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Nile Kinnick correspondence, January-December 1941
1941-04-25: Front
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Friday 4 - 25 - 41 Dear Family: It is noon and I have just finished my lunch. Inside the Commons everyone is lolling around taking it easy before getting back on the books. Some are playing cards, some are reading the paper, and some are just sitting. Outside the sun is bright and warm. It is a glorious spring day. Some of the boys are knocking out flies and some are just basking in the sun. It makes one want to breathe deeply and be happy that he is alive. I just received a long letter from Bob Hobbs. In fact it was quite long written in response to a quite lengthy epistle I sent him a couple of weeks ago. His ideas are just as sound and healthy as they ever were I believe altho he is fed up on the administration and consequently distrusts Roosevelt on his foreign policy. I might add that he not only writesinterestingly but his style is good also. He still misspells quite a few words but he certainly is realizing on his desire to improve his mode of written expression. When I wrote him I mentioned the bare possibility that I might come out this summer and asked if he thought he could get me a temporary job of some kind. He now replies that he is sure he could--so that is a possibility if I so desire. There is no football practice this weekend and I would enjoy going up to the Relays but better judgment bids me stick around and get in a little studying. Tonight I go down to Yarmouth to give a talk. Bill is going down with me. He seems to enjoy going along altho I would think he would get awfully tired hearing just about the same thing each time. In any event it should be a most pleasant trip. This is the last speech I have scheduled and it is probably best that way. It will give me more time for undivided attention to my subjects. I am not familiar with the training officers plan you mention --altho I believe I heard a fellow talking about something this morning which must have pertained to it. I shall plan to look into it. 1 talked to a fellow the other day who had just been called in by the draft board and from the way things are going I should judge that normally I would be called in Sept. As for volunteering---it is at present just an embryo idea. I realize that it might involve the longer period--even if I went into the air corps or the marines it probably would be for the duration of the emergency. It looks like we'll be in for that long anyhow. I suppose you realize that when I say that I might volunteer it is for the officers training corps in that particular division. Each branch of the service is periodically sending out men to the different Universities to get fellows to go into the training period and get their commissions. Did you hear Knox last night. He speaks with courage and forthrightness. I agree with him even tho I realize what it involves. We either must jump in this mess strongly regardless of therisk or refuse to take our rightful place in the world. More than at any time since the Napoleonic period Western Civilization and Christianity are at stake. That puts it strongly but is no exaggeration just the same. Lincoln was a moral and upright man. He was a pacifist at heart. But when there was no other alternative he did no equivocate nor cravenly talk of peace when there was no peace. He grabbed the bull by the horns; realizing that the nation could not endure half slave and half free, he threw down the gauntlet anderadicated the evil. We are faced with the same thing and the longer we wait the worse it becomes. We are not people apart; there is no reasons in the world why we shouldn't fight for the preservation of a chance to live freely; no reasons why we shouldn't suffer to uphold that which we want to endure than it is anyone else. And it is a matter of self-preservation right this very minute. Those are my sentiments--and they are RIGHT. May God give me courage to do my duty and not falter. This isn't
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Friday 4 - 25 - 41 Dear Family: It is noon and I have just finished my lunch. Inside the Commons everyone is lolling around taking it easy before getting back on the books. Some are playing cards, some are reading the paper, and some are just sitting. Outside the sun is bright and warm. It is a glorious spring day. Some of the boys are knocking out flies and some are just basking in the sun. It makes one want to breathe deeply and be happy that he is alive. I just received a long letter from Bob Hobbs. In fact it was quite long written in response to a quite lengthy epistle I sent him a couple of weeks ago. His ideas are just as sound and healthy as they ever were I believe altho he is fed up on the administration and consequently distrusts Roosevelt on his foreign policy. I might add that he not only writesinterestingly but his style is good also. He still misspells quite a few words but he certainly is realizing on his desire to improve his mode of written expression. When I wrote him I mentioned the bare possibility that I might come out this summer and asked if he thought he could get me a temporary job of some kind. He now replies that he is sure he could--so that is a possibility if I so desire. There is no football practice this weekend and I would enjoy going up to the Relays but better judgment bids me stick around and get in a little studying. Tonight I go down to Yarmouth to give a talk. Bill is going down with me. He seems to enjoy going along altho I would think he would get awfully tired hearing just about the same thing each time. In any event it should be a most pleasant trip. This is the last speech I have scheduled and it is probably best that way. It will give me more time for undivided attention to my subjects. I am not familiar with the training officers plan you mention --altho I believe I heard a fellow talking about something this morning which must have pertained to it. I shall plan to look into it. 1 talked to a fellow the other day who had just been called in by the draft board and from the way things are going I should judge that normally I would be called in Sept. As for volunteering---it is at present just an embryo idea. I realize that it might involve the longer period--even if I went into the air corps or the marines it probably would be for the duration of the emergency. It looks like we'll be in for that long anyhow. I suppose you realize that when I say that I might volunteer it is for the officers training corps in that particular division. Each branch of the service is periodically sending out men to the different Universities to get fellows to go into the training period and get their commissions. Did you hear Knox last night. He speaks with courage and forthrightness. I agree with him even tho I realize what it involves. We either must jump in this mess strongly regardless of therisk or refuse to take our rightful place in the world. More than at any time since the Napoleonic period Western Civilization and Christianity are at stake. That puts it strongly but is no exaggeration just the same. Lincoln was a moral and upright man. He was a pacifist at heart. But when there was no other alternative he did no equivocate nor cravenly talk of peace when there was no peace. He grabbed the bull by the horns; realizing that the nation could not endure half slave and half free, he threw down the gauntlet anderadicated the evil. We are faced with the same thing and the longer we wait the worse it becomes. We are not people apart; there is no reasons in the world why we shouldn't fight for the preservation of a chance to live freely; no reasons why we shouldn't suffer to uphold that which we want to endure than it is anyone else. And it is a matter of self-preservation right this very minute. Those are my sentiments--and they are RIGHT. May God give me courage to do my duty and not falter. This isn't
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