Sen. Everett Dirksen (R, IL) negotiated compromise provisions in LBJ’s 1964 Civil Rights bill that were needed to obtain the support of other Republican senators. He told his GOP colleagues to support this bill, even though it was advocated by a Democratic president, ‘because it was morally right.’ Dirksen’s legislative skills delivered a sufficient number of GOP votes to overcome the filibuster of Southern Democrats, who had long opposed federal civil rights legislation in favor of allowing state ‘Jim Crow’ laws to remain in effect. This kind of outcome is possible when voters elect people with good character who believe in government and want to get things done.
Wendell Willkie, left, a wealthy Wall Street lawyer who challenged Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election, opposed much of the New Deal and was against helping beleaguered Allies through a Lend-Lease program. He also opposed direct US involvement in the war, calling FDR a warmonger. But after FDR’s strong victory in November, Willkie changed his tune. He gave FDR strong political support, infuriating conservative Republicans, and made two wartime foreign trips as Roosevelt's informal envoy. Wilkie also helped secure passage of the Lend-Lease Act in the Congress. It's never too late to do the right thing.
On Sept. 6, 1901, Leon Czolgos fired two shots from a concealed hand gun point blank into President's William McKinley chest as he stood in a receiving line in Buffalo. James “Big Jim” Parker, a Black man born a slave, knocked the gun from Czolgosz’s hand and tackled him to the ground, preventing him from firing a third shot. Parker’s role initially made him a national hero, but white Secret Service agents falsely claimed later that Parker was not involved. Parker’s image was expunged from some artist drawings of the assassination; and although Parker had refused commercial offers related to his actions, some newspapers claimed he was a 'glory-seeker.' Black activists charged that racism motivated these false allegations. Later, several eye-witness accounts depicting Parker’s role accurately restored his hero status; and Parker’s portrait now hangs in Buffalo’s McKinley High School.
Left: Children look at toys in Macy's Christmas window, 1911. Right: FAO Schwarz 5th Ave. store, NYC, 1911.
On Dec. 12, 1962, President and Mrs. Kennedy hosted a Christmas party for 1,200 White House staff members and their families. Guests received a print of Edward Lehman’s watercolor painting of the newly refurbished Red Room, signed by the President and First Lady.
Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman [shown in flight, above], Jim Lovell and Bill Anders — the first humans to leave Earth orbit — orbited the Moon ten times on Christmas Eve 1968 without landing and then returned to Earth safely. Their historic mission brought the world a photo called Earthrise, right, which was a poignant reminder of the insignificance of Earthly troubles in the vastness of the Universe. During the Christmas Eve Moon orbits, the crew read the first ten verses of the Book of Genesis [infuriating atheist activists] in a televised broadcast that reached one billion people. It was the most watched program in television history at that time.
Left: Santa delivers Christmas care packages to troops stationed at combat outposts in Afghanistan, 2009. Right: S/Sgt John F. O'Brien of Pittsburgh, PA, in a foxhole with C-rations and a little Christmas tree, WWII.
FDR in 1944. On the right, the library at his home in Hyde Park, NY, now managed by the Nat. Park Service.
From FDR’s 1944 Christmas address:
“This generation has passed through many recent years of deep darkness, watching the spread of the poison of Hitlerism and Fascism in Europe—the growth of imperialism and militarism in Japan- and the final clash of war all over the world.
“Then came the dark days of the fall of France, and the ruth…
