To have some parts flowing free again . . . with deer grazing on its banks . . . ducks and geese raising their young in the backwaters . . . eddies and twists and turns for canoeists . . . and fishing opportunities such as Lewis and Clark enjoyed . . . would be the finest possible tribute to the men of the Expedition, and a priceless gift for our children.
Nixon regarded himself as having been cheated by life. He never got my vote.
I've always tried to be fair to my subjects. That's easy when they are as likable and admirable as Lewis and Clark, or Eisenhower.
Jefferson owned slaves. He did not believe that all were created equal. He was a racist.
Trial by jury. Live wherever you can make a living. How could a government based on such principles fail?
The war in Vietnam I thought a dreadful mistake.
Like their predecessors, the Presidents of today just throw up their hands.
Dams have harmed our wildlife and made rivers less useful for recreation.
Immigrants do more than help us win our wars, or set up cleaning shops or ethnic restaurants.
I was taught by professors who had done their schooling in the 1930s. Most of them were scornful of, even hated, big business.
I was too young for Korea and too old for Vietnam.
As to the Indians, the guiding principle was, promise them anything just so long as they get out of the way.
Crazy Horse saw history as integrated in the present, incorporated into daily life.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries you have these great nation states hurling their young men at one another. The victory was really going to rest on who could do the best job of bringing up their kids to become efficient and effective soldiers. That's pretty grandiose, I guess, but I do think that, and thank God it's been the armies of democracy that have emerged from this as the triumphant armies.
Winning the Revolutionary War, or the Civil War, or World War II were the turning points in our history, the sine qua non of our forward progress.
Oftentimes the fascinating thing is that people who are seen as commanding figures at the moment that they were considered for President and did not run turned out to be treated by history as much more minor figures politically.
I think that the opportunity to improve race relations in the United States has been put off temporarily.
