We Didn't Start The Fire ~ 1950 ~ Richard Nixon

We Didn't Start The Fire

sung by: Billy Joel

 

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio,
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe.

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye,"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen,

 Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye!

 

Chorus:

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

 

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc,
Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron,
Dien Bien Phu falls, "Rock Around the Clock"
Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team,
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland,
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev,
Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez.

Chorus

 

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac,
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai"
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball,
Starkweather homicide, children of thalidomide, Oh-oh-oh.

Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia,
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go,
U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy,
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo.

Chorus

 

Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land"
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion,
"Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania,
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson,
Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex,
JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say?

Chorus

 

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again,
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock,
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline,
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan,
"Wheel of Fortune", Sally Ride, heavy metal suicide,
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz, Hypodermics on the shore,

 China's under martial law, Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore.

 

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire,
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire...

 

 

1950

Richard Nixon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Before the presidency and before the scandals of Watergate, Nixon in the 1950's was just starting to get his political career started.  This is where Nixon enters the stage of American history.

 

     Richard Milhous Nixon was born on a farm on January 9, 1913 in Yorba Linda, California and was the second of five boys born into the family.  Each of his brothers, including himself, was named after a king in England.  He was named after Richard the Lionheart.  They had Quaker faith upbringing.  In high school he discovered he was a great debater.  His teacher once told him, "Remember, speaking is conversation ... don't shout at people. Talk to them. Converse with them" and that helped boost his debate skills.  After the Pearl Harbor attack he left his law practice to help out in the war and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the navy.  By the time the war was over he was ranked lieutenant commander. 

 

     After the war a friend of his suggested he enter politics and that the committee of California Republicans needed a congressional candidate.  The committee ended up backing him against Jerry Voorhis who was the Democratic representative from California's Twelfth District for the past ten years.  He won that campaign.  He became one of the youngest members of he Republican controlled Eightieth Congress. 

 

     In 1950 Nixon ran for the United States Senate against Democratic Congresswomen

Helen Douglas.  At this time American's were on a communist scare and Nixon pointed out that Douglas supported communist policy.  He ended up carrying 53 out of the 58 counties in California and won with over 700,000 votes.  The campaign became known as Pink Lady vs. Tricky Dick.  Nixon, being 37 years old at this time, became the youngest Republican U.S. Senator at this time. 

     Greg Mitchell wrote a book about this election called Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady : Richard Nixon vs Helen Gahagan Douglas-Sexual Politics and the Red Scare, 1950. 

 

     In 1952 Eisenhower took notice of Nixon and asked him to be his vice-president running mate.  They won that election in 1952 and Richard Nixon became vice-president for 2 terms for the 34th president serving from 1953 to 1961.  He later on went and became the 37th president from 1969 to 1974 when he resigned from office.  



Oh My Goodness!!! I Said What To Whom???

     With Super Tuesday Primary Elections going on today I couldn't help but reminisce about my first political interaction.  No, it isn't a proud moment in my past but rather of some embarrassment as I look back on the moment.  Only certain things happening in the world caught my attention: Berlin Wall coming down, perhaps some natural disasters of earthquakes or tornado's but never politics.  When I was a child I remember Oliver North being on every channel during the summer talking about selling something to the Contra's over some hostages.  All I knew was that he was interrupting my summertime cartoons.  This was the down side of not having cable.

     Zoom ahead to the year 1995.  I was 18 and a senior in high school.  We just moved across state from Saginaw to Grandville.  At school I was in a program called "Close-Up" which centered around seeing how the government worked and we got to go to Washington D.C.   For me it was a trip to D.C. - a town rich full of history and I wasn't a bit interested in the politics of it.  I was barely pulling a C- in Government class as it was and I had to pass that to get my high school degree. 


I was the 3rd one from the left. 

     We were on our way back from a week in Washington D.C. when our plane encountered some bad weather.  It was delayed for several hours.  We were supposed to return around 9pm but we actually didn't arrive at the high school until 2am.  The teachers made it clear that since they had to be in the classroom in a few hours that they expected all of us to be in the classrooms as well.  I did what any entitled high schooler would do.  I begged my mom to call in for me so I could sleep in.  She said I was 18 and I could call in for myself and that she wasn't going to.  I didn't call in nor did my mom so the school considered that I skipped.  For my punishment I got one hour of out of school suspension (OSS) for each hour I skipped.  Basically the school rewarded me with an extra day off.  Cool.  I could use an extra day off.  No problem!

     My mom didn't see the humor in it.  She dragged me to her office in the state building the next morning to help out with case files and other office work.  This was torture.  Put me back in school!  Wasn't there child labor laws to protect me from this torment?!  The day was long and boring.  I was dozing off fast.  

     I had myself drapped across the office chair, head tilted back and possible drool dripping off my cheek.  I heard my mother talking and laughing with someone.  Then I heard these words, "You better be nice to me because you are coming up for re-election."  

     I sat up and looked over at him rudely interrupting, "WHO ARE YOU?"  

     The mystery man responded proudly, "I am Ken Sikkema, Michigan State House of Representatives for the Grandville 74 District." 

Ken Sikkema Majority Floor Leader, Michigan State House of Representatives 1995-1996
Representative, Michigan State House of Representatives, District 74, 1986-1998

     Before I continue with the dialog I want to flash back a few weeks prior.  In Government class we had a test over who was who in our government.  Who was our Governor, Lt. Governor, Sec. of State, our district senator and representative and all the way down to other local Grandville officials.  Since I was new to Grandville and at the time I really didn't care at all for politics so to put it bluntly I failed that test.  Back to the conversation...

     I straightened myself up in the chair and my face just beamed with excitment.  Before I could think and with my finger pointing right at him I opened my big mouth and proudly stated, "I JUST FLUNKED YOUR NAME ON MY GOVERNMENT TEST!!!" 

     After I said that I realized that wasn't the best way to make a first impression.  He laughed, shook my hand and said he hoped that after this meeting I will pass his name next time.  I soon realized what a scene that must of been with Mr. Sikkema talking with my mom and here I was snoozing away across the office chair behind her.  It has been 17 years and I still haven't forgot who he was.