Louis Roney: The mystery of history

Around 2100 B.C., Abraham left Ur in Chaldea. At the same time, ancient Peruvians were cultivating cotton. Probably in 27 A.D., Jesus Christ was baptized. About that time, the Romans were invading Britain.

While Geoffrey Chaucer was finishing “The Canterbury Tales” in England in 1387, Germany was founding Heidelberg and Cologne Universities.

A 33 year-old painter named Michelangelo Buonarroti was commissioned by the Pope in 1508 to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The Pope was probably the most important person in Rome in his day. But who would recall which Pope was reigning in the Vatican, if Julius II had not contracted for Michelangelo to hang upside down and do his thing in the Sistine Chapel ceiling for four years?

What do you think of when you think of 1941? If you were in Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7 and survived, you will think of the Japanese sneak attack — “a day that will live in infamy forever,” in the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

If you are an avid baseball fan, you’ll remember New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio’s hitting safely in 56 consecutive games — and the death of another Yankee great, Lou Gehrig, from a disease now named for him.

If you are a physicist, you’ll think of 1941 as the first year of the “Manhattan Project,” which led to the atomic bomb.

If you are an engineer, you may recall that Grand Coulee Dam began operating that year in the state of Washington.

If you like reading fiction, you may remember the publishing of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Last Tycoon,” A.J. Cronin’s “The Keys of the Kingdom,” and J.P. Marquand’s “H.M. Pulham, Esquire.”

If theater is your thing, you’ll perhaps think of Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit.”

If you’re a movie buff, you’ll recall Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane,” and John Ford’s “How Green Was My Valley.”

But, don't forget, 1941 means “Chattanooga Choo-choo” and “Deep in the Heart of Texas.”

As you can see, it was an interesting year. Aren’t they all? Asking one simple question sometimes leads to realizations that otherwise evade us: How could we Americans have put into the White House a man who reveals himself to be a shameless prevaricator, who declares his goal to be the fundamental “remaking of the United States?”

Politicians are often not easy to like, and this guy makes that job easier. I zeroed in on Obama’s precise feelings re his gargantuan up-rooting process: He intensely dislikes the United States status quo. Our president is a man who has paid a very small price for his presidency. He had but a modicum of legislative experience.

One prominent pursuit of Obama’s has been his energetic preoccupation with socialism. Now that he is president, he is trying to turn our proud republic into his socialistic creation. Obama believes clearly in sharing the wealth—your wealth—and leveling all power sources that do not add to his own clout.

There are still plenty of us citizens who think we should go back to a smaller government. We would relish the production of wealth shorn of corruption.

How many of us wish that things “remain just they are now?”— damned few, I would guess. The status quo is mired up to its neck in the muddy deals of politicians, and we must get unstuck before we can advance at all. Wouldn’t it be grand if, one day soon, we could install a president who would not track shame into the Oval Office?

William J. H. Boetcker, a religious leader and speaker, wrote words that are eerily fitting today: “You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot establish security on borrowed money. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they will not do for themselves.” Many U.S. politicians have failed to pay proper attention to the wisdom of Boetcker’s logical philosophical dicta.

Has Obama bettered anything? And now we have Hillary following in his footsteps. Whether the people of the United States will size up Hillary’s clandestine aims and give her an electoral “boot” remains to be seen.

There is hardly a historic dead-end that Hillary is not pursuing, and a person of her expanding imagination will undoubtedly toss in a few more before it’s all over!

Democrats seem now to be socialists, and Republicans are looking like Democrats—is this how history should be appearing to us these days?