Aha ! Dickens Lives !!

From the BLOG of BILL ALLEN 07/18/2009

People do not know what they do not know!



Saturday, July 18, 2009
Aha ! Dickens Lives !

One of the strangest episodes in my life occurred during a strategy session involving approaching a politician.

To one of the very closest friends and mentors I ever had, I suggested, brightly:

“We might be able to get some real inside track in Washington if we can get Senator (Bob) Graham interested....He’s Phil Graham’s half-brother, you know...the late husband of The Washington Post publisher, Kay Graham....”

“THAT’S NOT SO, “ was the immediate reply.

Well, I KNEW it was so, having delved into the lives of the half brothers through my interest in old “Cap” Graham, the Miami wheeler-dealer who sired them. Phil was born, however in South Dakota, Bob on Miami.

My friend was a bright professional man, an innovator and a risk taker. But he did not know what he did not know.

This country is at the mercy of people just like that right now.

The Great Charles Dickens, in “Little Dorrit”, caused quite a row in Parliament when he set up these people in the Department of Circumlocution.

They were all specialists in HOW NOT TO DO IT. (Finding out how to do it would have put them out of business.) And none of them know what they do not know.

Sound familiar ?
Posted by Bill Allen at 12:59 AM


NOTE back-up Reference just to prove the old buzzard KNOWS what he's talking about:

Ernest R. "Cap" Graham (born in Croswell, Michigan, 1886, died in Florida, 1957) was a political figure in Florida, having served as a member of the Florida Senate from 1937 to 1944, when he unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Florida in 1943-44. As a senator, Graham lobbied in Tallahassee and Washington D.C. to bring benefits to Miami-Dade County. He proposed the creation of a public university in the county, and although his efforts were unsuccessful during his lifetime, they eventually led to the establishment of Florida International University. The student union at Florida International University is named in honor of Graham, named the Graham Center. In 1948, Graham unsuccessfully sought election to the Dade County Commission. Other than his involvement in politics, Graham worked as a mining engineer in South Dakota and farmer in Florida.

Graham married Florence Morris, originally of Lincoln Nebraska and later of South Dakota. Their children were Mary Graham (born in 1913), Philip Graham (born in 1915), who later became husband of Katharine Graham and publisher of the Washington Post, and Bill Graham (born in 1924). In 1934, Florence (known as "Floss") died of cancer, and in 1936, Graham married Hilda Simmons, a schoolteacher. They had one child, the future Florida Governor and United States Senator Bob Graham. [1]