Weekly Comments Archive
Archived Issue
Sunday, November 11, 2018
ISSUE #952
Election is over (except in Florida) and Armistice Day

Whoa. Florida is doing it to us again. After the results were announced late Tuesday night, the Election Boss in Broward County contacted Tallahassee saying, “Hold your horses. We have several hundred thousand ballots yet to count. And many of them haven’t been marked yet.” I think she sent the message by telegram.

Would you like to be in charge of putting on an election? You have one job, for one day, every two years. And you have about 720 days to prepare for it. (And you thought preachers had it easy, six days to prepare for one day a week.)

The good news is that 99.9 percent of these officials across the country do their job well. The bad news is that a couple of them forgot that Nov. 6 was Election Day and that vote counting was to be finished by midnight.

Was Will Rogers referring to Broward County 94 years ago? “If I was running for office I would rather have two friends in the counting room than a Republican Slush fund behind me. More candidates have been defeated after 6 o’clock in the evening than were ever defeated during Election Day.” WA #100, Nov. 9, 1924

Democrats elected enough Congressmen and women to regain control of the House. With a Republican Senate and Republican President most folks are saying in the next two years even less will be done (if that is possible). So it could be a repeat of 1924: “Washington, D. C. papers say: ‘Congress is deadlocked and can’t act.’ I think that is the greatest blessing that could befall this country.” WA #59, Jan. 27, 1924

One hundred years ago, Nov, 11, 1918, World War I ended with an Armistice. President Trump is in France honoring the sacrifice our American boys made to save Europe from the Germans. Over 4,000,000 served, and 110,000 died. Oddly, in comments today, President Macron of France did not seem to appreciate the patriotism of our boys in helping to save the hide of his countrymen. And this scorning by European leaders of our contribution is nothing new. Here’s Will Rogers in 1926, “There is only one way we could be in worse with Europeans, and that is to have helped them out in two wars instead of one.” Letters of a Self-Made Diplomat to his President, page 4.

Personal note: My great-uncle, Bill Lowther, served in WWI. He returned to the farm in Wildcat, WV, owned and ran a small general store, and lived to age 105.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:

“Today was Armistice Day, celebrated to commemorate the end of the slaughter.” DT #80, Nov. 11, 1926

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