Quote of the Week- Chester Arthur

It is quite ironic that Vermont, which is perhaps the most liberal state in America, was the birth state of Republican President Chester Arthur (1829-1886). Arthur, who was the 21st president, got his promotion to the oval office rather quickly as his predecessor James Garfield was assasinated by Charles J. Guiteau, who was later hanged in Washington, DC, in spite of considerable evidence that Guiteau was mentally ill.

Garfield was shot in Long Brnach, New Jersey, on July 2, 1881, but the 20th president remained alive until Sept. 19.

Arthur would only serve out the remainder of Garfield's term, and his own would end abruptly as he died on Nov. 17, 1886, at age 57, a mere 103 days after leaving office on March 4th of that year.

This quote illustrates that some of the men who were president in the 19th century may have problems coping with the modern presidency:

"I may be president of the United States, but my private life is nobody's damned business."

This month, we hope to quote famous New Englanders around Monday of each week. Last week, we quoted poet E.E. Cummings.

SIDEBAR: Though I missed the film's screenings in North Carolina, I am very interested in a new documentary film by Trenton, NJ, filmmaker Kevin J. Williams called "Fear of a Black Republican" even though I'm neither African-American or a Republican. As one might expect, the very conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is featured in the film.

The documentary will be screening in Wilmington, Del., on July 28 at 7:00 p.m.

Quote of the Day- E.E. Cummings

Today, we start our series with quotes from famous Americans in honor of the Fourth of July. This month, we will focus on eight quotes from people associated with the six New England states.

Since the late poet e.e. cummings (he actually preferred having his name in lower-cased letters) was born in Cambridge, Mass., and he died at his estate in North Conway, New Hampshire, we are going to quote him.

Cummings (1894-1962) was considered to be an avant garde poet when he wrote his most famous poems, such as "Buffalo Bill's," which helped immortalize the Wild West legend from Cody, Wyoming, in the 1920s. But, today, his work is considered to be standard fare in English literature classes.

Here is his quote which makes one think of another New Englander, the late children's author Dr. Seuss:

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."

Quote of the Week- e.e. cummings

While researching this piece, we were surprised that e.e. cummings (also known as E.E. Cummings, though he never capitalized the letters of his name for his poems)
(1894-1962) went from being a bohemian liberal to a Republican.

But, we like his poetry anyway, especially "Buffalo Bill's" and "Little Tree." So, we decided to quote him today in honor of National Poetry Month:

"I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand others how to dance."

SIDEBAR: Is anyone else besides me iritated with the Barracuda Networks, an entity that many public instutions, such as libraries, use to 'filter' inappropriate sites, here in the United States and perhaps other parts of the world?

We certainly understand why such institutions would not want patrons looking up pornographic sites as web site dedicated to serial killers and Adolf Hitler as well ones which tell you the best ways to commit suicide.

But, it is ironic that Barracuda will actually block most social networking sites, like Twitter, Facebook and E-Harmony (and, hey we wonder why fewer people are in relationships than ever!), but they will allow access to terrorist organizations, such as the web site for the PKK. This is a Kurdish separatist group, formed in 1978 by Abdullah Ocalan, which has killed thousands of innocent people in Turkey. We presume that even in post-9/11 America that the PKK is apparently not a concern for this network that some may view as a censoring body which happens to share its name with a Portland, Ore., nightclub as well as a famous song by Heart.

How's that for irony?!