THE GI BILL

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was an exceptional President. Goes without saying. Took the nation out of the Depression, led us through World War II, etc. Each an outstanding achievement.

Another, the GI Bill.

Roosevelt could see into the future where most could not. During World War II, he recognized that following victory thousands if not millions of military persons would be discharged and dumped back into U.S. society. The nation had to be ready for them.

Roosevelt believed that the Great Depression was the result of the U.S. not being prepared for soldiers returning from World War I. He also believed that the Bonus March of 1932 on Washington would not have occurred if the returning veterans had proper jobs. Gong a step further, even jobs!

He decided the nation had to ready to help the returning military and thereby the nation itself. The result was the GI Bill.

It was on this day in 1944 that Roosevelt signed the bill into law. The benefits of the bill were three fold. Returning military were entitled  access to unemployment compensation, low interest home and business loans, and funding for education.

From my perspective, the most important the funding for education. Most returning would not have been able to afford a college education. For many, no one in their families had ever gone to college. Their families laborers and factory workers.

The program made thousands of doctors, lawyers, teachers, professors, etc. that without the funding might have ended up selling apples on street corners as many did following World War I.

I was 10 when World War II ended. I recall in the years following a particular neighborhood in Utica that was sort of run down. An old church was converted into the new Utica College’s first building. Then run down buildings around it for several blocks.

The College succeeded. Reached a point where it was bursting at the seams. Moved to another area on the fringe of Utica. Started relatively small for a college campus. Eventually became affiliated with Syracuse University. Today and for many years has stood independent and alone. The campus extensive and beautiful. The College has a reputation for being able to get graduates accepted into medical schools. So fine the education the students receive.

All because Roosevelt could see where others could not.

Toppling statues will not end soon. Too many around the country. Too many reasons why this one and that one should come down.

Two noteworthy persons whose statues are to be removed or have been vandalized.

One, Teddy Roosevelt. Former President of the U.S. His performance so good that he is one of the President’s whose face is sculptured onto Mount Rushmore.

Since 1940, a statue of Roosevelt seated on a horse has stood at the entrance to the Museum of Natural History in New York City. Roosevelt was an equestrian whether leading his troops up San Juan  Hill, hunting in Africa, or living the western life in the Old West.

The statue in front of the Museum has standing on one side an African man and on the other a Native American.

The building and ground it rests on are owned by New York City.

The cry has risen to remove the statue. The reason being the men standing on each side. They “explicitly depict black and indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior.”

Not everyone got to ride up San Juan Hill, in Africa or the far West. Some were troops, bearers, laborers, scouts, searchers, etc. Normally those native to the area.

Would the statue be permitted to remain if the African and Native American were on horses and Roosevelt standing between them?

Mayor de Blasio playing politician. He considers the statue “problematic” and should go.

The best is George Washington. Father of our country, First President of the U.S., the man without whom the Revolutionary War would not have been won. A statue and monument of Washington stands in the Druid Hill Park in Baltimore. This past week it was vandalized. Written in red paint “Destroy Racists.” The initials of  Black Lives Matter on the bottom: BLM.

Washington owned slaves. As did most if not all the signers of the Declaration of Independence. It was part of the mores of the time. Slaves had value. A man’s wealth was measured by the number of slaves he owned.

In Washington’s Last Will and Testament, he freed all his slaves. Few if any others did so during his era.

Oh, the things we learn. The comment refers to Black Lives Matter.

I took several Russian history courses in college. All but one taught by Alexander Kerensky, the first President of Free Russia. He was a White Bolshevik. When toppled by the Reds, he had to escape Russia to save his life. He eventually found his way to the U.S.

His courses exciting. He had lived what he was teaching.

One of the courses required the reading of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto. Published in 1848. The book’s final two sentences stick in a person’s mind once read: “Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains.”

In the past few weeks, I have commented re the growing power of Black Lives Matter. Once suggesting they might be going too far.

The Blaze published an article by Paul Sacca 6/20/20 titled: Black Lives Matter Founder Admits Org’s Creators Are ‘Trained Marxists’ “

Black Lives Matter was founded in 2013 by Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi, and Patrisse Cullors. Organized in opposition to George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the shooting of Trayvon Martin. Today, the organization has in excess of 40 chapters world wide.

Its purpose: To “build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.”

A primary purpose today: To “get Trump out.”

Black Lives Matter does not specifically note they are Marxists in its website. However, one of its creators Patrice Cullors admitted they subscribed to Karl Marx’s ideology.

A newly resurfaced 2015 video on the Black Lives Matter Global Network found Patrisse Cullors revealing she and her fellow Black Lives Matter creators were “trained Marxists…..trained organizers.”

Removing Trump was reiterated this past friday by one of BLM’s members: “Our goal is to get Trump out.” The organization wants Trump to resign immediately. “He is not fit for office.”

In the past, Cullors has compared Trump to Hitler: “Hitler created the conditions that lead to what we all understand as Nazi Germany.” Trump is “literally the epitome of evil.”

I am concerned about Key West and coronavirus. The weekends find our small island crowded with visitors from the mainland. Mostly young. The visitors seem to care not about masks and social distancing.

They could leave the virus here. Infect others who will take it back to the mainland with them.

Two to three more weeks will tell the story.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

 

12 comments on “THE GI BILL

  1. Only one thing explains Trump’s cavalier attitude toward mask wearing, he has snuck in the antibody shots, just like he snuck in the chloro pills.

    • You do understand that their really aren’t any antibody shots, and if there were no doctor would risk giving them yet for fear of immediate malpractice, regardless of whoever he gave them to, got Covid (or not), don’t you?

      You also know that getting an anti Covid test only checks if you’ve had Covid YET, and nothing more, right?

  2. If we are to believe what the wako’s on the right and FOX news wants to tell us about how a whole bunch of teenagers who frequent the TikTok website and then called in to say they were attending the Trump Rally in Tulsa, some how caused the low turn out that ended up embarrazzing Trump, could someone please explain how that could be? Sure, I can see how that could inflate expectations and thereby increase the embarrazzment, but how would that actually decrease the people who wanted to attend, since they didn’t know that was actually happening anyhow?

  3. So BLM has trashed the reputation of George Washington., and threatens to remove any references to him. If Washington had not lived when he did, and accomplished what he did, there would be no America today. And in Britain the famous statue of Sir Winston Churchill has been encased in a steel shell to protect it from the BLM who have already defaced it and are now expected to attack it. Without Churchill Great Britain would not exist today.

    Free nations have got to stand up against the radicals who think their violence will erase every negative aspect of the past and bring about some sort of glorious autonomous future. They won’t succeed, and we will all suffer from their sad effort.

    • Before you start bashing these BLM “radicalss” maybe you should first sort out how you and your bias mind feels about the Boston Tea Party protesters, back in the 1700s

      Let’s apply your statment “Free nations have got to stand up against the radicals who think their violence will erase every negative aspect of the past and bring about some sort of glorious autonomous future. They won’t succeed, and we will all suffer from their sad effort” to those Tea Party guys in Boston.

      • Different times
        Different motives
        Different leadership
        Entirely different reason for protest
        Different desired outcome
        There is no viable comparison. Sorry.

        Want to try for the Whiskey Rebellion?

        • Same old excuses!
          Same old hate!
          Wouldn’t it be grand if people would do just what YOU tell them to do!
          Don’t be sorry, that’s cheating, irrelevant and cheap!
          Same old bull sh*t spin!

          Want to try for slavery?

          • *Sigh*
            Same old angry, snarling reaction when backed into a corner. No new facts or a better argument. Just the usual accusations, name-calling and profanity. Your responses have become predictable and boring.

            • Well, look whose talking. ‘snowflake!’

              You’re not going to cry again and declare everyone on Lou’s blog is out to get YOU and that you are not going to read Lou’s blog any more, etc., etc.,

              Mine was a perfectly acceptable reply, not calling you inappropriate names, no profanity AND on point. You on the other hand are avoiding the high ground because your argument was exposed and you having no further ‘opinion’ when confronted with a real exposure to your bigotry can only, yet again, respond by changing the topic and attacking me with the same old crybaby nonsense. It is becoming apparent that you seem to post here just to create that opportunity.

              My response was directed to your response, your response was not and stinks more like a ‘gotcha’ response than anything else.

  4. I am pretty sure Trump could find some quack who would give him anything he wanted, along with some Clorox to wash it down with.

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