There are certain books I read over and over. Carl Sandburg's series on Abraham Lincoln is one. Winston Churchill's 6 volume history of the Second World War is another. In fact, the Churchill set has an honored place on a bookshelf in our dinning room. Of the six volumes my favorite is the first book titled "The Gathering Storm." I first read it in high school. In fact my senior paper in English class was on the book. I have always found it interesting how the English people could not see the threat of Hitler that Churchill could see so clearly.If anyone has read this blog for any time they could not miss that I see a lot of parallels between the lead up to World War II and world events today. Churchill wrote the "Theme of the Volume" was "How the English-speaking peoples through their unwisdom, carelessness and good nature allowed the wicked to rearm." That clearly can apply to Iran, and North Korea as well at the threat from Islamic Fascist.The English people did not listen to Churchill in the years he was in his political wilderness. Then at the last possible moment they turned to him to him in desperation, as France fell to Hitler, to lead them in the defense of their island. The book ends with Churchill becoming British Prime Minister in the darkest days of World War II when England stood alone against the might of Nazi Germany. He writes:
"I felt as if I were walking with Destiny and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial. Eleven years in the political wilderness had freed my from ordinary party antagonism. My warnings over the last six years had been so numerous, so detailed and were now so terribly vindicated, that no one could gainsay me. I could not be reproached either for making the war or with want of preparation for it. I thought I knew a good deal about it all and I was sure I should not fail. Therefore, although impatient for the morning, I slept soundly and had no need for cheering dreams. Fact are better than dreams."
Who will be our Churchill?
