No bystanders in Cheney’s America
Wyoming’s lone member of the House, Republican Liz Cheney, was one of five people honored recently with the 2022 John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award. Here, in part, is what the arch-conservative and ardent patriot said on Monday night in Boston. Her words are words to remember.
“… On September 25th, 1963, President Kennedy came to Laramie, Wyoming. He was speaking to thousands of students at Laramie that day in the [University of Wyoming] field house. And in that speech … he told the students, ‘I hope that all of you who are students here will recognize the great opportunity … to be of service to our country.’
“… One of the students … who was sitting high up in the rafters in the packed field house was my dad, [a future vice president] 22-year-old Dick Cheney. Years later he told me of rushing out the back of the field house to watch President Kennedy’s motorcade pull away. He told me how moving and inspirational it was to see President Kennedy and to hear his call to service.
“… I am tempted to stop here to say the moral of the story is if you don’t like Dick Cheney’s policies you should blame John Kennedy. But, in all honesty, just think about [the] millions of young people that President Kennedy inspired and think about his love of history. He was a student of American history, especially.
“… My great-great grandfather was born in New Hampshire. Samuel Fletcher Cheney headed west. He settled in Ohio and he enlisted there in the Union Army. He fought in all four years of the Civil War…. Samuel Fletcher Cheney and all those who fought for so many generations have known the price of freedom and they knew that they had to defend it.
“I think it is perhaps the greatest blessing of our great nation that citizens in every generation have answered the call to defend our freedom.
“I have found myself … thinking often of my great-great-grandfather and of the Union he fought to defend. And this was never more true than on the night of January 6 [2021].
“… That night the House returned to the chamber around 9 o’clock. Furniture that had been used as a barricade was still stacked against the walls. The glass in the chamber doors was shattered. Containers that had held gas masks were strewn around. A short time before Congress went back into session, I left the House floor … and I walked to Statuary Hall. Statuary Hall … is where the House of Representatives met from 1807 to 1857.
“In that historic space, there are brass markers on the floor that mark where the desk of Abraham Lincoln sat and where the desk of John Quincy Adams sat.
“… That night, law enforcement officers in black tactical gear were sitting on the floor … exhausted from the brutal hand-to-hand combat in which they had been engaged for hours.
“… These men and women had spent hours battling a violent mob, a mob of our fellow countrymen, attempting to stop the transition of presidential power. For profiles in courage, we need look no farther than those men and women. It is no exaggeration to say that their courage likely saved our lives and our democracy. I tried to thank them, but my words that night seemed inadequate.
“As I walked out of Statuary Hall, I looked above the door. Standing above the door … is the oldest statue in our Capitol. It is a statue of Clio, the muse of history. Clio rides in the chariot of time and she has a book in her hand in which she takes notes – reminding all of us that our deeds are inscribed in the pages of history.
“I walked from Statuary Hall into the Capitol rotunda, the most sacred space in our republic. This is the space where presidents, including President Lincoln and President Kennedy, have lain in state. This is the space watched over by statues of Washington and Jefferson, and Lincoln and Grant, and Eisenhower, and Ford and Reagan. That night, against almost every wall encircling the room were SWAT teams.
“… There, in the rotunda, these brave men and women were resting beneath eight paintings that depict the earliest scenes of our Republic. One of these … depicts George Washington resigning his commission. He handed control of the Continental Army back to Congress.
“… With this noble act, George Washington set the indispensable example of the peaceful transfer of power in our country. This is what President Reagan called, ‘nothing short of a miracle.’ This is what President Kennedy called … ‘a celebration of freedom.’ And this sacred obligation to defend the peaceful transfer of power has been honored by every American president except one.
“… Today … we face a threat we have never faced before – a former president attempting to unravel our constitutional republic.
“… I ask all of you to remember this sacred duty [to maintain constitutional government] has passed to us…. In a republic, there are no bystanders, there are no spectators. As citizens, every one of us has a duty to set aside partisan battles and stand together to perpetuate and preserve our great republic.”
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com.