Thursday, August 24, 2006

Dead President Quote of the Week!

** Sorry for the lack of picture. Blogger is being stupid and as most of you know, I'm in a computer bind at work and things just aren't working in my favor. Sucks, too, because I had a very foreboding picture. Sepia and everything.

This week we take on Grover Cleveland, a dead President near and dear to my heart because I played his wife in second grade. Our class did a historical run-down of all the U.S. Presidents which we presented to the entire school. My line (which I still remember precisely despite the passing of a mere 16 years since I had to say it) was, "Grover Cleveland is the only U.S. President to have served two separate terms, and was the first to use fireworks at his inauguration." Obviously, Mrs. Flemmons had a lot of confidence in me because "inauguration" is a serious word for an 8-year-old. I always was an overachiever.

Anyway, I just randomly choose Grover for the novelty value, but it turns out he said some pretty perceptive things back in the day. That's why he gets two quotes and also we'll probably come back to him. We might have to skip Nixon or something...I'm sure we can make it work. Also, he was the first Democrat elected as President after the Civil War. Who knew?

Quote #1:
"A government for the people must depend for its success on the intelligence, the morality, the justice, and the interest of the people themselves."

Quote #2:
"Minds do not act together in public; they simply stick together; and when their private activities are resumed, they fly apart again."

Comments on "Dead President Quote of the Week!"

 

Blogger Linna said ... (11:48 AM, August 24, 2006) : 

So, I didn't even know you've had a president Cleveland... But he seems like a pretty smart guy, ahead of his time with individualism and all that. And I do like the first quote (it's strange how I seem to like all the quotes that can somehow be seen as criticism of your current administration in particular ;)

Kind of OT, how many of your presidents have been murdered - just the two? (hrm... "just"? like that's not enough...) Sweden is a tiny country and regarded as relly safe but our prime minister was murdered in 1986 and our foreign minister in 2003. Not having so much to do with the quotes, except the concept of having to be dead to be in... ;)

 

Blogger Becky Heineke said ... (1:33 PM, August 24, 2006) : 

I had to Google it! Kennedy and Lincoln are obviously the most famous, but William McKinley and James Garfield were also assassinated while in office. There have also been several serious attempts but the only one I can think of offhand is Reagan. Actually, for being such a violent culture, and yours being so notoriously peaceful, you'd think we'd have a lot more (but thank God we don't).

And yeah, I'm really enjoying this dead President thing because I'm continually amazed at how these leaders said all these things in the past that are specifically in contradiction to what's going on in our country right now. They're understanding of how democracy *could* go wrong is amazing to me. I'm just sad we're having to see the other side of things right now. :(

 

Blogger Becky Heineke said ... (4:52 PM, August 24, 2006) : 

Simon, thanks and TBL, no, that was Howard Taft. Poor guy. He'll always be remembered for that and probably by modern standards he would be closer to the average American.

 

Blogger Becky Heineke said ... (4:53 PM, August 24, 2006) : 

I meant weight-wise. I re-read that and it didn't exactly make sense, but I think you get what I was trying to say.

 

Blogger Elena said ... (6:51 PM, August 24, 2006) : 

Blogger is being stupid and as most of you know

Don't get me started on the hell I've gone through... the second quote seems more true.

 

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