November 2018
11/11/2018
Today is Veteran’s Day. My sincerest thank you! to all military veterans.
On the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, exactly one hundred years ago today, a temporary cease fire (armistice) between the Allied Nations and Germany stopped four years of brutal chemical and conventional arms World War I slaughter.
In 1926, a Congressional Resolution (44 Stat. 1982) recognizing the end of World War I stated, in part:
“WHEREAS the 11th of November 1918, marked the cessation of the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals and the resumption by the people of the United States of peaceful relations with other nations, [italics added] which we hope may never again be severed, and
WHEREAS it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with …exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations…[italics added]
WHEREAS the legislatures of 27 of our States have already declared November to be a legal holiday: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), that the President of the United States is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on November 11 and inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.” [italics added]
Twelve years later, on May 13, 1938, a Congressional Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U. S. Code, Sec. 87a), made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday—a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace [italics added] and to be thereafter celebrated and known as "Armistice Day."
Twenty-eight years later, on October 8, 1954, in order to honor veterans of World War II and Korea as well as those of World War I, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Veterans Day Proclamation 3071 stated in part:
“NOW, THEREFORE, I, DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, President of the United States of America, do hereby call upon all of our citizens to observe Thursday, November 11, 1954, as Veterans Day. On that day [italics added] let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting and enduring peace [italics added] so that their efforts shall not have been in vain...”
As you can see in these documents, Veteran’s Day is about remembering those who have provided military service to the United States. You can also see these documents contain language about fostering peace and mutual understanding between people and nations; something the founder of the U.S. Fulbright Scholar Program, Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright, felt strongly about. This is evidenced in Senator Fulbright’s expression of similar sentiment whenever he spoke or wrote about his 1946 Fulbright Scholar Program Senate legislation; the main objective of which, was to establish positive and productive international relations furthering peace among nations. Therefore, on this Veteran’s Day, 2018, it seems appropriate I should also honor Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright. I would like to do this by highlighting a few of his quotes found on the United States Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs website (https://eca.state.gov/fulbright/about-fulbright/history/j-william-fulbright/j-william-fulbright-quotes):
“The making of peace is a continuous process [italics added] that must go on from day to day, from year to year, so long as our civilization shall last.”
"I have thought of everything I can think of, and the one thing that gives me some hope is the ethos that underlies the educational exchange program. That ethos, in sum, is the belief that international relations can be improved, and the danger of war significantly reduced, [italics added] by producing generations of leaders, especially in the big counties, who through the experience of educational exchange, will have acquired some feeling and understanding of other peoples' cultures--why they operate as they do, why they think as they do, why they react as they do--and of the differences among these cultures. It is possible--not very probable, but possible--that people can find in themselves, through intercultural education, the ways and means of living together in peace." [italics added; From The Price of Empire]
"Educational exchange can turn nations into people, contributing as no other form of communication can to the humanizing of international relations. Man's capacity for decent behavior seems to vary directly with his perception of others as individual humans with human motives and feelings, whereas his capacity for barbarism seems related to his perception of an adversary in abstract terms, as the embodiment, that is, of some evil design or ideology." [italics added; Speech to the Council on International Educational Exchange, 1983]
"International educational exchange is the most significant current project designed to continue the process of humanizing mankind to the point, we would hope, that men can learn to live in peace--eventually even to cooperate in constructive activities rather than compete in a mindless contest of mutual destruction [italics added]...We must try to expand the boundaries of human wisdom, empathy and perception, and there is no way of doing that except through education." [From remarks on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the Fulbright Program, 1976]
"Our future is not in the stars but in our own minds and hearts. Creative leadership and liberal education, which in fact go together, are the first requirements for a hopeful future for humankind. Fostering these--leadership, learning, and empathy between cultures--was and remains the purpose of the international scholarship program that I was privileged to sponsor in the U.S. Senate over forty years ago. It is a modest program with an immodest aim--the achievement in international affairs of a regime more civilized, rational and humane than the empty system of power of the past. [italics added] I believed in that pos
Finally, in 1986, Senator Fulbright spoke at the ceremony commemorating the 40th anniversary of his Fulbright program. In that speech, he stated, in part:
“Perhaps the greatest power of such intellectual exchange is to convert nations into peoples and to translate ideologies into human aspirations. [italics added] To continue to build more weapons, especially more exotic and unpredictable machines of war, will not build trust and confidence. The most sensible way to do that is to engage the parties in joint ventures for mutually constructive and beneficial purposes . . . To formulate and negotiate agreements of this kind requires well-educated people leading or advising our government. To this purpose, the Fulbright program is dedicated.”
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