{"id":97156,"date":"2018-10-13T09:12:32","date_gmt":"2018-10-13T13:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=97156"},"modified":"2018-10-12T11:16:04","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T15:16:04","slug":"column-musings-of-a-simple-country-man-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=97156","title":{"rendered":"COLUMN: Musings of a Simple Country Man"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Hobie Morris<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Profile in Political Red Rose Courage<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Hobie Morris<\/em><\/p>\n

If Lincoln were alive today he would be turning over in his grave.\u00a0 \u2013 President Gerald Ford<\/p>\n

When a political movement goes off the beam and wanders too close to the edge of demagoguery and fear and fear mongering becomes too tempting as the lure of political advantage outweighs scruple and taste and decency, someone has to step up.<\/em> \u2013 David Nyhan, Boston Globe, May 31, 1995.<\/p>\n

For years this simple country man and his wonderful, charming wife Lois corresponded with\u00a0\u00a0 a remarkable woman living in Skowhegan, Maine.\u00a0 When she passed on Memorial Day, 1995, at the age of 97, the footprints she left behind have continued to resonate, inspire and educate.\u00a0 Her wisdom and incredible courage in time of great anger and divisiveness, such as we have today, are a civics lesson for all Americans.<\/p>\n

America\u2019s most revered historian David McCullough, in his book \u2013The American Spirit, pays special homage to this courageous woman.\u00a0 In a Washington Post interview the author takes special umbrage at the lack of courageous Congressional leadership, especially in the Republican Party and a President, who has seriously devalued the dignity of the Oval Office.\u00a0 McCullough notes \u201cthere is an important precedent for a greater show of leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senator Margaret Chase Smith was a first term Republican congressman from Maine.\u00a0 She would serve 24 years in the Senate and before that 8 years in the House of Representatives.\u00a0 She was the first woman to win election to both houses of Congress.\u00a0 For 12 years she was the only woman in the Senate.\u00a0 Twice she was considered for the Vice Presidency, and in l964 she became a Presidential candidate, receiving 27 first ballot votes at the Republican National Convention.\u00a0 Until she broke her hip she made almost 3,000 consecutive roll calls.\u00a0 One time this indefatigable campaigner slipped on ice, broke her arm, had it treated at a nearby hospital and continued her campaigning the same day.\u00a0 When she was in her 70\u2019s, every weekend she would drive 1,300 miles round trip from Washington to her Maine home and constituency.<\/p>\n

On June 1, 1950, with her ever present red rose pinned on her dress, she stood up alone and did what other senators feared to do, which was to criticize fellow Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy.\u00a0 (A writer once wrote about her that \u201ca red rose was her trademark, a stalwart conscience her beacon.\u201d) Six fellow senators stood silently behind her.\u00a0 \u00a0In a fifteen minute talk, she denounced a rogue that men in the Senate considered untouchable.<\/p>\n

McCarthy was a sneering bully in trying to suppress Communism and fellow travelers with sensationalist, inquisitorial tactics.\u00a0 Senator Smith in her \u201cDeclaration of Conscience\u201d put a backbone into a Congress that had shamefully allowed itself by a rabble rousing Red hater to be cowed into fear.\u00a0 No Reds or fellow travelers were ever uncovered, but many careers were destroyed before McCarthy was censored in 1954.\u00a0 (McCarthy would call Smith and her supporters \u201csnow white and six dwarfs.)<\/p>\n

Historian McCullough believed that Senator Smith\u2019s 15 minute address \u201cchanged the course of history.\u201d\u00a0 Even Democratic President Harry Truman would later say to Smith \u201cyour Declaration of Conscience was one of the finest things that has happened here in Washington in all my years in the Senate and the White House.\u201d\u00a0 Even Democratic Senator Hubert Humphrey warmly congratulated Senator Smith.\u00a0 She said to her friend \u201cwell, if you feel that way, why don\u2019t you say something too?\u201d\u00a0 Humphrey was aghast.\u00a0 \u201cI couldn\u2019t,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cIt would be political suicide.\u201d (Senator Smith actually had a great deal of respect for Senator McCarthy as a person and politician, but she knew he had deep demons that affected him, including alcoholism.)<\/p>\n

This simple country man has jotted down a few excerpts from Senator Smith\u2019s memorable address.<\/p>\n

\u201cI speak as a Republican.\u00a0 I speak as a woman. I speak as a United States Senator.\u00a0 I speak as an American.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the four horseman of calumny\u2014fear, ignorance, bigotry and smear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFreedom of speech is not what it used to be in America.\u00a0 It has been so abused by some that it is not exercised by others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith also said that those who shouted loudest about Americanism all too frequently ignore such basic principles of Americanism as \u201cthe right to criticize, the right to hold unpopular beliefs, the right to protest, the right of independent thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senator Margaret Chase Smith\u2019s Declaration of Conscience remains today just as powerful a message to a democracy suffering many of the ills she so eloquently described and proscribed remedies for in a truly remarkable 15-minute Profile in Courage.<\/p>\n

This simple country man and his lovely wife, living off the grid in the Brookfield hills, were indeed blessed and honored to be friends with this indomitable conscience of the Senate.<\/p>\n

Hobie Morris of Brookfield is a simple country man.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Profile in Political Red Rose Courage By Hobie Morris If Lincoln were alive today he would be turning over in his grave.\u00a0 \u2013 President Gerald Ford When a political movement goes off the beam and wanders too close to the edge of demagoguery and fear and fear mongering becomes too tempting as the lure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23677,3,23808,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-local","category-opinion","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}