Impeachment?

I thought we were done with this, cries for impeachment of Supreme Brett Kavanaugh.  Most if not all of the Democrat Presidential hopefuls have either called for impeachment proceedings or have suggested them.  I have a question for these folks.  How did they stand on the vote not to remove Bill Clinton from the Presidency 20 years ago?  After all, several of the Dems referred to Kavanaugh as "lying under oath" to Congress, although is it "lying" if Kavanaugh denied doing something that never happened?  Clinton, too, lied under oath and had his license to practice law in Arkansas suspended for five years.  He also, due to the lies, was disbarred from Supreme Court practice, although I think he voluntarily gave up that to preclude further penalties/punishments.  So, if Kavanaugh should be impeached due to lying under oath, which it more and more appears he wasn't remotely doing so, what about Clinton?  What about the Democrat Senators  who, if I recall, voted unanimously "not guilty?"

And I have lost a lot of interest in the Democrats' impeachment efforts toward President Trump.  It seems to me much ado about nothing.  But I am willing to concede maybe there is something somewhere.  I hear talk of Trump's behavior as "unconstitutional."  Yep, I understand that.  But what about other Presidents who have had their actions overturned by the Supremes?  Weren't those Presidents acting, then, "unconstitutionally?" Why weren't there impeachment proceedings against them?

I know this will elicit howls and maybe even name-calling (but I'm used to it), but where were such strident impeachment calls against Obama?  Can anyone, with a straight face, deny that he exceeded on far more than one occasion his Constitutional powers?  That is, he acted unconstitutionally.  So.....?

Yet, instead of actually doing anything (and that they aren't is likely a good thing?), the Clown Show called the US Congress proceeds.  Here's how much of a circus it is.  Last week, my represenative sent a newsletter touting the latest achievement of hers.  She helped pass legislation protecting pets.  I'm not saying we shouldn't take care of our pets.  But one would think their are thousands of anti-cruelty-to-animals laws in this country--state and local laws.  But, I guess in a Clown Show, that is a big deal.

History

I know history isn’t important.  It doesn’t have its own place on the public school state tests.   For years if the coach or art teacher (or someone) didn’t have enough classes to teach, he/she was given a history class or two.  After all, “It’s just history.”  (If "Anyone can teach," what do we ask about one teaching history?)  

I was once, at one of the colleges, asked to fill in at the last minute (an emergency) for another history class.  I agreed and asked the dean relevant questions:  What course was it?  What was the subject/topic for the day?  She just replied, “I don’t know.  It’s history.”  She dismissed me with, “History is history.” 

It seems fewer and fewer college students are majoring in history.  Many people see it as a “dead-end” subject, one that doesn’t lead to jobs.  I'm sure students are counseled to believe that.  They are told this by family members and others. How short-sighted and narrow-minded is that?

Last September, I received a schedule of events for the Amherst Homecoming Weekend later in October.  At Homecomings (and Reunions) the college presents activities for the Alumni, often classes, lectures, panel discussions, to attend.  (Yeah, I’ve heard the jokes.  “Do you have to take a test?”)  I noted that, at least on this schedule, there were no history classes (the students' history classes) for the Alumni to sit in on.  There were economics, English, math, a variety of sciences, etc., but not a single history course.  Maybe, I hope, history classes don’t meet on Fridays?  Yeah, that must be the reason, not that nobody is interested in history.

That said, reading history, especially written by gifted writers like David McCullough, Joseph Ellis, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and others, is not just entertaining, exciting to read.  Episodes of the past, requiring very little imagination, can easily be seen in our times and lives of today.  Are these the lessons of history teachers speak of?  ("...teachers speak of?"  I remember what Winston Churchill purportedly said about the rule to never end a sentence with a prepostion.  "This is the sort of thing up with which I will not put."  So there!)  

A Russian official in the ‘50s said, “The American loves his car, his refrigerator, his house.  But he does not love his country.”   Perhaps a bit of hyperbole, but I think maybe that, in a sense, pertains to today.  Do we love our NFL, reality and other television shows, vacations, and other creature comforts more than we love or at least appreciate the country that has allowed us to have them?  For many Americans, it sure seems so.  They take things for granted.  Many think they “deserve” things, as if getting them is a “right.”  (Everything is a “right” nowadays.  I saw a headline the other day claiming, “Clean water is a right.”)  And for a good number of them, getting those things for free, that is, paid for by others, is also a “right.”  Often, such an attitude is buttressed by politicians pandering for votes.

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History can teach us, if we are willing to learn, that what we have today did not always come easily.  Many people had to work hard, sacrificed their lives, etc. so we can live as we do.  I read a story way back when about Lech Walesa, the Polish leader of the union Solidarity.  Solidarity took the lead in what was to lead to the downfall of the commies in Poland.  He spoke of the US Bill of Rights.  He urged Americans not to take the Bill of Rights for granted, claiming he read it every day.  Here is a guy who was beaten and imprisoned, whose life was always on the line, who had his family threatened, all to want for Poles what we have here in the US.  He is telling us that our rights do not come cheaply, that they are not automatic.  There were many people in US history who experienced the same dangers as Walesa.  We should know about them.

I thought about this the other day, too.  Today, the US has the best football players and perhaps other athletes in the world, but do we have the best teachers in the world?  Is the answer a given?  And the way we compensate those groups, we are likely to perpetuate that.  But that's a topic for another day.