Springwood, Hyde Park, NY

The following was written right after President Barack Hussein Obama had been nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize after less than a month in office:

In these days of hyper-electioneering, it is perhaps fitting for those of a particular ideological persuasion to visit Springwood, the Mecca of their political inspiration and, at the same time, pay homage to the man who did much to change the wordage and thrust of our civic dialogue while fighting hard to preserve America’s global prominence.

The place is Hyde Park, NY, where the ancestral home and final resting place of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd American President, is located. After his death in 1945, his wife, Eleanor, and her children donated the site to the National Park Service.

Every time I’ve visited there, Springwood Mansion was in the process of undergoing some kind of renovation, but the views of the Hudson Valley from the back of the house remain unchanged and spectacular.

The compound now includes the Henry Wallace Visitor’s Center, complete with souvenir and coffee shops. Just outside, there is a sculpture depicting Eleanor and Franklin sitting on a bench that leaves room for anyone so inclined to sit beside them. There is a rose garden, as well as a dramatic modern sculpture constructed from bits and pieces of the Berlin Wall by the granddaughter of Winston Churchill. The caption reads, “FREEDOM FROM FEAR”. The reference to President Roosevelt famous quotation about fear is unavoidable. In addition, the Park contains FDR’s Presidential Library and Museum.

Admittance to the grounds is free. Guided tours of Springwood Mansion, Top Cottage (where visiting dignitaries were routinely entertained), the Library and Museum, Eleanor’s home and the nearby Vanderbilt estate, however, can add up to a tidy sum.

Hyde Park seems a popular destination for the elderly - the blue-haired ladies and their now somewhat grizzled, mustachioed men – who, their memories of the period failing, still seek the caress of the echo of that tumultuous period in U. S. history. The people elected Franklin Roosevelt - a man of impeccable loyalties who would steer the great American Ship of State with a steady hand over the dangerous shoals of global dysfunction and treachery (though his own body was already broken and in steep decline) – to no less than four consecutive terms. His reassuring words (fireside chats) to the nation gave it the strength to confront and defeat the evil that had come into the world. From then on, the Jewish vote would overwhelmingly favor the Democrats.

The young too come – not in (tour) bus-size groups, but one by one; or in twos at the most. They come, but not for the same reasons. Thoughtful, almost obeisant in demeanor, they are seeking to forge some tangible connection to their innate progressive leanings. Surely, their hope is that Barack Obama will take up the mantle of Roosevelt (and others). He’s young enough, they say. He too promises to take the country to a new - a better - place; to right the wreckage Republican policies have wrought. I noted the idealism shining in their eyes. It was far brighter than the light of nostalgia I had seen among the old.

Here’s to hoping that the new American President will succeed in transcending ego and place our nation’s interests first. May blind ideology not cloud his reason and poison the well of good common sense. May his term in office remain untainted by corruption. And finally, may a clear vision guide his pronouncements and legislative decisions and thus inspire our population to support his personal sacrifice.

Peter Koelliker – pkoelliker8@yahoo.com

They're not stupid if they don't know.

The legislative process on display in Washington this week seems like an echo of the very same process that elected Barack Hussein Obama over a year ago. The big story here – as then – is the American media which views the whole thing as a horserace between the evil Republicans and the saintly Democrats, refusing to examine the broader issues of viability and consequence. The difference is that between then and now the American people appear to have awakened. They have come to recognize that a Trojan horse sits in the White House, but find themselves powerless to act. Their own soldiers are under siege, held at political gunpoint and forced to commit unspeakable acts of betrayal.

While still too many of us see this as a contest between skins and shirts, there is no doubt that if the current health care tussle on The Hill – now beginning to resemble the Afghan (national) sport of Buzkashi (in which the object is to get a goat carcass across the goal line) – were subjected to a direct popular vote, it would go to the skins by a considerable margin. It is the margin that is troubling here. It ought to be 100% against – not some version of 50 -50.

Still, it would not be fair to call those who support the bill ‘stupid’. You’re not stupid if you don’t know. Access to information has been so bifurcated in our country as to make a bridging of the chasm improbable, if not impossible. Whereas you and I have learned of the outright fraud and misapplication of science in order to affect social engineering, the readers of The New York Times and The Washington Post know none of it. Mainstream broadcast news and print still tout ‘global warming’ as a serious issue. They still tout Obama as a ‘savior’ figure. They still tout Republicans, industry and capitalism as essentially evil. They ignore fiscal debt and deficits. They refuse to delve into the reason for why so many jobs have disappeared from the American scene. They discount the dangers of continued fiscal mismanagement.

Ditto, our schools and universities...

They’re not stupid if they don’t know. How can they know? Listening to talk radio, they’ve been taught, is stupid. It merely represents the rantings of a dying breed of greedy men and earth destroyers. They’ve been assured that theirs is a higher purpose. They’ve been meticulously groomed to pursue ‘social justice’.

Our kids have been commandeered into a kind of jihad. Our schools and universities are madrassahs where they are fed a steady diet of socialist propaganda. Not unlike the Arabs who have been taught to hate Jews, our kids hate us. They hate our jobs, our religions, our way of life. Is it working? Will familial ties snap? Unknown. Will they inform on us when the time comes. Unknown. Will they turn against us when the mob attacks? Unknown.

The latest drive in teaching American history is to start with Woodrow Wilson while ignoring the founders and framers and even the Civil War. The rationale is that an understanding of modern American history is more immediate and pertinent to current times. Coincidentally, Woodrow Wilson’s presidency marks the beginning of progressivism in America. I often hear Wilson and especially FDR lumped in with Obama lately. While it is true that progressives of the past also envisioned global state control (socialism), early progressives differ from Obama as night differs from day. Wilson and FDR were patriots. True, they envisioned a single (benign) authority ruling the world, but they took it for granted that this authority would be American. Obama on the other hand so hates the supposed county of his birth, he would quite happily cede control elsewhere. In fact, I maintain that he undestands his personal mission as sacrificing America and handing its sacrificial scalp to whoever steps forward to accept it.