Find Phil on Facebook!
Points to Ponder Archive for Feb 2012
You are currently browsing the Phil Mikan points to ponder archives for Feb 2012
Posted by Phil Mikan on Feb. 27, 2012
During the month of February we celebrate the birthdays of our 1st and 16th presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln; The president who started our country and the president who saved the union… both extremely important in the history of this country and both, the best we have had.
Lincoln was the first American president to come from what was then the west and was what some called the new Americans. He was the man most responsible for the establishment of the executive branch of government .He set up executive orders some of which still stand to this day. He turned into a dictator for the duration of the civil war, became the first civilian to invoke the status of commander in chief of the military. He made the treasury print money and came-up with the greenback (a national currency). He formed the IRS to collect income taxes to fund the war and established wars bonds as well.
But the most important thing he did was made a national policy statement about slavery. He said it was a terrible wrong. It was a sin against God and man.
When Lincoln first came on the national stage as a possible presidential hopeful he was a typical white politician he felt Africans could only enjoy the good life if they were rejoined to their own world (sent back to Africa) and advocated for such during his presidency…But at the conclusion of the war and after seeing over two hundred thousand black troops take to the field he changed.
He not only saw the black veteran as a citizen but thought they should vote alongside the white man.
His plan for reunification of the county called for a quick reuniting of north and south… with his death the black American population wondered in a vast waste land for another hundred years… Lincoln should be celebrated …For what he did and for what he might have done.
Point to ponder
Filed under Points to Ponder, Comments
Posted by Phil Mikan on Feb. 26, 2012
During February we celebrate the birthdays of our first and 16th presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln — the president who started our country and the president who saved the Union, both extremely important in the history of this country and both the best we have had.
Lincoln was the first American president to come from what was then the West and from a group that some called the new Americans. He was the man most responsible for the establishment of the executive branch of government. He set up executive orders, some of which still stand to this day. He turned into a dictator for the duration of the Civil War and became the first civilian to invoke the status of commander in chief of the military. He made the Treasury print money, and came up with the greenback (a national currency). He formed the Internal Revenue Service to collect income taxes to fund the war and established war bonds as well.
But the most important thing he did was made a national policy statement about slavery. He said it was a terrible wrong, that it was a sin against God and man.
When Lincoln first came on the national stage as a possible presidential hopeful he was a typical white politician. He felt Africans could only enjoy the good life if they were rejoined to their own world (sent back to Africa) and advocated for such during his presidency. But at the conclusion of the war and after seeing over two hundred thousand black troops take to the field he changed.
He not only saw the black veteran as a citizen but thought they should vote alongside the white man.
His plan for healing the country called for a quick reuniting of north and south. With his death, the black American population wandered in a vast wasteland for another hundred years. Lincoln should be celebrated — for what he did and for what he might have done.
A point to ponder.
Filed under Points to Ponder, Comments
Posted by Phil Mikan on Feb. 24, 2012
Ok if you were given the opportunity to speak before a group such as is in the room today how would you approach the topic of republicanism…We all pretty much know the history of how the party started… as the answer to the demise of the American wig party. You all know that Lincoln was elected as a Whig to the house of representative for one term he with the agreement of the party limited himself to one term. Yes term limits were of concern in the 1840s’
Then in 1856 John C. Fremont the famous California path finder… ran for president as a Republican and lost. In 1860 Lincoln was able to win as a convention “Dark horse” candidate… a brokered candidate he… did not take one southern state but was majority winner in the north and before the vote was counted the southern states started to leave the union…secession and the bloodiest war in the history of the republic was to be the reality for the Republican party..
The Republican Party was at the helm of a burning ship and the south was determined to jump ship and go off on its own under the banner of states’ rights. The South willing and able to fight for the right to keep their Agra-slave culture and fight they did.
Lincoln would not negotiate the dissolution of the union to him it was a contract forged in the blood of the American Revolution and was fixed by the constitution. Lincoln as President said no deal…the union must stand… The free land, free labor, yeoman party the Republicans were in the fight of their lives... This was to be a winner takes all war… brother against brother, friend against friend; Father against son. The war would make a new nation formed and controlled by the Republican Party.
The point is Lincoln was the right man at the right time to fill a Presidency which was almost beyond human ability. He did the job with humility, with the total belief he was right in his saving the American model of government and he did it with some common sense and perhaps most important with a keen sense of humor. He tried not to take himself too seriously. Yet he never doubted the need for success. The union must be preserved.
The first (so called) union victory…the Battle of Antietam saw tens of thousands killed and forever maimed on the field of battle :Lincoln released the Emancipation Proclamation (the first major claimed union victory) The north again showed its growing combat ability to check the south on the battle field in July of 1863 in the small border town of Gettysburg Penn. This engagement was a more frightening loss of men the than the last victory over… 50 thousand Americans were killed, wounded or captured in this three day campaigned more capsulitis that D Day a little over a hundred years later in France .
The union fielded 93,000 men
3200 were killed 14,000wounded and 5,369 missing…..
The south fielded 72,000 men
4700 were killed 12693 were wounded and 4700 were captured or missing.
Minnie ball….! Ounce of lead…Leg arms lost mortality high..
North killed /wounded 17,686….c/m5,369…23,055
South killed/wounded 17,401…c/m4,708…23,231
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The decision was made to make the battle ground a cemetery. Four months after the battle the soldier’s national cemetery at Gettysburg was dedicated and the President Abraham Lincoln was asked to make comment.
He wrote one of the most concise statements about Americans and America ever! a corner stone of American Political writing.
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation. Or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of the war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who gave their lives, that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow the ground. The brave men living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who have fought here have thus far so nobly advanced, it is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us…That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.
That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain…that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom… and that Government of the people, by the people, for the people ,shall not perish from the earth.”
So what does this all have to do with us here today..
Many people believe that we are in a very similar place we were in 1860s. and the republicans need to field a Lincoln Good Luck…! But not so fast Abraham Lincoln was a marginal success in his own time he became a legend after his assassination and though the years his fame and greatness grew as most icons do… he became bigger than life. Even he would have trouble being Abraham Lincoln today..
So don’t look for a 16th president look for what is it the 44th 45th..The man you as a party choose has the best chance in a long time to take the House , Senate, and Presidency…Americans are not happy with the way they have been treated, the way their government has made them feel invisible…Bring the American people back into the light and you can have the win….remember The Government of the people, by the people and for the people. must not parish from the earth.
A point to ponder
Filed under Points to Ponder, Comments
Posted by Phil Mikan on Feb. 20, 2012
Did any one of your friends send you the internet pictures of the five little piglets that were dressed in tiger stripes so a female tiger who had just lost her litter of tiger babies would take care of them, the pigs that is …so she would not miss her own lost babies. It worked you see the pigs without their stripes and they are surrounding the momma tiger. So they didn’t become supper, they became family. Somehow the call of motherhood crossed interspecies boundaries for good.
Or go to the internet and search for the crow and the cat. That’s rights a crow adopts a kitten that was abandoned and takes care of it as if it was her chick. The crow feeds it bugs and worms and keeps it safe and in food. A Massachusetts couple saw the relationship between the bird and the cat come together in their backyard. The crow would keep the kitten from crossing the street when it was not safe and just plain took care of the kitten. You can see it for yourself on interspeciesfriends.blogdot.com
Then there is the story of a young squirrel that fell out of a tree and was taken over by a Papillion expecting puppies. She moved the cage the squirrel was in next to her cushion, when the puppies were born the little gray thing became puppy number 6 end of story.
If a bird and a cat or a tiger and piglets, or a squirrel and dog can take care and befriend each other, there has got to be hope for we poor human types. We as a species know better… the other animals just got lucky …or are they the smart ones? God works his wonders in ways we can only wonder at.
Filed under Points to Ponder, Comments
Posted by Phil Mikan on Feb. 13, 2012
Ok… so we now have 27 amendments to the constitution of the United States. And I am not making this up but there were Ten thousand attempts since the ratifying of the constitution to add amendments. Would you like to hear some of the failed amendments? Good I thought so!
How about the one that disenfranchises an American citizen if he or she takes a title of nobility from another country, this one is still pending, it has not failed but not passed either, it was proposed in 1810. How about the 1991 attempted Amendment to mandate a balanced budget by our congress, that one failed. Then there was the 2005 amendment to birthright citizenship, just being born here would not make you a citizen your parents had to be born here as well. That failed. In 2003 an amendment was attempted to make a marriage legal in this country between a man and woman only…it failed.
English as the official language of the United States was attempted in 2005 that failed, and the amendment to make the IRS and income tax illegal in 1997 failed. The amendment for women’s equal rights not only failed but failed after the 7 year ratification period was extended for an additional 7 years.
To ratify an amendment to the constitution ¾ of the states must ratify the amendment… the amendment must first pass both the house and the senate and is then sent onto to the states for ratification. If an amendment proves to be a bad law it can be repealed with another amendment. That’s what happened with the prohibition of alcohol, the amendment was passed in 1919 and repealed in 1932 it was one of the major promises of FDR’s presidential campaign. This was the only time an amendment was literally overruled by the people they ignored it and many just broke the law. Compromise cannot be forced. It must be agreed on. It was a regressive law. Point to ponder
Filed under Points to Ponder, Comments
Posted by Phil Mikan on Feb. 5, 2012
We, as a country, have been watching the preparation of our Republican citizens for the coming general election.
Mr. Obama is looking to be a very formidable opponent — very formidable. As it should be, the power to run my country should be something worth fighting for and difficult to win. The Republicans want the power back. They have been brawling all over the country trying to prove who the best-qualified candidate is to be the leader of the United States. And they are now getting down to fish-or-cut-bait time. As I am writing this, I think the former speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, should get the nomination.
He has a sense of the way things can get done in the House and the Senate, and should be able to surround himself with qualified people to help achieve the regenerating of the America I remember, where people were not frightened; they were proud to be Americans and knew their children were looking at the best future opportunities possible. We are the land of the free and home of the brave — a Norman Rockwell painting.
Mr. Obama talks the talk, but I have not seen him walk the walk. The oil pipeline he deferred on is the kind of thing you are damned if you do and you are damned if you don’t, but America needs the energy and the jobs. We need a president who looks like Mitt Romney and thinks like Newt Gingrich; a man of the people and for the people. Mr. Obama is a mystery in his thinking and a disconnect with the American people. We need a JFK or FDR or Andrew Jackson — a composite president, a person we put together from a number of different parts from different candidates. We can make our own Frankenstein leader. Why not?
A point to ponder
Filed under Points to Ponder, Comments