November 19 “Treating the sludge”

November 19th, 1863, Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address. He was dedicating the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I have a copy of “Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings” by The World Publishing Company, published 1946. This was one of my father’s books.

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is perhaps the most memorable speech ever given, and with only 272 words:

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate – we can not consecrate – we can not hallow – this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.“

Also, on November 19th, (1998) The United States House of Representative’s Judiciary Committee began impeachment hearings against President Bill Clinton. I have several more books in my presidential shelf. First is “My Life” by Bill Clinton, 2004. I bought it when it came out.

I also bought “Monica’s Story” by Andrew Morton, 1999.

I also bought this third book “The Starr Report: The Independent Counsel’s Complete Report to Congress on the Investigation of President Clinton.” published 1998.

President Clinton gave a press conference January 26th, 1998.

“Thank You. Now I have to go back to work on my State of the Union speech, and I worked on it till pretty late last night, but want to say one thing to the American people, I want you to listen to me, I’m going to say this again, I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky, I never told anybody to lie, not a single time, never. These allegations are false, and I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you.”

He later gave this speech on August 17th, 1998:

“As you know, in a deposition in January, I was asked questions about my relationship with Monica Lewinsky. While my answers were legally accurate, I did not volunteer information.

Indeed, I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong. It constituted a critical lapse in judgment and a personal failure on my part for which I am solely and completely responsible.

But I told the grand jury today and I say to you now that at no time did I ask anyone to lie, to hide or destroy evidence or to take any other unlawful action.

I know that my public comments and my silence about this matter gave a false impression. I misled people, including even my wife. I deeply regret that.

“I can only tell you I was motivated by many factors. First, by a desire to protect myself from the embarrassment of my own conduct...”

To segue smoothly (transition without interruption from one topic to another; or to follow)…World Toilet Day is November 19th. The United Nations began this holiday to “inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis.” I have a book that was printed the same year that Bill Clinton was born (1946), “Sewerage and Sewage Treatment” by W.A. Hardenbergh.

This book does a very good job showing how sewage wastes are filtered out of water. There are plenty of illustrations of the various machines in the program, as well as the descriptions of what is specifically happening. It helped that I already had some background knowledge.

When I was younger, my father had a camping and hunting friend that ran the Round Lake Sanitation Plant. Dad set up a tour. I was able to get a first hand view of how sewage is treated. He explained every step of separating solids from liquids, and then filtering the water. He walked through every section of machinery.

Near the end, there were these large flat areas that were drying sludge, that later might be used as agriculture fertilizer. There were weeds growing in it. Turned out that those weeds were tomato plants. The seeds could pass through the entire treatment program and still be viable. Even though the sludge was treated and processed to remove pathogens and contaminents, it was not recommended to eat tomatos from those plants. This was a very intriguing tour. Dad later taught me that proper fertilizing of tomato plants was to bury a caught blue gill under the small tomato seedlings, helping them grow stronger.

I thank my father for teaching me how to properly fertilize what you grow; along with clarity and cleanliness in both politics and water.

Thanks for reading.