[Vision2020] Frank Church (and others) (was: IB Program)

[Sue Hovey]

Ken’s  response is so timely.  We are fortunate that not all Idaho politicians are/were self-serving bigots.  Frank Church’s ethical stance on the Panama Canal cost him his final Senate race.  He lost to Steve Symns and I cried all the way to school the next day.  Shirley Ringo has proven time and time again her ethics are unassailable. She is a true ombudsman and the many who turn to her for help are so very grateful for that assistance.    Ed Williams was a staunch defender of human and civil rights.  His untimely death was Idaho’s loss.  Gary Schroeder protected public education from so many bad bills, I’m sure we all lost count. Remember, his newly reminted party members took him out. Kids don’t count with them, regardless of the mantra banded about by Tom Luna.     Norma Dobler stood tall against those who would ride roughshod over human rights.  The Idaho Women’s Commission was her legacy.  Gone now, of course.    Tom Trail defended his constituents regardless of party and it cost him his job.  Ron Bietelspacher,  Cecil Andrus, Robert Smiley, Cy Chase, John Barker,  Doc Lucas...the list of honorable Idaho politicans goes on and on. In many ways we have been so very fortunate.  The list of really dishonorable politicians..well yes, we have those, too, led by Mr. Thievery himself,  Phil Hart. 

Sue H.

From: Kenneth Marcy 
Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2012 9:03 AM
To: Moscow Vision 2020 
Subject: [Vision2020] Frank Church (was: IB Program)

On 8/8/2012 1:31 AM, Donovan Arnold wrote:

  Personally, I think the least (sic; less) Idaho students are taught by Idaho politicians the least (sic; less) bigoted they will be and the better they will be able to get along with the rest of the world

Donovan, despite that there are numerous instances where the sentiment above is true, there is a noteworthy exception who is insufficiently remembered these days, and is worthy of mention lest he be forgotten too soon.

I am referring to Frank Forrester Church III, who, at age 32, was elected from Idaho to the United States Senate in 1956. He won re-election three times to serve the state 24 years, the only Idaho Democrat to win such re-election. Church won a seat on the Senate Foreign Relations committee, and later served as its chairman, following in the footsteps of his boyhood idol, Senator William Borah, also from Idaho.

In addition to the River of No Return Wilderness named after him, Frank Church will be remembered for his chairmanship of the Church Committees, which held public hearings on the extra-legal activities of the CIA and the FBI, and which lead to legislation better controlling foreign intelligence surveillance activities.

Church is widely quoted in regard to the National Security Agency: "I don't want to see this country ever go across the bridge... I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return."

In 1976, Church sought the Democratic nomination for president. Although he won primaries in Nebraska, Idaho, Oregon and Montana, he withdrew in favor of the eventual nominee, former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter. Church remains the only Idahoan to win a major-party presidential primary election.

The Wikipedia article on Senator Church will expand and fill out around the selections from it I have given here.


Ken



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