Editorial -- Nancy Pelosi Wants War With China

So apparently, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now thinks she is the President. As part of a tour of Asia – something that normally presidents do – CNN reports as of Monday afternoon that she is expected to visit Taiwan, along with four other congresspeople. The Wall Street Journal reported this as well.

If Russia is the clear and present danger to Europe that Putin’s biggest critics charge, then what is Speaker Pelosi doing throwing gas on an already tense situation between the US and China, two nuclear powers, over Taiwan, a place that the US acknowledges is part of China? All this does is risk dragging the US into a two front war between the US, Russia, and China, one that they cannot win. And it could turn into a four front war if Iran and North Korea decide to take advantage of the situation. Or maybe Speaker Pelosi, who has access to classified intelligence that we don’t, knows something we don’t. Maybe the threat from Russia has been blown completely out of proportion.

Those who point to parallels between now and the late 1930’s, when Nazi Germany was threatening to unleash war, miss a key difference – the US, Russia, and China are all nuclear powers. Nobody would win such a war. We’d all burn. That is why the US and Russia, back when saner heads were in power, got together in 1987 and agreed that such a war must never be fought. Putin is a bully, but he is not suicidal.

And this illustrates the wrongheadedness of Joe Biden’s policy of sticking it to the Russians and simultaneously escalating tensions with China, Iran, and North Korea. Even if he wouldn’t personally start a war between the US and any of these countries, the next President might. For instance, Hillary Clinton (D) and John Bolton (R) never met a war they didn’t like. And there are always wanna-be presidents like Speaker Pelosi who are more than happy to escalate already high tensions between the US and China. In 1914, it took one hotheaded person to plunge Europe into war.

North Nodaway 1983 Football Team Laid Groundwork for 1989 Champs, Won 275 Title

The North Nodaway 1983 football team is becoming forgotten. For instance, it was not brought up at last year’s Homecoming celebration, which paid tribute to past successful teams. However, that team laid the groundwork for 1989’s State Championship team.

Team members were Darin Colville, Duane Brown, Mike Blackney, Rich Baldwin, Mike Coleman, Mike Spalding, Alan Roush, Scott James, Todd Gorman, Tony O’Riley, Charles Blake, Rodney Vance, Kent Porterfield, Craig McIntyre, Clinton Weddle, Larry Bix, Joey Spalding, Kevin Owens, Jeff Blackford, Todd Stites, Bruce Judd, Kirby Morrison, Greg Thompson, Tim Coleman, Jonathan Keyes, Bryan O’Riley, and Steve Knorr. Cheerleaders that year were Amy Pennington, Christy Sorensen, Lila Lynch, Melody Burgess, Sherry Lowrance, and Sonya Alexander. They were coached by Marty Albertson.

Before there was Kobe Reynolds, there was Tim Coleman; the tandem of Coleman and Bruce Judd could break down most defenses and open everything else up. The Mustangs had some other capable receivers that year, as well as two steady backs in Bryan O’Riley and Jeff Blackford.

On the very first play of the season, at home against Mound City, starting from their own 20 yard line, Tim Coleman hooked up with Bruce Judd for 80 yards to put North Nodaway up 7-0 over Mound City after Darin Colville’s extra point kick. The Panthers would come to dominate eight man football in the late 1990’s and the 2000’s along with Worth County; however, they were a tailender that year. North Nodaway would go on to rack up 427 total yards against the Panthers that game. Tim Coleman was 5 for 14, but threw for 178 yards. Bryan O’Riley ran 12 times for 124 yards, while Jeff Blackford ran 5 times for 74 yards.

The Mustangs would go on to take control of the game in the first half. Jeff Blackford scored off a 16 yard run with 6:37 left to put his team up 13-0. Bryan O’Riley added a 3 yard scoring run in the second quarter and Tim Coleman would air one out to Darin Colville to make it 27-0 at the half. Bryan O’Riley got his second score in the second half with a 64 yard run, and Coleman hooked up with Kent Porterfield to make it 39-0.

The next game was against another tailender in West Nodaway, but the game was anything but a pushover. Games with West Nodaway were knock-down drag-out affairs in which the record book didn’t always matter. But North Nodaway came away with the 16-0 victory.

The Craig game started off as an eight man shootout. Once again, North Nodaway scored off its first play from scrimmage, getting a 33 yard pass from Tim Coleman to Darin Colville to put them on the board at 7-0. But then Craig, who was celebrating its homecoming, came right back behind Lyle Smith’s two yard run and a two point conversion to make it 8-7. Bryan O’Riley promptly ran back the ensuing kickoff 78 yards to put North Nodaway back in front 14-8. Craig struck right back, going up 15-14. Then, Tim Coleman aired one out to Darin Colville for 46 yards to put his team up 21-15.

After that, North Nodaway began to take control against the Hornets. Bryan O’Riley scored off a 3 yard run and Tim Coleman aired one out to Bruce Judd to make it 35-15 at the half. The Mustangs broke it open in the second half as Bryan O’Riley scored off a 26 yard run and a 31 yard run and Darin Colville added a 41 yard scoop and score to make it 54-15 before Craig tallied late for the 54-22 final score. Tim Coleman completed 10 out of his 17 pass attempts for 199 yards. Bryan O’Riley had 13 carries for 97 yards, while Jeff Blackford had 10 carries for 63 yards. North Nodaway had 389 total yards against the Hornets.

The Mustangs had a much easier time with winless Fairfax, putting them away 56-0 for their third straight shutout. That put them at 4-0 and set up their Homecoming clash with South Holt.

Bryan O’Riley was crowned Homecoming King that year, while Lorrie Brown was crowned Queen. They were crowned by Mike Blackford and JoAnn Frueh, the 1982 royalty. Other candidates were Cathy Pope, Lila Lynch, Kent Porterfield, and Bruce Judd. Freshman attendants were Cherlynn Miller and Todd Stites. Sophomore attendants were Angie DeMott and Mike Spalding. Junior attendants were Carla Scroggie and Kirby Morrison. Crownbearers were Chad Drummond and Miranda O’Riley.

The Knights were much sterner foes than any of the other four teams North Nodaway had faced. While South Holt was not in the league of Nodaway-Holt, Tarkio, or Rock Port, who were the main powers in the 275 that year along with North Nodaway, they were the “best of the rest,” finishing their season with a 5-4 mark. But North Nodaway prevailed in their contest as Coleman completed 13 of his 26 passes for 144 yards. Bryan O’Riley had 15 carries for 86 yards as North Nodaway pitched their fourth shutout in five tries, winning 23-0.

That set up a showdown with undefeated Rock Port in Rock Port, always a difficult venue to play in. The first half was all Rock Port; the Blue Jays, under coach Stu Cline, would go on to win state the next year. Mike Thomas and Mark McMahon had one tally each as they went up 14-0 against North Nodaway and completely took away their passing attack. Nothing changed in the third quarter, but in the fourth quarter, North Nodaway came alive and showed that they were for real in the conference. First, Tim Coleman ran for a touchdown and the Mustangs successfully faked the extra point try as Coleman threw a strike to Jonathan Keyes to cut North Nodaway’s deficit to 14-8. Then, a pass from Coleman to Bruce Judd and Darin Colville’s extra point kick put North Nodaway in front 15-14. Then, a run from Bryan O’Riley made it 22-14. Jeff Blackford rushed for 75 yards against Rock Port, while Tim Coleman completed 9 of his 21 passes for 92 yards.

North Nodaway got a breather the next week, a 59-0 victory over DeKalb. But then, they had a showdown with Tarkio, the second part of the end of the season gauntlet they would have to run. Tim Coleman aired one out to Bruce Judd for a 74 yard pass to put North Nodaway up 7-0, a lead that they made stand up until halftime. But then Scott Graybill’s 16 yard run and a two point conversion put Tarkio in front 8-7 in the third. But Bryan O’Riley’s 76 yard run put North Nodaway back up 14-8 going into the fourth. In the fourth, Rod McEnaney’s one yard run tied it up at 14, setting up a wild finish.

With 30 seconds left, David Brussard’s tally put the Indians up 20-14. Despite little time left, North Nodaway was able to drive down to the Tarkio 10 with time running out. Tim Coleman threw it to Bruce Judd for what would have been the game-tying score, but the referees said he caught it out of bounds, and North Nodaway dropped a heartbreaker to Tarkio. Tim Coleman passed for 159 yards for the game, while Bryan O’Riley rushed for 93 yards.

That meant that North Nodaway would have to beat Nodaway-Holt in Graham in order to get a tie for the 275 title. The Trojans were a powerhouse team back in the early 1980’s, and playing against them was difficult because of the constant ringing of the cowbells that the Nodaway-Holt fans would do. One of the biggest North Nodaway crowds ever to attend a Mustang football game, over 500 people, made the trip to watch their team. They even brought a mascot, “Squeaky,” along, a mule owned by football player Rodney Vance and trucked to Graham by Arnold Garst.

North Nodaway moved the ball up and down the field in the first quarter, but couldn’t do anything with it. Finally, a fake field goal attempt backfired on them and it set up Joe Day’s 38 yard run to put Nodaway-Holt up 7-0. Shawn Skoglund’s pass to Scott Boyer made it 13-0 at the half. But like the Rock Port game, North Nodaway showed that they were a strong second half team. A desperation pass on fourth down from Tim Coleman somehow found Clint Weddle for a score and a two point conversion made it 13-8. Then, a one yard scoring run from Tim Coleman turned out to be the winning margin and the Mustangs were Highway 275 Conference Co-Champs with Nodaway-Holt with the 14-13 win. Coleman was 16 for 28 for 141 yards, while Bryan O’Riley rushed for 44 yards.
Named to the All-275 Squad were Bryan O’Riley (runningback, defensive back), Tim Coleman (quarterback, defensive line), Bruce Judd (end, linebacker), Steve Knorr (linebacker), Greg Thompson (offensive and defensive line), and Kent Porterfield (end, defensive back).

The win put North Nodaway in the state playoffs; however, that meant they would have to go back to Graham and play Nodaway-Holt. It was bitterly cold, with strong winds and rain. The buses had to park somewhere else to avoid getting stuck in the mud, while Nodaway-Holt had to deploy pumps just to clear water off the field so they could play ball.

The first half was scoreless, but North Nodaway had their chances. First, North Nodaway recovered a muffed punt on the Trojan 34, but couldn’t capitalize. Then, Kent Porterfield stole a pitch to set up a 25 yard field goal attempt that went just underneath the crossbar. Then, Jonathan Keyes’ blocked punt put the Mustangs on the Trojan 27, but Coleman was picked off on the 3 yard line. Porterfield picked off a pass on the Mustang 16 to kill a Trojan threat.

Finally, the Trojans took over in the second half as Joe Day’s 29 yard run put them up 7-0. A bad snap made it a two possession game at 9-0, and Nodaway-Holt added an insurance score to make the final score 15-0. But Coach Marty Albertson’s words at the end of the season turned out to be prophetic when he expressed hope that 1983 would lay the groundwork for future successes on the gridiron. The 1989 Mustangs would go on to win the Eight Man football championship.

Daisy and Violet Hilton, Siamese Twins, Once Performed in Grant City in 1930

Daisy and Violet Hilton, a pair of Siamese Twins who performed vaudeville acts around the country, once performed at Rainbow Park in Grant City on October 26th in 1930. They were in the process of touring the Midwest. They performed in Bedford on October 25th, and Osceola on the 28th.

Worth County librarian Mary Seat made the discovery while responding to a query from Stephen Shutton of Astoria (NY), whose grandfather had been traveling with the tour. The event was advertised in the previous week’s Times-Tribune.

They performed twice in Grant City that day at Rainbow Park, once at 2:30 in the afternoon and once that evening. Tickets to the afternoon performance were 15 cents and 35 cents, while tickets to the night show were 25 cents and 50 cents. They sang, danced, and played a number of musical instruments with accompanying singers and musicians. They were billed as “San Antonio’s Siamese Twins.” They also performed a radio show on Worth County’s local radio station.

40 Years Ago This Week, Jerry Litton Died in Plane Crash

The stark headline on the St. Joseph paper said it all – “God willing, what might have been…” Jerry Litton, who had established himself as the 6th District Congressman for the area, had just completed a stunning landslide victory over two better-known opponents in the Democratic Senate Primary the night before. He was on his way to Kansas City to congratulate supporters, when his plane crashed, killing his entire family and everyone aboard. It happened 40 years ago this week.

Litton, unlike most politicians today, was not a professional politician. He had been really big in the FFA and translated it into a farming career, where he built a reputation for trustworthiness and honesty and quality. Finally, he went against the grain in 1972; in a heavily Republican year, he ran for the 6th District, won a hotly-contested primary, and went on to beat Russ Sloan. It was an excellent result in a year that was otherwise bleak for Democrats as their standardbearer, George McGovern, was initially 1000% behind Vice-Presidential nominee Tom Eagleton and then dropped him from the ticket.

Throughout his time in Congress, he protected our privacy, forged alliances on both sides of the aisle, protected Social Security, and farming interests. He would never forget where he came from; when faced with a choice, he would always speak to FFA or other farming groups over groups which would have paid him a lot more to attend.

Opinion -- Hiroshima: Obama vs. Truman

by Dr. L. John Van Til

President Obama’s address at Hiroshima, Japan on May 27 provides us with a good opportunity to examine his foreign policy attitude and contrast it with the views of one of America’s most courageous war-time presidents—Harry S. Truman. This exercise has three steps: a look at Obama’s thought, a briefer summary of Truman’s views, and then a comparison of the two.

First, Obama’s view. Before Obama embarked on his trip to Japan, many Americans had an uneasy feeling that he might apologize to the Japanese people for America’s dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima 71 years ago. And what was the basis of this unease?

Many citizens think a first principle of Obama’s foreign policy agenda—since the day he took office—has been to change its direction. It began with his notorious Cairo University speech on June 4, 2009. He inferred that he had a mission to bring peace to the world which could only be accomplished if America apologized for its former foreign policy sins, beginning with Muslims. Thus, with confidence he said early in that talk, “I have come to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world.” To emphasize the obvious, he here implies that relationships had been poor before.

In the Cairo talk he also implied that he was especially qualified to speak to Muslims because his father was Kenyan born and for generations his family had been Muslims.

What evidence is there that Obama apologized at Hiroshima? Though the talk rambled, he called the invention of the atomic bomb “a great scientific achievement.” Yet, “the splitting of the atom requires a moral revolution.” Further, “We must change our mindset about war itself.”  And, we can also see Hiroshima and Nagasaki as “the start of our own moral awakening.” It’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that Obama here condemns the use of the atomic bomb, his oblique way of apologizing for its use. And, more. If America needs a moral awakening now, apparently it had not been moral during the Truman presidency.

Within hours of being sworn in as president on April 12, 1945 Harry Truman was informed for the first time that an atomic bomb existed and that a test of it would be ready soon. Its destructive power was virtually uncertain. A few days later Truman learned that the Germans were about to surrender. They did on May 7. In the wake of this, Allied leaders met at Potsdam, Germany on July 17 to discuss post-war Europe. There Truman received word that the atomic bomb test was successful. The conference issued an ultimatum to Japan that they agree to an unconditional surrender or face more destruction than had ever been visited upon any nation. Japan ignored this ultimatum.

Returning home, Truman pondered estimates of death and destruction that America was prepared for by conventional war methods—new fire bombs had already killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese. Several million more people would likely die and material destruction would push Japan back towards the Stone Age. Truman, therefore, decided that use of the atomic bomb was the better moral choice: It would actually cause much less death and destruction. The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. After no reply from Japan to his request for surrender, Truman ordered the bombing of Nagasaki three days later. Unconditional surrender soon followed.

No other American president has ever faced such grave challenges in so short a time. Man of principle that he was, Truman never had any regrets about the moral correctness of this decision.
What happens when we compare the attitudes of Obama and Truman on matters of foreign policy, specifically on the use of the atomic bomb?

Historians of foreign policy use two main categories in their analysis—Idealists and Realists. Idealists as children of the Enlightenment believe that men are essentially good, not hopelessly corrupt, that they can be led to ideal goals by diplomacy and good will by visionary leaders. Realists, on the other hand, have a traditional view of human nature; that is, that men are naturally prone to evil and that government exists to check this tendency. Realists accept present imperfect conditions as unlikely to change easily. Thus, the better part of wisdom is to prepare for what may happen rather than to base action on, and have faith in, what should happen.

What occurs when we examine the views of Obama and Truman in terms of Idealism and Realism?
Clearly, Obama falls into the camp of Idealists. This is evident in the Cairo talk when he said that he was there to bring peace. Implicitly, other American presidents had, of course, failed, or so he thought. His idealism was also evident in his Hiroshima remarks when he said that the splitting of the atom “requires a moral revolution” and at the end of which he called for “a moral awakening.” As noted above, this kind of statement implies that the use of the bomb was immoral. This attitude can only be characterized as “unrealistic,” as idealistic.

To make the difference between these two presidents clear, ask yourself: If Obama had been President in 1945, would he have used the atomic bomb?

-- Dr. L. John Van Til is a fellow for humanities, faith, and culture with The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College. His latest books are Thinking Cal Coolidge and The Soul of Grove City College: A Personal View.

Clara Belle Kobbe was Mother to Two Prominent Sheridan Women

Clara Belle Kobbe was mother to two prominent Sheridan women, Georgie Wake and Wilma Allee. She was 81 years old when she passed away.

Georgie Wake was a lady of deep faith who lived to be 103 and who took care of herself almost to the end. She passed on her deep faith to the rest of her family, including Bob and Lana Wake; Lana recently passed away.

Wilma Allee was an outspoken lady who always let you know exactly what she thought. She was a diehard Cardinals fan and players and managers could find themselves in her penthouse one day and her doghouse the next. On the flip side, she had a zany sense of humor, which she passed on to her family. Her family was very tight-knit; on what would have been her 93rd birthday, they came to the old Lions Building where the Sheridan Community Building is now located and released balloons into the sky in her honor. They were both one of a kind people who made the community go.

Mrs. Kobbe had 10 daughters and four sons – Mrs. Stanley Hensley, Mrs. Wake, Mrs. Allee, Mrs. Viola Downey, Mrs. Neva Fatting, Mrs. Fern McCrary, Mrs. Madeline Brown, Mrs. Audrey Courtner, Mrs. Jene Huff, Mrs. Naomi King, Dale Kobbe, Forrest Kobbe, Kenneth Kobbe, and Keith Kobbe. She also had one sister, Mrs. Ruby Robinson. She also had 61 grandchildren and 54 great-grandchildren along with one great-great grandchild.

Services were held at the Prugh-Dunfee Funeral Home in Grant City. The Rev. L.B. Day officiated. She is buried in the Honey Grove Cemetery north of Grant City.

Parnell Farmer Left 109 Great-Grandchildren

A Parnell farmer left 109 great-grandchildren when he passed away in 1965. Joseph Elmer Messner was born in Marietta (OH) in 1873 before coming to Parnell, where he was a member of the Ravenwood Christian Church. He had three sons; Joseph Messner of Parnell (1913-1993); Lloyd C. Messner of Maryville; and Floyd Earl Messner of Riverbank (CA). He had four daughters; Mrs. Eldon Coffelt of Ravenwood; Mrs. Jessie McFarland of Maryville; Mrs. Lester David of Riverbank (CA), and Wilma Mae Messner Kerwin of Parnell (1919-2015). He had 47 grandchildren, 109 great-grandchildren, and nine great-great grandchildren.

His parents were Phillip Messner (1840-1910) and Malisa West Messner (1839-1904). His spouse was Bertha Adams Messner (1882-1940).

Siblings were Sarah Messner Dillon (1861-1943), John Adam Messner (1864-1941), Jacob Ezra Messner (1875-1960), Martha Messner Gampfer (1879-1963), and George Lewis Messner (1882-1968).

The Rev. L.B. Day officiated at the funeral service held at the Ravenwood Christian Church, assisted by Charles Gash. He is buried in the Oak Lawn Cemetery in Ravenwood. Mrs. Dale Hersh sang “In the Garden” and “Going Down the Valley.” Mrs. Charles Gash played the organ. Pallbearers were Elmo Trimble, Derril Caldwell, Clinton Scadden, Norbert Mattson, Gerald Newberry, and Francis Auffert.

Mrs. Jerry Fugate, Mrs. Jack Scadden, Mrs. Norbert Mattson, Mrs. Gerald Newberry, Mrs. Derril Caldwell, and Mrs. Elmo Trimble were in charge of the flowers.
–Submitted by Ellen Wickert

Selling It for Wolfers Merchandise Company

A fan from the Wolfers Merchandise Company was passed around at the Hopkins Historical Society last Tuesday. They were once a prominent business in Hopkins. The six promises they made to all prospective customers were as follows:

1. We buy only the best lines of merchandise.
2. We buy direct from the largest and most dependable manufacturers and wholesale houses in the business.
3. We pay cash for our merchandise, which assures us always the lowest price.
4. We sell on the lowest margin of profit possible, depending on volume of sales.
5. We guarantee everything to be just as we represent it and consider no sale complete unless you are completely satisfied.
6. Courteous Treatment of all is our policy.
Make our store your store!

1895 Hopkins Graduation Program

At the Hopkins Historical Society annual meeting Tuesday, a graduation program was shared from the 6th annual Hopkins High School Graduation held in 1895. Enis Siegfried was valedictorian, while Lula Goodson was salutatorian. Graduation ceremonies were much longer than they are now, with students giving full-length orations to the assembly showing what they had learned. Songs sang included "The Nightingale," "Love's Sunshine," and "Stars of the Summer Night." The Rev. Ezra Downs opened the graduation ceremony with prayer. The motto was, "Not Finished, but Begun." Graduates were Dora Stockton, Harry Smith, Ora Fraser, Lula Goodson, F.D. Ingram, Grace Wolfers, and Enis Siegfried.

Former Wisconsin Governor One of Grant City's Earliest Residents

A former Wisconsin governor, Leonard Farwell, was one of Grant City's earliest residents, the Adirondack Almanack reports. Farwell was born in 1819 in Watertown, WI and became a successful businessman by 1849. He became the state's second governor in 1852 despite heavy attacks by political opponents who thought that he would become a tool for powerful interests. He served two years before leaving in 1854. He cracked down on banks and insurance companies that he saw as monopolistic and put together public works for the state. During Abraham Lincoln's administration, Farwell was appointed to the Patent Office in Washington by the President as an Assistant Examiner. He was an eyewitness to President Lincoln's assassination and immediately rushed to Vice-President Johnson's residence, woke him up, found a guard to protect him, and seized some weapons that were hidden for the purpose of assassinating the Vice-President. His quick thinking was credited with saving Johnson's life. He was in the well-known picture depicting the last hours of Lincoln's life. Farwell moved to Chicago, where he lost nearly everything he had in the Chicago Fire. He later moved to Grant City, where he was asked to run for governor of Missouri but declined. He died in Grant City in 1889.

Jack Remembers -- Letters

I wrote an article about a speed trap in my hometown, and asked if your town had a speed trap like the 12th Street trap in Oak Grove. I was inundated by responses from all over the state. One woman from Centralia wrote about a speed trap a half a mile south of Hallsville. A Lafayette county elected official told me about his daughter who commutes to Warrensburg college getting a ticket on two consecutive Monday mornings on Highway 13 by the Higginsville police. It seems as if the five mile stretch between the town of Higginsville and I-70 is in the city limits of Higginsville. However, everyone who responded said the same thing that was frightening to me, “Don’t use my name”. I guess they were afraid their local police would retaliate.
I also wrote an article about the four Marine Infantrymen who urinated on two dead Taliban soldiers that outraged both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. Two veterans from two different wars responded.
John Madsen from Oak Grove, who I have known since high school days, and his wife Karen, are good Christians, and are active in the United Methodist Church. John, who was in the 185th Combat Engineers Battalion in Korea, said when he heard about the Marines on television, he thought it was just awful. But after reading my article, he thought maybe there wasn’t a lot of difference between that and the fact they had drilled a hole in the skull of a Korean to use as a candle holder to light their tent.
Jerry England, a Viet Nam Veteran from Mountain Grove who reads my articles on the internet, showed me an ear he had cut off a dead Viet Cong he had killed for a souvenir. He carried it in his pocket for a long time, but said he now has it laying on top of his dresser in his bedroom. Needless to say, Jerry is still single.

Jack can be reached at PO Box 40, Oak Grove, MO 64075, www.jackremembers.com, or jackremembers@aol.com

The Roots of Tocqueville’s American Exceptionalism

By Dr. T. David Gordon

Editor’s note: Dr. T. David Gordon will be a participant in an April 7-8 conference hosted by The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College on American exceptionalism: “America: Still the Last Best Hope?”

It is not uncommon for people to suggest that the idea of American exceptionalism first appears in Alexis de Tocqueville’s two-volume classic, Democracy in America, which appeared in 1835 and 1840. Some even cite the following sentence: “The position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one” (volume II of the 1972 Reeve translation [Knopf], p. 36). But is this proof?

Contextually, I believe we can find no proof for the idea of American exceptionalism in this sentence, which appears in Chapter IX, titled: “The Example of the Americans Does Not Prove That a Democratic People Can Have No Aptitude and No Taste for Science, Literature, and Art.”

Note what Tocqueville is saying: Although Americans have no aptitude or taste for science, literature, or art, this does not mean that democratic people in other circumstances would suffer from the same liability. That is, he concedes that Americans have no aptitude or taste for science, literature, or art, but argues that this is due to the particular American experience, and is no natural concomitant to democracy. He expressly concedes this in the chapter’s opening paragraphs:

It must be acknowledged that in few of the civilized nations of our time have the higher sciences made less progress than in the United States; and in few have great artists, distinguished poets, or celebrated writers been more rare. Many Europeans, struck by this fact, have looked upon it as a natural and inevitable result of equality; and they have thought that if a democratic state of society and democratic institutions were ever to prevail over the whole earth, the human mind would gradually find its beacon lights grow dim, and men would relapse into a period of darkness.

To reason thus is, I think, to confound several ideas that it is important to divide and examine separately; it is to mingle, unintentionally, what is democratic with what is only American.

This is hardly a ringing endorsement of “exceptional” Americans. That is, far from saying that Americans were “exceptional” in any ordinary or praiseworthy sense of the term, Tocqueville argued that states could operate on democratic principles without becoming the rubes of America. What he argued, in the oft-misquoted sentence, is that the American experience has certain liabilities: mentioning the fierce, austere Calvinism of many of its Puritan forbears; the free land in the west which invited more to agrarian than artistic pursuits; and a growing market for goods that encouraged industrial more than artistic or scientific pursuits.

Having mentioned these peculiarities of the American experience, Tocqueville summarized them in a paragraph that contains the oft-misquoted sentence:

The position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one. Their strictly Puritanical origin, their exclusively commercial habits, even the country they inhabit, which seems to divert their minds from the pursuit of science, literature, and the arts, the proximity of Europe, which allows them to neglect these pursuits without relapsing into barbarism, a thousand special causes, of which I have only been able to point out the most important, have singularly concurred to fix the mind of the American upon purely practical objects. His passions, his wants, his education, and everything about him seem to unite in drawing the native of the United States earthward; his religion alone bids him turn, from time to time, a transient and distracted glance to heaven.

What was “exceptional” about the American “position” is its peculiar history that had led it to its present (to Tocqueville) circumstance, in which the American mind was devoted to almost nothing but pragmatic/practical interests. Only his religion, Tocqueville sighs, occasionally relieves the American of his unseemly mundaneness and bids him to a “transient … glance” at more transcendent concerns.

The American is “exceptional,” in other words, in his lack of artistic or intellectual culture. But this is not damning with faint praise; this is damning with vigorous criticism. I might as well refer to a failing student as “exceptional,” because all the other students are passing the course. Or imagine a college advertising itself as an “exceptional” college, where it attempts “to divert minds from the pursuit of science, literature, and the arts.”

Rhetorically, Tocqueville was trying to persuade others that democracy was a good form of government; and his problem, rhetorically, was that the American example appeared to provide counter-evidence. Tocqueville was embarrassed that a free people had employed their freedom for mundane or commercial pursuits; so in order to rescue democracy, Tocqueville argued that it only looks like a bad form of government in America because of America’s peculiar (“exceptional”) history. Freed from this peculiar history, Tocqueville argued, democracy would work fine.

Whether America ever was or is exceptional is a matter for more discussion, but Tocqueville’s own estimate of 19th-century America was mixed at best and negative at worst. He would have preferred that democracy had produced a more learned and refined culture. And that’s a side of Alexis de Tocqueville, and his view of America, we don’t often hear or understand.

— Dr. T. David Gordon is a professor of religion and Greek at Grove City College and a contributing scholar with The Center for Vision & Values.

Jack Remembers for 7-15-09

by Jack Hackley
Somebody please help and tell me what I have missed out on. I try to watch the evening national news. I prefer Brian Williams on NBC. On a Thursday night when I turned on the news, Brian Williams announced there was breaking news that Michael Jackson had died and for virtually the rest of that newscast, it was about Michael Jackson. I flipped the channel to ABC, same news there, and on CBS with Katie Curik. The next night and all weekend, it was the same thing except now they are saying that Michael Jackson was the greatest singer and dancer who ever lived. Whoa! Wait just a minute. These are the same stations that told us he was a child molester.
If I am not mistaken, Bing Crosby sold somewhere between 500 million and 900 million records back when no one had any money to buy them. "White Christmas" alone has sold 100 million and still selling strong. Not only that, Crosby won an Oscar for his role in the movie "Going My Way". Let’s don’t forget Frank Sinatra who had a few hits himself and also won an Oscar for best supporting actor in one of my favorite movies, "From Here to Eternity". Of course, my favorite singer was Hank Williams who I watched at the Ivanhoe Temple sing the number one song on the Hillbilly Hit Parade, "Lovesick Blues".
I also liked Earnest Tubb, Hank Snow, and in my drinking days ran in to Red Foley in a bar in Springfield and had a few drinks. Of course one of the all time greats was Eddie Arnold, who probably had more songs on the charts than anyone else since he recorded for 62 years, never drank, smoked, and remained married to the same woman. The greatest in my lifetime besides Bing Crosby would have been Elvis Presley. Elvis sold a billion records even though he got drafted in the Army and spent two years of his life in the Third Armored Division in Germany. Ironically, that Division’s photographer was Richard Deason, a brother to Beth Fulks, who owns Broadway Grill in Oak Grove, and also helps me prepare my articles. Richard photographed Elvis several times.
Michael who?
Jack can be reached at PO Box 40, Oak Grove, MO 64075 or jackremembers@aol.com

Setting in a Mousetrap, Pondering my Fate for May 14th

Maybe we did it all wrong
As a historian I look at the past and wonder if we really did it the right way, here in the good old USA. Did the south, before the civil war, have a valid point? Should the states have more power and the federal government less? That point however does not change my opinion being, the north had to win that war. If the south would have won the civil war, I have no doubt there would be more than two countries, on what is now the area of the United States, meaning at least three west of the Mississippi River. I also believe that if the south would have won the civil war, Hitler would have won World War II. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." The power of the United States is in the fact we are one country.
These thoughts came to me while reading Jeff Shara’s book, Rise to Rebellion. Before the official formation of the United States, at the signing of the constitution in 1789, the congress then meeting in Philadelphia, had to have their delegates wait for instruction from their home states before they could vote. In a certain way I felt a serge of; now there is representation of the people. What you might not know is that up until 1913, senators were sent to Washington by the vote of the legislatures of their home states and not by the people. Senators were entirely an employee of the states that sent them to Washington. Somehow I see some good in that, as we have it today, they have little, if any responsibility to their state legislatures, even more their people. In some ways I see it a problem but in the old way. Changing it opened up more problems. Also remember, it was not until 1919 that my grandmothers got to vote at all.
What most of these "upgrades," have done in reality is move the elected officials in Washington further away from their responsibility at home. Ask yourself a question, "Do you really think that your United States Senators give any care as to who you are or what you think?" The power of intimidation from Jefferson City is far more powerful than the voting public of the whole state. Before, if the senator upset Jefferson City, he came home, he was there to only to do what his legislature wanted him to do as dictated by the votes of the; at the time, men. Who were more closely responsible to the people at home. In some ways I see some good attributes to such a system. But it is gone and it won’t be back. Now all of your officials in Washington just kind of do what they want. Remember we don’t elected a representative anymore, we elect the platform of a party. Whoever gets the majority, will do what they want, no matter what most of the people back home think. If I am not right, when why are we still in Iraq?
I believe federal senators and congressmen wages should be paid for by the taxes of the state and not out of federal funds. As we do it now, we only continue to separate the senators from their states. Again all but a few are there to do the will of the country, they are there to do what they want. Answer this for me? Senators Clinton, McCain and Obama have been spouting what they are going to do if and when they are elected. How many times have they really ask what we want them to do? Are they listening to us?
The closer we get to the election, my usual enthusiasm is waning. My enthusiasm for Obama is drying up, and it has nothing to do with Rev. Wright. By the way where is the division of church and state in this? Why does Wright have so much power? McCain gives me the impression his slogan should be; "four more years." I mean of Bushism. I guess I can’t get enthused about a man who looks like Tim Conway. I know he was a POW, but this is not a good reason to be elected president. I feel like the day after the election I will be again blindfolded and taken to a place where I don’t know where I am going. In two years or so the blindfold will be taken off and I will see where I am. Wether I like it or not, well, nobody really cares. Those in office have got what they want, they don’t need you anymore, not until 2012.
Ask me sometime in late 2010 if we made the right decision in 2008.