I Laughed While Reading, Part II of III

From Black Belt Patriotism: How to Reawaken America by Chuck Norris (Martial Arts Artist, Actor, Political Activist), p. 188.

Charles Péguy once said, "Tyranny is always better organized than freedom." Boy, is that the truth! The question still stands: Are we willing to sacrifice to assure not only our freedom but the freedom of future generations? Patrick Henry asked a similar question, "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?...Give me liberty or give me death!"

...This is why John Quincy Adams' challenge still beckons across the years, "You will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it."

And what is good use?... Even Jesus said, "To whom much is given, much is required"....

More than ever, our nation needs a new generation of patriots. You will know them by the fact that they will still be the ones born in the trenches of life— in the midst of adversity. Their courage is like a tea bag: you never know its strength until it's in hot water. In other words, it takes guts to leave the ruts!...

Thomas Paine could be speaking to us today when he said [more quotes follow].

(Virtually any other page in the book will yield similar riches of name-dropping and reasoning.)

I Love You

“I don’t like [him.] He is a bad man, an imposter, a creator of wicked schemes. I wouldn’t speak to him, but, by God, I love him.”
Representative John Calhoun (1782–1850), after getting a helpful vote from a despised colleague in 1812

I said, “I love you” to a tech-repair person the other day. It just sort of popped out of me. To review: Through a combination of user error and computer glitches, I’d thrown away my current project from my laptop. And I hadn't backed up for two weeks.

The good news is that I haven’t broken out in a nice cold sweat since seeing Ringu. That along with the adrenaline and weeping made for a nice change of pace in my day.

User error having led to user terror, I took my laptop down to the local Mac store. They could help save my files, yes? Oh please, oh please, oh please... Of course it was a "rush job.” Aren’t they all?

I returned to the shop the next day, by which time my sweat was a more comfortable lukewarm temperature. The tech-repair person (note the lack of gender giveaway) informed me that the Word documents had been mostly saved. I wanted to say, “I thank you, good tech-repair person.”

Instead I said, “I love you.” Beat.

We both consider this for a moment.

“That is, I love you in the platonic way reserved for people who save me from tech emergencies,” I added in a non-hasty or lame way.

The tech person took it in stride. I’m sure they get that all the time there. But as for me, I’m a changed man. And looking at John Calhoun's kind-hearted visage, it’s clear that he too knew about the transformative power of love. After making his quote above, he served as Vice President under both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, and founded the Nullification Party. (If I remember correctly, its members wanted to make hatred, ill will, and mild revulsion null and void. Oh, and I also blogged about Calhoun here.)

Boyish Looks, Poison Tongue

Senator John Randolph of Virginia (1773–1883) may have been the most boyish-looking politician in U.S. history. Randolph was 26 when first elected, but was so baby-faced, the Clerk of the House asked if he was old enough to take the job.

“Ask my constituents,” was the acid reply.

Despite his cherubic appearance, Randolph was a mean one who loved nothing more than zinging an opponent with a good line. Speaking of his two colleagues, Robert Wright and John Rae, the senator said, “A Wright always wrong and a Rae without light.”

John Quincy Adams on Randolph (via Ovid): “His face is ashen, gaunt his whole body, His breath is green with gall; His tongue drips poison.”

Even so, I shake my head centuries later in reluctant admiration at this criticism Randolph aimed at an opponent: “[He is] a man of splendid abilities, but utterly corrupt. He shines and stinks like rotten mackerel by moonlight.”

A leading proponent of slavery, Randolph called anyone who disagreed with him on the matter a “dough-face.” So if the following story about him is true, it was nice payback.

When dining in New York one evening, Randolph ordered a black servant to leave the room. (He couldn't abide to be near blacks.) The servant bowed, but remained where he was.

The senator continued to harangue him to leave, until at last the man answered, “Excuse me, sir, but I must stay. The management holds me responsible for the silverware.”

The painting of Randolph above is by famed portraitist Gilbert Stuart. The silverware sketches are by Bartolomeo Scappi via the Library of Congress. My sources are here.