Sixty Years Ago Today on Our Campus
John F. Kennedy proposes the idea of the Peace Corps. It was 2 a.m. on Oct. 14, 1960, during a late-night campaign stop. I've always loved that there's that little plaque on the steps of the Michigan Union to mark the very spot where Kennedy was standing. One of the cooler historical things ever to happen on our campus.
October 14th, 2020 at 10:03 PM ^
"Ask not what your country can do for you...."
October 15th, 2020 at 12:52 AM ^
Now a days, it's more like "Ask what your country can do for you..."
October 15th, 2020 at 1:29 AM ^
About damn time.
October 15th, 2020 at 9:31 AM ^
I understand there is a proposal afoot to change E Pluribus Unim to Ubi Est Mea, translated as "Where's mine."
October 15th, 2020 at 9:44 AM ^
demand of your country
October 14th, 2020 at 10:07 PM ^
My brother was in the peace corps. Learned a language and met his wife
October 14th, 2020 at 10:14 PM ^
Are you my brother?
Peace Corps 2002-2004. Met my wife there. Had our first date 18 years ago last Saturday. Different time, different country.
October 15th, 2020 at 8:54 AM ^
Now it is an extension of foreign governments to recruit spies and intel.
Are you FSB, KGB, State Security Ministry?
October 15th, 2020 at 9:35 AM ^
Miniluv?
October 14th, 2020 at 10:07 PM ^
Great post, great reminder. Thank you. Go blue.
October 14th, 2020 at 10:08 PM ^
Sixty years since he referred to Harvard as "the Michigan of the East"
October 15th, 2020 at 1:42 AM ^
I was in SEC country last week, and heard a guy from Nashville say that folks down south call Vandy the Harvard of the South. He followed that up by saying, "I don't know if that's considered a good thing." He's probably in the boat that thinks the South shall rise again.
October 15th, 2020 at 4:15 AM ^
the south vs north hate and banter is a big part of the problem
October 15th, 2020 at 9:07 AM ^
It's been that way since ~1780. Amped up in the early-mid 1800's, reached its fever pitch in the 1860's, and has barely died down since...
October 15th, 2020 at 10:07 AM ^
My dad went to Texas Tech for his MBA and he (sarcastically) refers to it as the Harvard of the High Plains.
October 14th, 2020 at 10:25 PM ^
About 35 years ago on our campus, one of my housemates stood on that plaque, put his hand about waist high and said, "Man, Marilyn Monroe."
October 14th, 2020 at 10:28 PM ^
JFK was a guy.
October 14th, 2020 at 10:32 PM ^
Dude, why?
October 14th, 2020 at 10:32 PM ^
Not even close to the coolest thing. UM was the first public school to welcome Jewish students, we have a earth quacks simulator, and a lab with every video game ever mass produced.
Peace corps, however is very cool and JFK, flawed as he was, cared about bringing the worlds population up to livable standards. If each family made five K a year, population over growth and the environmental challenges we face would be solved. Good for him for having that foresight.
I can’t wait until 2027-2029 when we find out the truth concerning the plot to kill a President.
October 15th, 2020 at 2:58 AM ^
All cool but tell me more about the ducks
October 15th, 2020 at 6:38 AM ^
“Flawed as he was...”.
well shit, doesn’t that describe us all?
October 15th, 2020 at 9:09 AM ^
Please tell me more about this Earth quack simulator - I've never heard of this and am always interested in learning more about science and animals...
October 15th, 2020 at 9:43 AM ^
This is mainly a fallout from the original Jurassic Park film. Specifically, the scene where the characters notice the T-rex approaching by the vibrations in the water cup. Since the film taught us, that Dinosaurs are really just very large birds, Scientists at UofM tried to recreate this water tremor by breeding larger and larger ducks. This ran into a snag, when the ethical side of breeding such large ducks (and also the fact that they were just not getting big enough, fast enough) was brought up by the Math department (chaos theory guys).
The Biology department then teamed up with the Engineering school to develop a t-rex sized duck, using automation and duck like materials. This is really cutting edge stuff, where the university spared no expense. I implore you to read more about this amazing study.
October 15th, 2020 at 11:37 AM ^
"Not even close to the coolest thing... a lab with every video game ever mass produced."
So you're saying that video games are more meaningful than people working overseas to help reduce chronic malnutrition, endemic disease, and education scarcity.
Jesus Effing Christ.
October 15th, 2020 at 12:58 PM ^
Don, I love ya. JFK announced a federal PC program on the Union steps. The PC is not happening on our campus, nor is it a UM program. I'm not diminishing the peace corps, I'm stating that there a thousand awesome things happening on campus. I think that is cool. If you disagree, let's agree to disagree.
Wish you well.
October 15th, 2020 at 2:27 PM ^
Video games by a mile
October 14th, 2020 at 10:40 PM ^
I always made it a point to step on the marker when I was entering or leaving the Union.
October 15th, 2020 at 4:17 AM ^
did you always step on the Block M in the diag?
October 15th, 2020 at 8:45 AM ^
Only during finals week. ;)
October 15th, 2020 at 10:22 AM ^
The day I graduated! ;)
October 15th, 2020 at 1:46 PM ^
I stepped on it all the time. But I was a jaded grad student...
October 14th, 2020 at 11:00 PM ^
My wife's grandfather was Miami Vice / Intelligence in the early 1960's and was Kennedy's personal security detail when he visited Miami. Grandpa/Sarge was a Marine that landed 5 beaches in the South Pacific during the war - including one where they lost 45 of 52 men in his unit during the first night. They had a lot in common. Kennedy invited Grandpa to sit next to him at the 1961 Orange Bowl (<== nice college football tie-in).
He is now 97 and still lives alone in Cincinnati. He talks more now about the war than he used to and remembers every detail.
October 14th, 2020 at 11:22 PM ^
My Dad served on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific from 1942-1945. Was docked next to the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. He would never talk much about the war until the last year he was alive. Amazing stories of battles and personal incidents. My Dad passed away in 2017 at the age of 96.
The Greatest Generation.
October 15th, 2020 at 12:13 AM ^
"Tim in Huntsville" and "BLUEinRockford": Our eternal gratitude to those heroes in both your families who served so heroically for all of us!
Truly the Greatest Generation, they gave their all to save our world from evil totalitarian rulers.
October 15th, 2020 at 12:33 AM ^
With no disrespect intended to the great many who gave their lives and the sacrifices made, calling them the "Greatest Generation" is a gross misrepresentation of America's military contribution to WWII, and contributes unduly to America's false sense of self-importance and perfection, sometimes referred to as America's Exceptionalism.
We are not "god's chosen people," and when we act as such, we overlook and disregard the great poverty in our own land and the crimes we commit abroad, witness Nicaragua, Irag, etc. and the brutal dictators we have backed in support of our military aims and American businesses. We overlook too the crimes against our own brown and black brothers and sisters, and the war crimes we have committed against our continent's first peoples.
Where has that "Great Generation" been when blacks and browns have been murdered, held down, and educated in underfunded and run-down schools? Where were they during hate crimes against LGBTQ and women suffering domestic violence? How could such a "Great Generation" propagate gross economic disparity, when 1/3 of American children lack basic health care or suffer from food insecurity? And now grade school teachers (including my wife), have to teach children active shooter drills?
Like us, they were deeply flawed.
October 15th, 2020 at 1:26 AM ^
Dude, we saved the world from the Nazi's! Those racist would have killed millions more if they were able to get control of the entire world. You know why they are called the greatest generation? Because they were not afraid to sacrifice their lives to save our country and rest of the world from the axis countries that wanted to control you and make you their slaves!
October 15th, 2020 at 1:32 AM ^
The Soviets beat the Nazis.
October 15th, 2020 at 9:23 AM ^
You fail to remember that the Soviets were supplied by us. Full stop. You also fail to remember that the Soviets only had to fight on one front - to defend their homeland. Don't give them so much credit...
October 15th, 2020 at 10:10 AM ^
The Russians say about their trek to Berlin in 1944 and 1945, " It is true you gave us trucks. But if you hadn't we would have walked." Nor did we supply Leningrad, Stalingrad, or Moscow when those cities were under siege for YEARS and millions of Russians died from the battles and from disease and starvation. US citizens gave up nylon, new tires, and unlimited gasoline. If we had to defend New York, Chicago and Philadelphia from attack at the same time what do you think that would have looked like? Look, my Dad and uncles all fought in WWII and the US made great contributions to the success of the war. But the Soviet Union contributed way more to the success of the Allies.
October 15th, 2020 at 10:34 AM ^
Umm, so, wait... Are you saying that "the Soviet Union contributed way more to the success of the Allies" than the United States did? Because no. We're going to have to disagree on that. I mean, I'm not sure what reality you're living in...
I'll just say that without Lend/Lease both Russia and Britain would have been steamrolled by Hitler's juggernaut. Neither would have lasted through the winter of 1941, let alone through the end of 1943 (when the end result became inevitable).
October 15th, 2020 at 11:25 AM ^
The Soviet citizens _suffered_ more than the average US citizen, yes, this is true. Absorbed more damage, ok. But contributed? No. NO. Did I say no, because ROFLMAO no.
Look, who contributed the most is a subjective that can be argued a lot of ways, and answered in a lot of good ways based on how one wants to measure. I can make a solid case that the UK gave the most - unlike the US and USSR which ended the war in stronger positions than they started, the UK actually gave everything it had to stop Nazism and (to a lesser extent) Imperial Japan. That's the fun of such arguments, there is no objective "correct" so the discussion is perpetual.
It's very easy for the soviets to say "we would have walked", well yeah, when the alternative to walking forward is machine guns behind you, you walk forward. That's not contribution, that's coercion.
Let's not get into patting ol' Stalin too firmly, this is a guy who signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement that divided Poland up without their consent. This is the guy that started the Winter War. This is the guy who deliberately starved MILLIONS of his own citizens because they had the temerity to exist as proof that Marxism is fundamentally flawed. This is the guy who let the Nazis get to Moscow due in no small part because he purged (you know, put on a wall regardless of evidence...) his officer corps months before Barbarossa kicked off. He has more blood on his hands than does Hitler, he was just more Russian about his sociopathic megalomania than was Adolf.
October 15th, 2020 at 1:41 PM ^
No doubt sir. The Soviets did indeed suffer more than we did with our oceans between us and the enemy. But as much of that was self inflicted by a man who likely killed more of his own people than Hitler ever did.
October 15th, 2020 at 2:17 PM ^
You are correct. We shipped them loads of trucks, jeeps and tractors. Trucks and jeeps to move their troops and supplies and tractors to use in farming.
There's a school of thought that the Germans would have defeated the Soviet army without our help.
October 15th, 2020 at 9:32 AM ^
You're right!
The Soviets convinced Hitler to break himself on Stalingrad instead of doing smart things and waste his army in Greece. The Soviets convinced him not to counter D-Day, and were the ones flying the daytime bombing runs stripping down the replenishment capacity. The Soviets refused the shipments of food and arms America was sending to northern ports because they didn't need them! The Soviets held down Japan too which is what allowed the paltry Americans to sweep up the token parts.
Or maybe it was a team effort; a great many people from many countries had to commit themselves - all too often sacrifice themselves - to accomplish the defeat of the axis powers. Without the US + UK, the Soviets lose. Without the UK + Soviets, the US response is pointless. Without the US + Soviets, the UK gets run over.
October 15th, 2020 at 11:58 AM ^
The Soviets were allied with the Nazis until Hitler doubled crossed them. If Germany did not have to worry about their western front, they would have crushed the Soviets.
October 16th, 2020 at 1:39 AM ^
Perhaps you should study history instead of repeat propaganda. Wall Street money was far more influential in WWII than our military. Normandy was an insignificant military battle.
WWII was won and lost on the eastern front.
The “Greatest Generation” is a great marketing scheme. That’s about it.
October 15th, 2020 at 1:52 AM ^
Everyone has their flaws, but the "Greatest Generation" was also heavily involved in the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
We can work to improve our faults, while recognizing our achievements. It doesn't have to be one or the other. Our system has its flaws, but as a black person who just traveled freely from Michigan to Louisiana and back, I know that's something I can do in 2020 America. I couldn't do that in the 1920, 1820 or 1720 version of our country.
October 15th, 2020 at 10:30 AM ^
I'm far from a history buff, but it was my understanding that WWII had a lot to do with that generation pushing for the civil rights movement. The fact that these men served together in war, put a lot of the stereotypes aside. Far from perfect, but it was my understanding that that was a large trigger.
That being said, I am not sure why there was an almost 20 year gap from end of war to Civil rights movement.
October 15th, 2020 at 12:12 PM ^
There was a very active Civil Rights movement all through the late '40s and '50s, but it was waged largely by black Americans, with some direct help from mostly white orgs like the UAW and ACLU. The NAACP waged a legal war against Jim Crow from its founding in 1909, and its attorneys—notably future SC Justice Thurgood Marshall—played a key role in the 1954 landmark Brown vs Board of Education decision.
The 1955-56 Montgomery Alabama Bus Boycott—which was stimulated by the arrest of Rosa Parks—led ultimately to the Supreme Court declaring that segregated buses were unconstitutional.
In 1957 the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was formed, with MLK being the driving force behind its establishment. That year saw the crisis in Arkansas when Gov. Faubus tried to use the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the integration of Little Rock Central HS. Eisenhower stepped in and federalized the Arkansas National Guard, and directed it to protect and enable desegration to continue.
Racism and its legal implementation via Jim Crow were well entrenched in the white power structure, and defeating it was a time-consuming process.
Unfortunately, events over the past 12 years have shown that there's still plenty of work to do.
October 15th, 2020 at 2:09 PM ^
Great history lesson. We always look for large leaps in progress, when in fact, it is comprised of many small steps. I didn't realize that Rosa Parks was mid 50s for some reason.