A word about Libya and then some Trivia

I was working on a blog about Libya but the war there is entering a new phase and the intelligence reports are too conflicting –a couple that I respect and trust give the same facts but draw completely different conclusions from them. I have decided the best thing to do is wait a day or two and see if the situation stabilizes enough to get a better picture.

All I can say right now is that the way to end it with the lest loss of life and property would be for Gadhafi to leave, but they have not left him many options (there are even reports that the main airport in Tripoli is either in rebel hands or is under direct rebel attack). The means that Gadhafi and his most loyal followers are far more likely to fight until the bitter (and very bloody) end.

So, not having that as the subject du jour, I decided to just give you a little historical tidbit. The day after Japanese Imperial Force bombed Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt went to Congress and asked for a Declaration of War. It took the Senate only 12 minutes to approve the Declaration unanimously. In Congress, however, the vote was 388 to 1. I have always wondered who the lone dissenter was, and why.

Jeannette Rankin

It turns out that the one person to vote no was Montana Republican Jeannette Rankin.

As a woman, I can't go to war and I refuse to send anyone else, she explained on the floor of the House after being booed and hissed at by other members of Congress .

Rankin was a lifelong pacifist whose passionate support for women's suffrage earned her the distinction of being the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1916. She served two separate terms in the House, from 1917-19 and from 1941-43. In 1917, Rankin also voted "no" to declare war on Germany during World War I.

She spent her entire life working for causes that promoted peace and women's rights. In 1968 she ran the Jeannette Rankin Peace Brigade, a anti-war group, and in 1971 she continued her efforts by writing a letter to President Richard M. Nixon, asking him to end the war in Vietnam. She died two years later, at age 92.

Live Long and Prosper....