AND I QUOTE

"You can't help someone get up a hill without getting closer to the top yourself." – H. Norman Schwarzkopf

A GREAT VIEW, BUT NEEDS TO BE 40 DEGREES WARMER!

TODAY IN HISTORY

FEBRUARY 2 

1970:“Pistol Pete” Maravich becomes the first college basketball player to score 3,000 points. He will end his varsity career with a record 3,667.

1886: Punxsutawney Spirit editor Clymer Freas reports that “the beast has not seen its shadow” on the first official Groundhog Day.

INTERNATIONAL ASSEMBLY INSPIRES FUTURE LEADERS

Incoming district governors left the 2010 International Assembly in San Diego, California, USA, inspired to begin building communities and bridging continents.
The 2010-11 RI theme announced by President-elect Ray Klinginsmith struck a chord with many of the district governors-elect who attended the six-day annual training event.
“I really felt inspired. The question becomes how can you possibly bring back to your district the knowledge you got and the feelings and emotions you got?” said Woody Northup, of District 6710 (Kentucky, USA).
“I enjoyed seeing the internationality of Rotary in action,” said Maxine Neighbour, of District 9910 (New Caledonia; parts of New Zealand; Norfolk Island; Vanuatu). “It helps to hear that some of us are having the same problems and we’re not alone.”
The future leaders had several opportunities to network and discuss service projects, which was particularly important to incoming governors from Future Vision pilot  districts. Leaders from the 100 pilot districts convened for two days before the assembly to receive special training on the three-year pilot of The Rotary Foundation’s new grant structure. Read more
“Future Vision was a clear session, and I feel I know the way forward,” commented Richard Alborough, of District 9270 (South Africa). “I find it refreshing that we are able to start questioning and trying to find better ways of doing things.”
Remembrance of the devastation caused by the earthquake in Haiti was omnipresent. During the presentation of the flags of the Rotary world, the Haitian flag received a standing ovation. The country’s humanitarian needs were widely discussed as an example of the urgent work the governors-elect would execute during their year of leadership.
Outreach to youth, one of Klinginsmith’s emphases, also received special attention during plenary sessions on the Rotary Centers for International Studies in peace and conflict resolution  and Rotary youth programs . Several incoming district governors pledged to reinvigorate their district’s commitment to youth.
“I’ll probably put one of my younger past presidents as a chair of a New Generations community,” pledged Donald Thomas, of District 6960 (Florida, USA).
District governors-elect extolled the event’s multiple networking opportunities. Allan Maclaughlan, of District 1020 (Scotland), and Paul Scott, of District 7150 (New York, USA), said they were pleased to track down and talk face-to-face with other district leaders about current and potential service projects.
During the closing plenary session and group discussions, governors-elect reflected on the knowledge and inspiration they had gained.
“I had the knowledge. The difference is that now I know how to use it and I have the motivation to use it,” said Syed Shahab Balkhi, of District 3271 (Pakistan).

MY KIND OF GARAGE

A NUMBER YOU MAY USE

Q. Is there one phone number I can call to get information about various federal benefits and services, such as applying for Social Security and Medicare and renewing a passport?
A. Yes. The federal government has launched a telephone information service, 800-FED-INFO (1-800-333-4636), to help people who are seeking an answer to just about any question regarding U.S. government benefits and services. Operators speaking English and Spanish are available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time.
You can also find information online at Answers.usa.gov.

PRODUCTIVITY IN 11 WORDS

"One thing at a time. Most important thing first. Start now."

VINTAGE ADVERTISING

AND I QUOTE

"Never spend your money before you have it." – Thomas Jefferson

TODAY IN HISTORY

FEBRUARY 1

1960:McNeil A. Joseph, 17, and three other black college students refuse to leave a Greensboro, N.C., lunch counter after being refused service because of their race.

1946: Norway’s Trygve Lie is elected the first secretary-general of the United Nations.
 
1968: South Vietnamese Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan is photographed shooting a Viet Cong prisoner in the head.

HOW DID THE ELEPHANT AND DONKEY COME TO REPRESENT REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS?

It all started with an insult. During Andrew Jackson’s 1828 presidential campaign, his political opponents labeled him a “jackass.” Stubborn as he was, Jackson co-opted the insult and began putting a donkey on his election posters. For the rest of his career and even into his retirement, newspapers and cartoonists continued to represent Jackson either as a stubborn ass or struggling to control one.
Almost 40 years later, the donkey was used to represent not just Jackson, but a larger group of Democrats. In 1870, Thomas Nast, the German-born political cartoonist who gave us the versions of Santa Claus and Uncle Sam we know today, drew a cartoon for Harper’s Weekly titled “A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion.” The donkey was a stand-in for “Copperhead Democrats” (the Northern Democrats that opposed the Civil War), and the lion represented Edwin M. Stanton, Abraham Lincoln’s recently deceased Secretary of War. Nast thought of the Copperheads as anti-Union and believed the Democratic press’s treatment of Stanton was disrespectful.

In 1874, the New York Herald loudly opposed the possibility of Ulysses S. Grant running for a third presidential term and cried Caesarism. Nast, a life-long Republican who’d become frustrated with his party, thought Republicans might fall for the scare tactic. He drew another cartoon for Harper’s, again using a donkey to represent Democrats and adding an animal to symbolize Republicans.

The cartoon, titled “The Third Term Panic,” showed a donkey (representing the Herald and the Democratic press) wearing a lion’s skin (labeled “Caesarism”) in order to frighten a group of animals. Among those animals are an elephant (labeled “Republican Vote” and awkwardly fleeing towards a pit labeled “Inflation” and “Chaos”) and a fox (labeled “Democrats” and backing away from the pit that the elephant is about to fall into).
The Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives that November, and Nast bemoaned the defeat in another cartoon. It showed an elephant caught in a trap set by a donkey, and the lumbering confused behemoth of the Republican Party undone by the Herald’s scare tactics.
Nast continued to use the elephant and the donkey in his cartoons, eventually having them represent the whole of his party and the opposition. In March of 1877, after Republican Rutherford B. Hayes’ controversial victory, a Nast cartoon showed an injured elephant (“Republican Party”) kneeling at a tombstone labeled “Democratic Party.” An 1879 cartoon (pictured) showed a politician grabbing a donkey labeled “Democratic Party” by the tail to keep it from falling into a pit of “financial chaos.” The Republican elephant (“the sluggish animal”) is lying on and blocking the road to an election victory.

By 1880, other cartoonists had picked up the symbols and spread them across the country. Over a century later, their continued use in cartoons, party literature, campaign buttons and all sorts of political merchandise and propaganda has cemented the association between the parties and their animals. The Republicans have even adopted the elephant as their official symbol (the Democrats have yet to do the same for the poor donkey).