Posted By Russ Emerson on March 26, 2004 at 10:11 pm
The always indispensible Victor Davis Hanson:
We should remember that this war of barbarism against civilization is global and connected. Poor Mr. Villepin [who is, we have been told, a man – Russ] may ignore that his country’s appeasement and profit-making in Iraq were helpful to Saddam Hussein’s state-sponsored terrorism and he may believe that things are worse in Baghdad now. But he will learn that past French double-dealing, flamboyant anti-Americanism, and obsequiousness to Iranian theocrats will win him no reprieve from these purveyors of a new Dark Age. The extremists will be just as likely to murder French children over banning headscarves as they would have had three Gallic divisions fought in Iraq.
At (where else?) National Review Online
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Posted By Russ Emerson on March 24, 2004 at 10:22 pm
Dad was born into the Great Depression, lost his father when he was only three years old, and grew up in poverty, in what passed for slums in the San Francisco of the ’40s and ’50s. What kind of chance could he have to succeed in life?
He went to college due to athletics – basketball and football. Even in the ’50s, college athletes weren’t presented many academic challenges. He loved to tell us about a class he actually took — “Square Dance Calling.” But he was a bit more studious than that.
He was educated to be an English teacher, and retained a love of literature all his life. I have a lot of books, but Dad had a lot of good books. But when he graduated from college, there was a glut of English teachers; his career path veered away from academia.
He took a job for a small finance company, starting at the bottom as a collector and repo man. Back then, finance companies often sent their collectors door-to-door with a ledger book and a cashbox to collect peoples’ monthly loan payments. Dad got the “hard cases” — he used to tell us of the butcher who always answered the door wearing a blood-spattered apron, meat-cleaver in hand. He wouldn’t ever pay the other collectors, but Dad collected where others had failed.
He quickly worked his way up in the business. At age 37, he became president of a finance company at the edge of disaster, turned it around, and took it to the peak of success. He stayed at the helm for over 20 years.
He was a respected leader in the business community and in the church.
He (and Mom, of course) raised three of us kids, none of whom are in jail, on drugs, or otherwise screwed up. (OK, we may be a bit screwy, but not screwed up.)
He and Mom did it all on their own. No handouts, no Welfare, no wealthy great-great-uncles.
At age 60, he retired from the bank and began working on a startup. Then, just six months later, he died.
Today would have been his 68th birthday.
I think about him every single day.
I still miss him terribly.
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