Comments on: Gratitude and Hope – from Vaclav Havel

By: Larry Gilbert

Larry Gilbert — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:18:56 +0000

Good morning Brother Vern.
Hopefully your turkey dinner didn’t cloud your thought process.

As reported here on the Juice we covered the 20th Anniversary Conference of the Fall of the Berlin Wall at the Reagan Library. Participants who might disagree with you on their freedom included Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic and Ieszek Balcerowica, former First Deputy Prime Minister of Poland.
It’s easy for you to be an armchair writer living in America who has not walked their walk under totalitarian oppression.

By: Terry Crowley

Terry Crowley — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 03:28:10 +0000

Amen to that. Have a happy thanksgiving!

By: Vern Nelson

Vern Nelson — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 03:11:44 +0000

Havel was one of the few Eastern European leaders who didn’t react to the fall of Communism by rushing to embrace its polar opposite, untrammeled unregulated cutthroat capitalism. He was a good healthy skeptic, and kept his country from turning into a neoconservative dystopia like happened to Russia and Poland. But hey we both draw inspiration from his musings, maybe he’s just great that way. I can sure relate to every sentence of his that you and I both quoted on this page.

By: Terry Crowley

Terry Crowley — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 02:49:11 +0000

I think I write carefully, and yet you still seem not to fathom. Since you chose platitudes, I chose clarity. While I recognize that your understanding is as flat and one-dimensional as you characterize others, I wanted to make it clear that Havel wrote of leadership being everything Obama is NOT. Being an amateur scholar of Vaclav Havel, I would think his anti-political politics of the individual would be anethema to the collectivist soul.

A lifetime behind the Iron Curtain didnt convince you this was the wrong man to wring Progressive locutions from?

By: Vern Nelson

Vern Nelson — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:44:59 +0000

Okey-dokey. In your view, the two reasons President Obama gave a slight ceremonial bow to the Japanese emperor was – to get some attention, and to show that he is embarrassed of America. Have I got it right?

Just checking on what’s going on in that nutshell of yours. Touching it gingerly, like a hot container ready to explode.

By: Terry Crowley

Terry Crowley — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:36:17 +0000

Your lame attempt to correlate my definition of gratitude gives the overwhelming sense that you were trying to use a fundamentally courageous and dynamic individual like Vaclav Havel and your writing to support – what? Some transcendent state of delirium?

Read my post again, since you obviously didnt bother to read it the first time. Its the genuine Havel, who wouldn’t have stooped to going abroad and bowing to others as a means of getting attention or making sure others know how he feels about his country.

The only one in a nutshell is you Vern.

By: SAHS teacher

SAHS teacher — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:46:32 +0000

Vern, I’m so thankful for your return. I’m also thankful for Terry. He serves to show how a well-read and talented man can be led so far from the realities of this world. How is this done, and is it by purpose or coincidental to other human drives?

By: Vern Nelson

Vern Nelson — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:13:10 +0000

I scratch my head (is that always your aim?) to see the connection between your fine Havel quotation and this lame Ramirez toon. They sort of contradict each other.

Did you even read the Havel quote you put up? Maybe you should.

“self-confident,” “listening to others, accepting them as equals, forgiving our enemies and regretting our own guilt,” “self-confidence in the life of our community and our behavior on the international stage.” “Self-respect and respect for one another and the respect of other nations.” – Is that not Obama’s America in a nutshell? What, are you coming around now?

By: Terry Crowley

Terry Crowley — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:04:56 +0000

Only a person or a nation that is self confident in the best sense of the word is capable of listening to others, accepting them as equals, forgiving its enemies and regretting its own guilt. Let us try to introduce this kind of self confidence into the life of our community and into our behavior on the international stage. Only thus can we restore our self respect and our respect for one another as well as gain the respect of other nations. – Vaclav Havel