I’m kind of surprised that Texas Liberal didn’t post on this ready. He is the resident history buff. Robert Kennedy died 40 years ago today. This is a nice summary of some the chaos that was the late 1960’s!!!
Brian Williams mentions that some of this footage hasn’t been aired since 1968. Some of our past has been too painful to re-live. I know that I really haven’t seen that much coverage of Robert Kennedy over the years.
I was too young to understand the importance of Bobby Kennedy. He is too overlooked in the history books.
My mother watches The View. I work. I talk with my mother frequently and she told me about The View’s discussion on the morning after Hillary Clinton’s non-concession speech. This is a very good discussion.
Keith Olbermann talks with Chris Kofinis who was communications director of John Edward’s campaign. They discuss something that I have talked about on a number of occasions. How did Obama win? I have also talked about the flip side of the argument, how did Hillary lose?
In Revolutionary Characters–What Made The Founders Different, author Gordon Wood says the following about Thomas Jefferson—
Jefferson’s faith in the natural sociability of people…lay behind his belief in minimal government….Jefferson would have fully understood the Western world’s recent interest in devolution and localist democracy….For Jefferson, there could be no power independent of the people, in whom he had absolute faith.
I find myself tending more in a belief in democracy for its own sake. People must have a say in how they are governed. I don’t know to what extent the root of my belief in democracy is faith in the people. I don’t find I need that faith to believe in democracy.
There is a strain of nihilism my view. The people must govern whatever the outcome. Safeguards must exist for the protection of minority groups in society. But in the end, if a society as a whole pursues policies that lead the end of that society, so be it.
People are born to be free. What they do what that freedom is another question
I didn’t know Lt. General William Odom. All that I know is that he was a warrior who fought against this war in Iraq. I have 3 references to him on my blog (here, here and here). The last reference was his testimony in front of the Senate a couple of months ago. I admire anyone who will stand up to this administration.
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From the Center for American Progress:
Lt. Gen. William Odom, former head of the National Security Agency under President Reagan, passed away on Friday in Lincoln, Vermont. A West Point graduate, Gen. Odom served for 34 years until retiring in 1988. Specializing in Russian and Soviet affairs, Gen. Odom earned a Ph.D from Columbia University in 1970 and taught at West Point before becoming National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski’s military assistant in 1977. In 1985, Odom took over the National Security Agency and led it until his retirement. Following retirement, he taught at Yale University and authored seven books.
In recent years, Gen. Odom was a fierce critic of the war in Iraq and our policy toward Iran. He directly confronted the most pernicious arguments for keeping U.S. troops in Iraq, pointing out that they often contradicted themselves and President Bush’s stated war aims. As Gen. Odom put it in a February 2007 article, “the president’s policy is based on illusions, not realities. There never has been any right way to invade and transform Iraq.” Gen. Odom’s clear-eyed assessment of the war in Iraq led him to the conclusion that a timely phased withdrawal was the only way to salvage American interests and credibility in the Middle East and the world.
Some of his more trenchant thoughts can be found in an article co-authored with Brzezinski three days before his untimely death. Gen. Odom made it clear that the current heavy-handed sticks-and-carrots policy toward Iran being pursued by the Bush administration will almost certainly result in an Iranian nuclear weapon. This policy, he noted, “may work with donkeys but not with serious countries.” Gen. Odom’s perspicacity and directness will be missed in the debate over Iraq, Iran, and the future of American foreign policy. (more…)
Errington C. Thompson, MD, is a surgeon, scholar, fulltime sports fan and part-time political activist. He is active in a number of community projects and initiatives. Through medicine, he strives to improve the physical health of all he treats...
