Eisenhower's Farewell Address: A Lesson for Today

I like history and frequently wonder how people I admire from the past would deal with current issues. We are living in a world where our current POTUS initiated a war in the Middle East. His motives are ostensibly "noble," yet when the thousands of wounded men and women who served at his behest return to the US too many find insufficient treatment, belittlement of their conditions, loss of careers and lack of actual support. My cousin in Florida tells me that is not the case where her son works as a medical doctor working at the VA Hospital near Tampa. I write about this tonight, March 7, 2007 because the story about VA issues is off the front burner today displaced by the "Scooter Libby" verdict. That story is fascinating in what we learn about the current POTUS' administration's handling of events that displease them. However, the Libby verdict should not take all the attention away from important issues such as the veterans' issues, education issues etc.

I heard Bill Gates in front of a senate committee providing cogent and forward thinking suggestions about how to deal with education and nary a word of this was published on the online blogs and news papers I read. A nation that does not keep its citizens well prepared for the future has a bleak future of its own.

It was great hearing that problem solving assignments engage even high risk students. I'll see how that plays out at the conference I'll attend in the next two weeks.

Unlike Eisenhower who cautioned a future government to aim for balance in the use of a military industrial complex, current presidents have failed and now we are neglecting social programs for an increase in military spending. The costs are mighty in terms of lives, blood, and money and in terms of what we do not do for the future citizens of our country and what we do not do now for the poor, under educated etc.

So I wish that the Shrub would be more like George Washington and Dwight David Eisenhower and less like Cheney.