Truman Library, Independence, MO
I feel a great debt to Harry Truman. He had to make two momentous decisions, both involving the military.
One was the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, which, by military estimates, shortened WWII in the Pacific by at least two years. The Japanese just would not stop fighting!
The second caused a firestorm as big or bigger than the ones at Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- he signed Executive Order 9981, which integrated the United States military after 170 years of segregation and laid the groundwork for the civil rights and women's rights movements to come.
There's a quote from then-Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina which illustrates how unpopular that decision was at the time, and still is, in some quarters.
"There are not enough troops in the Army to force the Southern people to admit the Negroes into our theaters, swimming pools and homes -- we have been stabbed in the back by a President who has betrayed every principle of the Democratic party in his desire to win at any cost."
So, Southern Negroes weren't "people", Senator? That's nice to know. And isn't it interesting how President Obama is being accused of betraying our country's principles simply because he wants everyone, not just the wealthy or people with generous full-time employers, to have access to affordable health insurance.
And we now know that, despite his segregationist pronouncements, Thurmond was a complete hypocrite. He admitted at least one female Negro servant into his bed -- and an out-of-wedlock daughter was the result.
www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2003/07...
Truman Library, Independence, MO
I feel a great debt to Harry Truman. He had to make two momentous decisions, both involving the military.
One was the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, which, by military estimates, shortened WWII in the Pacific by at least two years. The Japanese just would not stop fighting!
The second caused a firestorm as big or bigger than the ones at Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- he signed Executive Order 9981, which integrated the United States military after 170 years of segregation and laid the groundwork for the civil rights and women's rights movements to come.
There's a quote from then-Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina which illustrates how unpopular that decision was at the time, and still is, in some quarters.
"There are not enough troops in the Army to force the Southern people to admit the Negroes into our theaters, swimming pools and homes -- we have been stabbed in the back by a President who has betrayed every principle of the Democratic party in his desire to win at any cost."
So, Southern Negroes weren't "people", Senator? That's nice to know. And isn't it interesting how President Obama is being accused of betraying our country's principles simply because he wants everyone, not just the wealthy or people with generous full-time employers, to have access to affordable health insurance.
And we now know that, despite his segregationist pronouncements, Thurmond was a complete hypocrite. He admitted at least one female Negro servant into his bed -- and an out-of-wedlock daughter was the result.
www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2003/07...