My beloved Grandmother Ella Parker Vale, a very distinguished member of the Chickasaw Nation, cared for me since my birth and lived with our family off and on for many years. She died in Oklahoma City on April 1, 1985.
We always knew when Grandma was coming for a visit because six or seven large cardboard boxes would arrive at our home shortly before she arrived! She was and is a great mentor of mine. In fact, I am giving her a whole chapter in a book I am writing.
Grandma loved following the Presidential Elections, every four years.The first one she got me involved in was the Presidential Election of 1952 between General Dwight D, Isenhower, and Adlai Stephenson. President Isenhower won in a landslide. We listened to the Democratic and Republican Conventions by radio that year, as we did not have a TV.
Almost two years after his election as President, my father took me to hear President Isenhower speak when he dedicated the Mc Nary Dam on the Columbia River. We were so far back in the crowd that my father put me on his shoulders so I could see and hear him speak. I can still remember the date, September 23, 1954!
When I was 16 and had television, I also heard President Isenhower give his Farewell Speech on January 13, 1961, after almost two terms in Office. It was President Isenhower who coined the term, " the Industrial Military Complex" that he so prophetically speaks about in the attached video. To me, these were the key messages in his Farewell Speech that have very significant meaning, now and into the future!
"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. We must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together."
"Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we -- you and I, and our government -- must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow."
"Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield."
"Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent, I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war -- as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years -- I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight."
"You and I -- my fellow citizens -- need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice. May we are ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the Nation's great goals."
"We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied. That those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full. That all those who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings and those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities. That all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity and that the scourges of poverty, disease, and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth. And in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love."
It seems we have strayed very far from this guidance and prayer over the past 55 years!
Brother Phil