National Young Reader's Day 2024 is on Monday, November 11, 2024: I need help with this American History question about Watergate.?
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1) There was a palpable sigh of collective relief after Nixon resigned. The scandal was really much more about the cover-up of this "third-rate burglary" and the lengths Nixon and his henchmen went to in covering it up than the actual break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate hotel. (His problems were compounded by the disclosure of the White House tapes and the firing of special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox --- aka the "Saturday Night Massacre.")
Nixon's actions made a lot of Americans bitter and cynical toward their leaders. It left a lasting scar on the democratic process because of the cynicism and anger and, eventually, apathy it fostered among the citizens who are supposed to be at the spearhead of this process. Next time you hear someone say something to the effect of "I didn't vote -- they're all a bunch of crooks," well, Nixon had as much to do with that on a national level as the hundreds of corrupt mayors and city council members and congressmen have had at local levels.
2) Hell, no! Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, and look at what President Cheney (who started his political career as an intern in the Nixon White House) is doing in playing loose and fast with the law and trying to classify every single document that comes to and from his office. (Obi-Dick has taught him well.) We may never know the extent of what he has hidden. Barring real security issues (not the trumped-up ones this administration uses), it's never acceptable -- our leaders need to be as transparent and accountable as possible. We need to know we can trust them to do the right thing and call them on it when they're wrong. That's one of the reasons why many Americans are calling for the impeachment of Cheney and his arrogant, feeble-minded little puppet, George -- not only are they now questioning the reasons we were given for going into Iraq, but they're wondering what Cheney has to hide, and he's apparently hidden a hell of a lot in the name of executive privilege.
I'm sure those staunch Federalists, Alexander Hamilton and John Adams, would have defended the current administration were they alive, while Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and their likes would have flipped their powdered wigs.
3) The uncovering and unraveling of the Watergate scandal by two young Washington Post reporters -- Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, essentially young local beat reporters who covered a burglary and found that the investigative story of the century fell into their laps -- produced a generation of would-be Woodsteins. Chances are they wouldn't have become as popular had not Robert Redford (the leading film sex symbol of the time, as Woodward) and Dustin Hoffman (another big box-office draw, as Bernstein) portrayed them in "All the President's Men." But whatever -- what they did, in bringing down a president, made them heroes of sorts and made hordes of impressionable teens and young adults want to pursue journalism as a noble calling.
The public image of journalists might never have been higher than it was after Watergate. But journalists -- unfairly and unfortunately -- aren't given the same respect these days. That's for several reasons: 1) Some of the high-profile scandals in recent years -- say, Jayson Blair and Judy Miller at The New York Times -- have tarnished everyone's reputations with a broad brush; 2) People generally don't read newspapers they way they once did; papers are losing circulation because of the Internet, TV, would-be readers' longer working hours (meaning less time to linger over a paper), and because many beancounters in the business are offering their readers less news and smaller papers; 3) Part of it may be partisan. The public, for example, sees how the current White House press corps is essentially a pack of lapdogs for a corrupt administration (you had to see Bill Moyers' PBS program on "Selling the War" back in the spring to really appreciate this), or they see how Fox News is essentially the propaganda wing of the Republican Party. While some radical-right partisans might be pleased, the general public (at least the percentage of the public that's not apathetic) looks upon the press with disdain and even disgust; and 4) Even the owners of newspapers generally don't treat their reporters with a hell of a lot of respect. They're letting hundreds of reporters and editors go around the country in order to satisfy a gluttonous Wall Street that says that 20-25% profit margins aren't good enough. Lost in the layoffs and buyouts and the closing of bureaus are dozens of good veteran journalists with thousands of years of institutional knowledge -- which cheats readers out of being able to get in-depth stories on issues that affect them. Many of the largest chains (most notably Tribune Co., owners of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Newsday, The Baltimore Sun and The Hartford Courant) and quite a few other large-city dailies (Dallas Morning News, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News) have been bleeding their newsrooms dry of late. If owners don't care about their own workers, why should the public at large?
Why do people pretend that immigration is a good thing?
Canada, Australia, the US, anyone? any or all are far more diverse than Yugoslavia ever dreamed of being. Bosnians and Serbs are not different races by the way. take a look sometime. different religions to some extent, different nationalities, but not races, unless you prefer to think that Germans are a race. By the way, by that definition, Brits are already multiracial, given the various folks that selttled the island over time. and, I'm just so sure that Labor stayed up late at night, trying to dilute the white genes in the UK. speaking of EVIDENCE, got any for that? Genocide can indeed be accomplished by more than one means, but not by procreating. marry who you want. anyone in Labor ever tell you who to love or set up house with?
Should Obama have asked more Clergy to pray at the Inauguration? Controversy (10 points for best discussion)?
He will likely attend with VP Joe Biden some other religious services that will be interfaith and multi-religion - - Obama, of course, is a UCC Member and it would have been well if he had invited someone of that Christian denomination or maybe even a Jewish liberal-moderate-Reconstructionist rabbi ? / a Unitarian from the Univ. of Chicago
