In A Time of War
I started to piece together a modest directory of political speeches. I stopped when I couldn’t figure out my point… having no “mission statement” to speak of… it’d end up a scattershot of speeches that inspire me personally (to show how odd I am: I find Jimmy Carter’s political-suicide address “A Question of Confidence” inspiring), some historically fascinating addresses (Malcolm X), and some “WTF” speeches of demogaugory (Buchanan and Zell). No unification, thus… not worthy of an effort.
Looking through the American Rhetoric page — found on my sidebar under “Keepers of the File”*, the “Rhetoric of 9/11” page pops out at me. The speeches have the twilight-quality to them — a dual nature of being both faded and starkly driven into my memory. Do I dare read the speech he gave before the Joint-Congress? I guess Bush’s “finest moment” — the bullhorn speech — wasn’t formal enough to be included. Otherwise… yep! There it is! The 1 year anniversary speech at Ellis Island, stagecrafted agitprop to propell us into Iraq… as infuriating now as it was then.
Here’s Barbara Lee‘s speech upon providing the lone dissenting vote for authorizing force against Afghanistan. Yes, I would’ve voted yes, but I can’t say that much of what she said didn’t bounce through my mind at the time. I’d be curious to see some of the words behind a handful of the yes votes — the less jingoistic ones who could keep a general sense of perspective and a realization that how we proceed must be measured a wee bit more carefully. Ron Paul, I’m looking in your direction.
It then pops into my mind that someone online must have whatever words Congresswoman Jeanette Rankin entered into the Congressional Record upon giving her “no” vote to the Declaration of War for World War II. A google search yields nothing. I see a mention that a copy of the Congressional Record is on display at the Jeanette Rankin Library — which, I must say, I would hope would be the case.
Other than that, there’s this:
Among the NBC Memovox recordings of December 8th, is the beginning of a commentary by Earl Godwin at approximately 1:41pm Eastern time 12/8/41 (I think it was on Red), who begins ranting against Jeanette Rankin, saying “The fact that Jeanette Rankin, who would just as soon see the Japanese sweep over the country and kill everyone on the street…” . He was cut off at that point, with the network switching back to the House, ostensibly for a news bulletin concerning the vote on the war resolution which had just been completed. I wonder if cutting him off was a coincidence or did he go too far, in the network’s eyes?
And I see some reference to her being shouted down in the House, and her vote — either by her choosing or by the choosing of the Keepers of the Record — recording her vote as “present” and not “no.”
And I find the oh-so-endearing term “congresscreature” being used to describe Lee and Rankin… I don’t know if this is expanded to include all women.
Other than that, I find confusing accounts — a suggestion that she voted no not so much because she was opposed so much as to expressly remind the inherent cost of war. Or that she voted out of stupidity, someone claiming she said that she didn’t know if Japan striked Pearl Harbor. Or, the somewhat more cryptic When it came her turn to vote in 1941 she replied “God Bless America!” This was recorded as “Present” in the Congressional Record. And I find the quotation “You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.” And I find some reference to the “Jeanette Rankin Brigade” as being a “Communist front group” during the 60s… which may or may not be the case, as seemingly everyone not establishment politician was called a communist in those days (as opposed to the fifties when establishment politicians were called communists as well), but then again… a quarter-decent number were indeed communists.
Ah well. It’s mostly a blight of curiosity. Maybe it’s online somewhere, deep in the bowels of cyberspace. Or maybe it’s not.
…..
*If anyone knows of a website that keeps the transcripts of all of the Nixon tapes that find its way into the news every so often — let me know.