Welcome and thank you all for coming to the 29th anniversary serviceman remembering pan am flight 103. My father was in seat 9h. We remember our friends and family taken from us today. You may notice the change in the sitting out here. You may notice a change in the seating, design there is a very tall man sitting up here, usually. Even last year when frank dugan became too well to participate up front with us, he still hiked all the way up and sat in the audience at the time. Audience. Illed that we have his picture of here, but it does not do justice to the gaping hole he left here when he passed, less than two months ago. It seems like the last two months have been a series of revelations of all the work that frank did for me, us, and without us realizing it. He was the backbone of our supports network, so much so that having grown up with this rather extensive pan am family, as an extension of my own, for a one time i thought he was another one of my various pan am uncles. 15 years
Seems, he made it that way. He did this with all of his writings that ive been able to track. He also liked to he didnt think it was done until he had read it to somebody opinion you would think he could get that by reading it to himself, but he said no, that doesnt work. One time he got senior statesmen, old man blair or somebody like that, tell me what you think of this. But one time he had to send it off. It was a letter, it was summertime. He sat down with the clerk in his office and the clerk said, do you want me to comment on it mr. Lincoln . He said no, just listen to it. I have to have Somebody Just listen to it. So what im trying to say is he was a very, very deliberate writer, far more deliberate than people think. Thinking ahead not buying taken by surprise. Ready with a phrase ready with one of his wonderful antithesis. Without it, i cannot fail kind of thing. When you start tracking it, he spent a lot of time just writing. No visitors this week. Im working on my message. I
Then it can stay with you. Other people can use it. This is what he said was the reason writing was the greatest invention, said if somebody writes it down then it doesnt matter if its forgotten for a thousand years its written down, and the person who can use it 1,000 years later finds it where its written and goes on. I think thats the kind of think thinker he was. But he knew africanamericans knew, he knew people who came from slave backgrounds capable of high intellectual ability. Frederick douglass he coiled converse and very sof fistcated terms with people. Sounds like he didnt have any sealing on black potential in terms of white potential . Any sense of development . He didnt really talk about this. You have to kind of intuit it from his attitudes. Hes professionally closed mouth mouthed. All his friends talk about this. Not even his friends know his deepest thoughts. I dont have to tell Chris Matthews that when a politician opens his mouth nothing but the truth from his heart
Oh and i dont want to die for you with congress out this week for spring recess, were featuring American History tv and prime time. This month marked the 150th Anniversary Commemoration of president lincolns second inaugural address. Thousands gathered to hear the speech on march 4, 1865 several weeks before the end of the civil war and lincolns assassination n. Partner thip with National Park service, the group this d. C. Hosted air reenact nlt of the speech this month. It featured chuck todd of meet the press. This is an hour and 20 minutes. Good morning. I am the regional director good morning. My name is bob voguele. Im the regional director of the National Capitol region of the National Park service. Its my great pleasure to welcome you this chilly march morning to the Lincoln Memorial as we commemorate the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincolns second inauguration as president of the United States. Abraham lincolns first inauguration was held be beneath the gathering clouds of war
Its hard to keep connecting with people for a long time. People stop listening after a while. Is there a duration . That people are willing to give you these days . To me the most interesting speech obama gave was when he accepted the nobel peace prize. He has that picture in his office of king and gandhi and im not sure who else was in the picture, but its some obviously something thats very close to him. He writes about this in his books, about how influenced he was by king and gandhi. When he gets the prize what does he have to say . Well, im president now. And i remember for myself being very critical of him because he said well, they didnt have to deal with terrorism. Which i thought was laughable. King died because of terrorism and gandhi what is colonialism other than terrorism . So what he was basically saying is that if king had been elected president in some miracle, he would have had to make the same kinds of compromises. And that may be true. It may well be that one of the