Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Richard Reeves

American Author, Syndicated Columnist and Senior Lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California

"A lot of history is just dirty politics cleaned up for the consumption of children and other innocents."

"In America, a nation that believes it transcends history, each generation can be a world of its own."

"An intellectual is someone who avoids the mundane by lowering his handicap."

"After he was assassinated, his family and the men who had served him continued the lying and began the destruction, censoring and hiding of JFK's medical records."

"All of them told me they were asked to destroy certain records. And they did."

"It is perfectly obvious that no one nor any single country can save the world from the horrors of tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes and winged influenza."

"An intellectual is someone who avoids the mundane, and pursues the obscure."

"Kennedy lied and lied about his health while he was alive, even using his father's influence to get into the Navy without ever taking a medical examination."

"Most of those mocking us and our works night after night have not reached the point of suggesting we are going to use those weapons. They are pretty useless right now."

"So, I would argue, Labor Day is a farce. Even public employees ? read Wisconsin! ? are losing what security America offers. At the minimum, the first Monday in September should be called Reagan Day, or the date should be changed to Aug. 3 and the holiday called PATCO Day. That was the day in 1981 that President Reagan stated that if members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization ? the only union that endorsed him in the 1980 presidential election ? did not return to work, they would be fired. They did not return and they were fired. Corporate America got the message, and private-sector unions were marked for death."

"The ATM news scenario... could complement computerized radio stations. The government, corporations, and public relations types will be able to deposit or withdraw news anytime day or night in a slot at the front of the building. In the back, consumers could punch up whatever they fancied. There would be no need for human beings inside the building -- if you consider reporters human beings."

"So it goes. Management, of which I was then a part, had begun to understand how to squeeze workers and their unions. By 2013, fewer than 10 percent of private-sector employees belonged to unions, compared with 20 percent in 1983 and more than 50 percent in the 1950s. Result: Wages have stagnated, spouses have gone to work, strikes have been broken. Now more than half the unionized workers in the country are public service employees, who have better and more complicated work rule regimes than corporate employees."

"The Habre case is more worrying for African leaders as it is more universal in its implications. They will find it a very difficult decision."

"The news in Europe, West and East, is still showing America in flames, flood, etc. Cities are shown underwater; befuddled American officials are shown trying to explain why we are winning the war on terrorism."

"Whatever one thinks of President George W. Bush and his unilateralist crew, most of the people laughing at us do not think we are evil. What they think is that we are naive and incompetent."