Eclectic Musings » Eclectic Musings » Today in history

Atomic age begins

joyce — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 20:18:27 +0000

On this day in 1945 the first atomic bomb was tested. Scholars, military historians, politicians, almost everyone since has argued the pros and cons of the subsequent dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan thus ending the Second World War. Within a few years the Soviet Union had the bomb. We lived through tension and fear for the next few decades, wondering if the world as we knew it would end in any half-hour period.

I remember the now comical school drills of hiding under the desk with hands over our eyes. I was in Washington DC during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, attending a seminar at the Library of Congress Folger library just a few blocks from the Capitol. The constant awareness that death could come at any time and that we at that conference would not know made the poetry and discussions especially poignant.

Since September 11, 2001, our people, politicians, country has reacted to the sudden attack with hysteria, security theater, overreactions. We are the people who faced down Joseph Stalin and Khrushev. What happened?

One thing the Congress under the Articles did well

joyce — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 22:34:56 +0000

July 13, 1787 the Congress of the United States, this is the government under the Articles of Confederation, passed the Northwest Ordinance. This is one of the best acts of the government we had before the Constitution.

Under the Northwest Ordinance, Congress set out how to divide the territories into townships, and set up the organized settlement of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana.

But the best thing that this law did was to prohibit slavery in those territories. The later disputes over moving slavery into new territories applied to the land we got under the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican War.

Infrastructure and commerce

joyce — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 15:13:19 +0000

Today in 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Republican, proposed that the federal government pay for and create a system of highways that would crisscross the country and provide easy movement for the armed forces in case of need.

We were in the Cold War, almost two years after fighting ceased in the Korean Conflict. The Interstate Highway system was passed and the next couple of decades saw the construction of one of the best ways in which our commerce and economy thrived.

Having the interstate allowed companies to transport goods and supplies quicker and with less cost than regular travel. If you have an doubts about the value of that system, drive from Miami to Jacksonville only using US 1. Thank you no.

That system was proposed sixty years ago. What are we doing today that will help commerce and still be as vital in 2072?

We are not repairing the infrastructure we have; how will we cope when more bridges fail?

I hear talk of privatization, states which have sold or rented tollways; we tried that way once.

I hear talk of reducing government and governmental services. Scranton just slashed pay for police and firefighters to minimum wage, no negotiation, just a unilateral cut in pay. Do we really want a society in which these functions are private? Remember the reports the last couple of years about a fire department that simply allowed houses to burn because the homeowners had not paid the private company. If you rent, what about depending on your landlord to pay that fee? Societies have been there before.

We, as a society, created certain occupations and facilities as governmental functions because that was what worked best for all of us.

History: Burr vs Hamilton

joyce — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 22:07:04 +0000

Today is the anniversary of the day the sitting Vice President of the United States shot and fatally wounded in a duel the former Secretary of the Treasury. Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton met on a “field of honor” in New Jersey to satisfy Burr’s resentment at Hamilton’s statements as to Burr’s trustworthiness and fitness for the office of governor of New York.
Although Burr “won” the duel, Hamilton dying from his wounds, Burr’s political goose was well-cooked. He would eventually be tried and acquitted for treason against the United States, allegedly by trying to get the western states to join with him and Spain and take over New Orleans. Historians are still arguing his guilt or innocence on that one.
When the sitting vice president, Chaney shot his friend during the hunting incident, I thought about Burr.
Hamilton so disliked Burr that when the House of Representatives had to decide the election of 1800 between Jefferson and Burr, Hamilton, Jefferson’s political antagonist, persuaded his coFederalists to elect Jefferson.
Political enmity is nothing new to this country. We have survived assassinations, smears, scandals, eras in which big money bought governments, wars, depressions.
Are we still strong enough?