Posted on 06/26/2009 4:27:52 PM PDT by kathsua
A recent road trip convinced this traveler that the radio airwaves are saturated these days with self-proclaimed experts who are espousing more solutions to our economic woes than there are problems.
A recent visit to the Will Rogers Center in Claremore, Okla., convinced this observer that what this country needs is not another talk show host, but instead, someone with the character, integrity and sense of humor of Rogers.
Some say that Rogers invented talk radio and at the peak of his career could lay claim to several million daily listeners. His commentaries were never cruel and were based on facts, and he was careful to level an equal amount of humor to both sides of the political spectrum. His expressions of eight decades ago are as relevant today as they were when he spoke them in the 1930s.
Born in 1879 in Oologah, Okla., Rogers was raised on a ranch near Claremore, which is today one of Oklahoma's top tourist attractions. Before age 12, Rogers had determined that his interests were far beyond the docile life of a rancher, and he hit the road to find fame and fortune. In a life cut short at age 56 by an airplane crash in Alaska, he would become known throughout the world as an accomplished calf roper, public speaker, comedian, actor, artist and newspaper columnist.
In 1928, he sought the presidency as a spoof and a half million voters flocked to the polls and cast their ballots for Rogers. Afterward, he observed that perhaps the country was not yet ready to elect an actor as their commander in chief but might do so in 50 years. Fifty-two years later, in 1980, the country did just that by electing Ronald Reagan.
Upon his return from a 1920s trip to Egypt, a reporter asked if he saw the Sphinx.
"No," Rogers quipped. "I have already seen President Calvin Coolidge."
His other statements were priceless.
"If we got one-tenth of what was promised to us in acceptance speeches, there would not be any inducement to go to heaven," Rogers said.
"Outside of traffic, there is nothing that has held the country back more than committees," he continued.
As a world traveler, he was never short on comments about foreign diplomats.
"A diplomat's job is to make something appear what it isn't," Rogers said. "A diplomat is one that says something that is equally misunderstanding to both sides and never clear to either."
His best barbs were aimed at the nation's capital and those who live and work there.
"We have been staggering along now for 155 years under every conceivable horse thief that could get into office and yet here we are, still going strong," Rogers said.
When Washington newspapers reported that Congress was deadlocked and could not act, Rogers uttered a quip heard throughout the nation.
"I think that is the greatest blessing that could befall the country," Rogers said.
In the week prior to the 1930 election, Rogers drew a humorous comparison to the political landscape.
"We come pretty near having two holidays of equal importance the same week - Halloween and the election," Rogers said.
"And of the two, the election provides us with the most fun," he continued. "On Halloween, they put pumpkins on their heads and on Election Day they don't have to."
"Never," Rogers said, should we blame a legislative body for not doing something.
"When they do nothing, they don't hurt anybody," he said. "When they do something is when they become dangerous."
"Congress meets tomorrow morning," Rogers observed in one of his daily columns. "Let us all pray to the Lord to give us strength to bear what is about to be inflicted upon us."
In 1932, Rogers came closest to politics when he appeared at the Democratic National Convention and sat with the Oklahoma delegation but didn't miss an opportunity to needle the process and those in attendance.
In an address to the assembled delegates, Rogers admonished the platform committee to sober up and present the party's plank on Prohibition.
Commenting on the Republican National Convention, which had renominated President Hoover, Rogers said, "They did the best with what little they had."
Commenting on Franklin Roosevelt's impending nomination, Rogers said, "If he burned down the Capitol, we would cheer and say we at least got a fire started anyhow."
On taxes, he said that the income tax has made more liars of the American people than has golf.
When the two major parties courted Rogers hoping to claim him as a member, he provided an answer that brought laughter from both groups.
"I am not a member of an organized political party," Rogers said. "I am a Democrat."
Throughout his lifetime, his trademark expression was that he never met a man he did not like, and that remains one of his greatest legacies.
"Congress meets tomorrow morning," Rogers observed in one of his daily columns. "Let us all pray to the Lord to give us strength to bear what is about to be inflicted upon us."
And Rogers had never heard of cap and trade.
I don’t know... though..., the article said...
“I am not a member of an organized political party,” Rogers said. “I am a Democrat.”
However, I’m only a few miles from where he’s buried, and I’ve been over to a house he used to live in and to his museum and where he’s buried now...
He’s an ole Okie boy... all right... :-)
Isn’t his name Dennis Miller?
Kennesaw Idabel Wagoner Oologah.
remember, that was the day of democrats like Zell Miller and such - long before the democrats got taken over by the Marxists
I never eta ham I didn’t like!
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