On January 22, 1964 U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered the following address to the Canadian Prime Minister at the Signing of the Roosevelt Campobello International Park Agreement.
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson:
I want to publicly thank Dr. Armand Hammer and Mr. Harry Hammer and Mr. Victor Hammer for their most generous contribution in President Roosevelt’s memory, and to his deeply held love for the Canadian people. I think that President Roosevelt would be pleased that this is a new and very special project. It is, as you know, the first jointly owned U.S.-Canadian Park. This is ample evidence of a close tie between the United States and Canada. This involves land and people. This is the heart of human concern and national kinship. Canada and the United States are not only good neighbors, but we are good partners. We are going to stay good partners. Each will help the other to stay strong, to stay solvent, to stay stable, and to stay compassionate. We have no problems that cannot be solved. We have no differences that cannot be settled. We have no future that cannot be shared. That is why I am happy, in concert with the distinguished Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. Pearson, to sign this agreement. I hope that Campobello Park will live eternally as a symbol of our friendship that cannot be shaken or diverted. President Roosevelt would want it this way.” From Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson: I recall last May when I was in Hyannis Port when this idea was advanced and we were able to proceed with it at that time through the generosity of Dr. Hammer and his brothers. And through the understanding support and cooperation of the members of the Roosevelt family, the process which began then has now come to the stage of completion insofar as the signing of this agreement is concerned. I am very happy, indeed, to be a part of it. As you say, Mr. President, this is something of which Mr. Roosevelt would have approved. We cherish this action in Canada not only because it will establish another link in the friendship between our two peoples across our border, that border which is so easily crossed, but also because it will be an eternal memorial to one of the great and towering figures of our age, a man who had done so much for human freedom and one whose memory is as imperishable in Canada, a country which he loved, and in which he spent so much of his time, whose memory will be as imperishable in Canada as it is in the United States. My colleagues and I are very proud, Mr. President, to be able to take part in this ceremony today.”
CNN’s Sardine Fiasco
January 08, 2013
THE NATION’S first sardine cannery opened in Eastport, Maine, in 1875, a historical distinction the island town commemorates with what has become a New Year’s Eve tradition: At the stroke of midnight, an 8-foot sculpture of a sardine is lowered from the top of the local art museum, and townspeople line up to kiss the painted wood-and-canvas fish for good luck in the year ahead.
It’s a light-hearted, quirky event, and Eastport residents were plainly happy to share it with CNN correspondent Gary Tuchman, who was on hand to cover the Great Sardine Drop as part of the cable giant’s live New Year’s Eve programming.
Unfortunately for the good people of Eastport and for viewers nationwide, CNN made the mistake of inviting entertainer Kathy Griffin to join Anderson Cooper in hosting its New Year’s Eve broadcast from Times Square. A comic known for her willingness to push boundaries — her own website describes her as “our foul-mouthed comedian” — Griffin decided to turn Eastport’s tradition into an excuse for some nationally televised raunchiness.
As revelers in Eastport were shown kissing the town’s wooden sardine, Griffin, on split-screen, bent over and simulated kissing the front of Cooper’s pants. “I was kissing your sardine,” she smirked, as a clearly embarrassed Cooper tried to get her to stop. “I can do this all night long.” Rather than instantly going to a commercial break, CNN inexplicably allowed Griffin’s antics to continue, as Cooper looked increasingly mortified.
The incident made Griffin sound not zanily risque, but crassly self-serving. She quipped about needing material for an upcoming appearance on “The David Letterman Show.” And sure enough, there she later appeared, reveling in her New Year’s Eve antics.
Kathy Griffin turned Eastport’s tradition into an excuse for some nationally televised raunchiness.
From now on, CNN should know better than to hire a comedian who uses the network’s New Year’s Eve broadcast as a bawdy publicity stunt. In the meantime, the Eastport residents who expected a few moments of national exposure deserved better from CNN.