Westfield, NY–As this is written, I’m about 45 miles south west of Buffalo, pretty much along both Interstate 90, and the shore of Lake Erie. I’m also along the “Twin Raceways” of CSX and Norfolk Southern Railways. I’m writing while I wait for some train photo ops. Usually, I don’t have long to wait on this stretch; it’s quite busy, as a rule; among the most busy in the country, with around 200 trains per day going by here. Hmmm. Here comes one, now.
Westfield, as a matter of history, is an interesting town. An action taken by little girl by the name of Grace Bedell right here in Westfield, likely decided the outcome of the American Civil War.
That action? Why, posting a letter. That’s right; a letter changed the outcome of the war, and likely the future of the entire western world. An unlikely way to start a political column, perhaps, but that’s the point; Small matters have major consequences, sometimes.
Lincoln had, as you may remember, entered public life without a beard. Grace Bedell, thinking this was an electoral problem, wrote the future president:
Hon A B Lincoln
Oct. 15, 1860
Dear Sir
My father has just home from the fair and brought home your picture and Mr. Hamlin’s. I am a little girl only eleven years old, but want you should be President of the United States very much so I hope you wont think me very bold to write to such a great man as you are. Have you any little girls about as large as I am if so give them my love and tell her to write to me if you cannot answer this letter. I have got 4 brother’s and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husband’s to vote for you and then you would be President. My father is a going to vote for you and if I was a man I would vote for you to but I will try and get every one to vote for you that I can I think that rail fence around your picture makes it look very pretty I have got a little baby sister she is nine weeks old and is just as cunning as can be. When you direct your letter direct to Grace Bedell Westfield Chatauque County New York
I must not write any more answer this letter right off Good bye
Grace Bedell
Now, old Abe, when he wrote back was less than fully happy about the idea, having resisted such advice from members of his own Party…. who also urged him to wear a high collar, a beard…. anything to take the edge off those very angular facial features of his. Lincoln wrote back to Grace, saying;
Springfield, Ill., Oct. 19, 1860
Miss Grace Bedell
My dear little Miss,
Your very agreeable letter of the 15th is received.
I regret the necessity of saying I have no daughters. I have three sons–one seventeen, one nine, and one seven, years of age. They, with their mother, constitute my whole family. As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affection if I were to begin it now?
Your very sincere well-wisher,
A. Lincoln
However, despite the apparent initial resistance to the idea, Lincoln grew that beard. It did, as was suggested, soften his rather angular features somewhat, and changed his appearance rather dramatically. It is suggested that it made the man more electable, thereby making him the next president of the United States.
Lincoln passed over this very roadbed on February 19, 1861, on his inaugural journey to Washington, D.C, stopping at the station in Westfield, to among other things, meet and greet Grace Bedell, and thank her for her suggestion, which he said helped him toward the White House.
History abounds along this line….It was just back up the track at Girard PA, where Lincoln met Horace Greely for the first time, that same day, and years later, his funeral train went again down these same tracks, as he was taken home.
As I sit here, amidst all this history (and, just now, diesel smoke and brake dust) I find myself wondering…. How the Civil war would have turned out had Grace Bidell not sent that letter, had Lincoln not won the election? How would the state of America be now, and the state of the world, for that matter?
The moral to take away from this, for this discussion, as I’ve already told you, is that small things can affect an election, particularly where how the candidate appears to the voters. And in turn, that great issues are decided by the smaller things.
With this in as a backdrop, we turn to the events of today.
Former Vermont Govenor and failed presidential candidate and all around nutball Howard “The Duck” Dean took his roadshow to Montreal the other day, claiming to speak for 49% of America. Rest assured, the picture he paints of America is not accurate, nor is it even realistic.
It does, however, require a response, from the well over 51% of these United States that Howard Dean does NOT represent; someone to answer the question “Why would someone in the United States support the Presidency of George W. Bush?”
Well, that’s easy.
First, let me pass along a quote I stumbled over yesterday in the Washington Post, from Abu Jalal
“”American elections and Iraq are linked tightly together. We’ve got to work to change the election, and we’ve done so. With our strikes, we’ve dragged Bush into the mud.”
Now, let me give you the words of Mohammad Amin Bashar, a member of the Muslim Scholars Association:
“”If the U.S. Army suffered numerous humiliating losses, Kerry would emerge as the superman of the American people”
Finally, let me quote for you, from that same article, Mowafaq Al-Tai, who, the paper says:
“….is a London-educated architect and intellectual, said different types of resistance fighters have different views of the U.S. election.
The most pro-Kerry, he said, are the former Saddam Hussein loyalists — Ba’ath Party members and others who think Washington might scale back its ambitions for Iraq if Mr. Kerry wins, allowing them to re-enter civic life. “
DO you fully understand what he’s saying, here? They’re all saying they’re for John Kerry obtaining the White House because they see it as the best chance for the Baathists and the other terrorists to regain power.
So, this, then is the first reason… The terrorists support John Kerry’s bid for the White House because they see him as being their best hope toward regaining their illicit power, whereas, (Reason Number Two) the terrorists fear George W. Bush. Bush has vowed to destroy them, and they know he means what he says, he tells the truth. And Terrorists, as you may know, tend to not like being destroyed if they have the option of getting wrist slap instead. Which, of course, John Kerry would certainly provide.
Now, I’ve used the Washington Post’s quotes here among all the many articles I read here daily, because the is a paper Canadians almost never see quoted in their domestic media, for political reasons. But you may want to read the article I’ve linked. You’ll find truth you’ve not seen in your own press, in places such as the Toronto Star, for example; A brain-dead idiot with a Ouijia board and a Scrabble set could do a better job describing events stateside than most of what I’ve seen the Star try to pass off as news… and I won’t even attempt the CBC anymore!!
Now, it’s not that we don’t have such ‘biased press’ problems here in the States… considering CBS and the New York Times, we certainly do have such problems… but at least here in the last few years other voices are getting heard. I am hard pressed to find any news sources in Canada who are teling the real story, down here. And certainly, you’re not going to get the real story from Howard “Duck” Dean.
I bring up the biased press because the leftist press in this country is the best friend the terrorists could have possibly found… Useful Idiots, Mona Charen calls them. And of course, the leftist press doesn’t like George W. Bush. They’ve been so often wrong so rabidly anti-America, that I can’t imagine that their choice is in support of the America that I know, or that you know.
So, that’s reason number three.
Reason number four is best termed a matter of trust. After watching President Bush for the last decade, I trust the man. He means what he says, and keeps his promises. And he’s a man with a firm foundation… and isn’t likely to ‘say anything’ to get himself elected as Mr. Kerry has so often and so glaringly revealed himself to be.
Reason number five; Like my inability to imagine a world where Grace Bedell didn’t give Abe Lincoln the advice needed to get into the White House, thereby changing the history of the world for the better, I cannot in my worst nightmare imagine voting for someone whom the terrorists so openly support,and who in fact has supported America’s enemies in the past.
And that bears on Canadians, and all the free peoples of the world, in this way; Neville Chaimberlain learned the hard way; Feeding the monster, doesn’t mean he won’t eat YOU subsequently, when you’ve thus become the easiest target.
Ronald Reagan correctly pointed out, as did Abe Lincoln before him, “You cannot make the weak, strong, by making the strong, weak”. Those who are wishing and working for a weaker America, here in the west, are doing so because they feel they’ll come out of the deal stronger. I warn you; what will instead happen with a Kerry Presidency is a weaker Canada, ripe for attack by those who have no truck with western values.
Ask yourself; once the United States is brought to its knees, who is left to defend the rest of the world, Canada included, from these terrorists?
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Tags: BitsBlog
