dear America,
The worse thing any President of these United States must do, is participate
over the killing of the nations young in war. It happened in my time. It is
happening again and for the cause of freedom it will not be an unknown occurrence
in the future.
Oh, how I remember with such dread our Nations torture well over one hundred
years ago, a war that killed over 600,000, on both sides of a fence of differing
opinion. I did everything I could to stop this conflict. Argued that we would
be better to sit down and talk than carry muskets into battle.
There was, I would imagine you know a war that once lasted 100 years. 100 years
is a long time but even then no one can fight for forever, so what did they
finally do? They sat down and talked. Why didn't they sit and talk in the first
place? Yes, why don't men do there talking at the beginning of a war since they're
going to do it anyway? Well, its that old devil ego I suppose.
There were those who blamed me for the Civil War you know. And so I think, now
is as good a time as any to set things straight. I did not seek it. But neither
would I allow myself to be held hostage to peace at any price. I was elected,
as is your present President, not to pursue my own delight but to uphold the
constitution.
Worse thing, and it is even worse in your time with television, one says one
thing and all kind of folk come out of the woodwork saying you spoke something
else. I remember that after I had given my inaugural address it was like I had
given two speeches. The South saw in it me carrying a sword. The North saw in
it me offering an olive branch of peace. I only gave one set of thoughts. Seems
as if everyone had already made up their minds and paid no good attention to
what I actually said.
My warning to you is not to do this. We Presidents are only men and we can muster
up enough hairbrained ideas on our own without you misinterpreting us.
America, pay close attention to what is being said by those in leadership. Put
your mind in gear before you put your mouth in action. It is such a precious
thing we have in this land and it is such a miserable thing when all kind of
foolishness is bantered about.
And with your present woes, beware. Whatever is the cause, a house divided against
itself cannot stand. And yes, I said it in my time. I say it again. "One
nation under God…a new birth of freedom." For freedom must be born
again and again and again. Flex its muscles. Defend its right to exist. Fight
off those who would wave its banner while espousing anything but.
I know one thing. If you think everything I said and did was right I would be
powerfully pleased. If you think rather that everything I said and did was wrong,
all the angels in heaven saying otherwise would not change your mind.
Whatever is your opinion, just remember we share a common cause, the continuation
of America for yet another century.
Abraham Lincoln
V. Neil Wyrick
305.665.1513
E-Mail:
neilwyrick@earthlink.net
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