Health & Fitness
A Case for a Milder Tone
Will Rogers spoke 80 years ago during the Great Depression, but it might as well be today.
He spoke 80 years ago during the Great Depression, but it might as well be today. We live in a time where some people want to blame the government. Others want to blame Wall Street financial institutions. Few want to blame the foolishness of the common man for taking on more debt than dictated by prudence. Will Rogers cast no blame and never met a man he didn’t like, although I suspect he avoided a few.
He spoke to the spirit of support and recovery. We need that today, locally, regionally and globally.
Will Rogers was kind, blunt and optimistic. People loved him. I was told that my grandmother cried when he died in a plane accident. Rogers had a way of saying things. For instance:
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The 1928 Republican Convention opened with a prayer. If the Lord can see His way clear to bless the Republican Party the way it's been carrying on, then the rest of us ought to get it without even asking.
The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets.
There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.
This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.
Watch Will Rogers’ "Bacon, Beans and Limousines" speech, which he delivered prior to Herbert Hoover’s radio address in 1931. This particular speech was delivered without humor, making it almost unique for Will Rogers. It seems incredibly contemporary.