POLITICAL SEXCAPADES

People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

Jesus says.....Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

The Bible tells us.....As ye sow, so shall ye reap. The good Book comments.....How the mighty will fall.

Justin Timberlake wrote a song titled.....What Goes Around, Comes Around.

From biblical times to every day accepted admonitions to modern day song, the message is clear. Beware. Bad deeds return to bite you in the ass.

The thrust of this column involves the Bill Clinton impeachment proceedings. Brought about by his sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky in the White House. During times when Lewinsky was a federal intern or employee. The affair involved oral copulation. Never intercourse.

Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives and following trial by the Senate acquitted. 

Certain elected officials pursuing Clinton's impeachment were adulterers or guilty of other deviant sexual behavior. Prior to, during and subsequent to Clinton's acquittal.

This column examines the conduct of such persons. Elected officials dirty themselves. Perfect examples of the pot calling the kettle black.

All to be discussed were Republicans. Clinton a Democrat.

Newt Gingrich was the leader of the Republican revolution in 1994. The Republicans took control of Congress for the first time in 44 years. Gingrich soon became Speaker.

Gingrich led the impeachment drive. He thought it despicable that the President, a federal official, would have sex in a federal building, the White House, with a federal intern/employee.

While the drive to impeachment was going on, Gingrich was having an affair with Callista Bisek, a House of Representative staffer. She was 23 years his junior. The sexual relationship ran 1993 to 1998 at which time Gingrich resigned from the House of Representatives. He admitted to the affair.

Gingrich was married to his second wife during the time of the affair. Divorced the second wife and married Bisek after his resignation.

Robert Livingston was a Louisiana Congressman.  He called for the resignation of Clinton. The Republican conference voted for Livingston to succeed Gingrich as Speaker. 

Soon after the conference vote and before the official vote, it was discovered Livingston had multiple extramarital affairs. His wife encouraged him to resign from Congress and urge Clinton do the same. Livingston resigned. Clinton did not.

Dennis Hastert of Illinois voted for Clinton's impeachment. He was elected Speaker following the Gingrich and Livingston resignations. 

Hastert served eight years as Speaker. Then resigned. Resigned because he wanted to. He was not forced to do so for any reason.

Last year, Hastert was indicted for violation of federal banking rules.

In his early years, Hastert was a school teacher and coach. It was discovered he had sexually abused three of his students. One of the students wanted Hastert to pay him to not publicly reveal the matter. Hush money.

Hastert paid this individual $1.7 million over a period of time. It was how Hastert made the payments that violated federal law.

Bob Barr of Georgia was one of the leaders in the move to impeach Clinton. He was the first lawmaker to publicly call for Clinton's resignation because of the Lewinsky matter. He was one of the mangers (prosecutors) during the impeachment trial itself before the Senate.

It was discovered Barr had an affair while married.

Dan Burton was another holier than thou.

He too was a leader in seeking Clinton's impeachment. He said, "No one.....should be allowed to get away with sexual improprieties."

In 1998, Vanity Fair revealed Barr had an affair in 1983. The affair produced a child. Barr admitted fathering a son with a former state employee.

Helen Chenoweth-Hage was a Congressperson from Idaho. She called and voted for Clinton's impeachment. In 1998, she admitted to having an affair with a married man for six years. This was before her entering Congress. She was single at the time.

Henry Hyde was a major Congressional figure during impeachment time. He was one of those pushing for Clinton's impeachment. He was Chairman of the Managers (Chief Prosecutor) who presented evidence against Clinton during the Senate trial.

His affair came to light in 1998, also. It was claimed he had an affair from 1965-1969. Before his election to Congress. The affair was with a married woman who had three children. Hyde was 41 at the time the affair began. He was married.

Hyde admitted to the affair in 1998. He blamed it on "youthful indiscretion."

News of Hyde's affair broke while Hyde was spearheading impeachment proceedings.

Stephen C. La Tourette voted to impeach Clinton. He was having an affair at the time with his Chief of Staff, Jennifer Laptook. La Tourettewas married at the time.

David Vitter's story is interesting. Both Vitter and Livingston were from Louisiana. Vitter took over Robert Livingston's seat when Livingston resigned because of his extra marital affair.

Vitter said at the time, "I think Livingston's stepping down makes a very powerful argument that Bill Clinton should resign as well."

Vitter went on to become a U.S. Senator.

In 2007, Vitter was seeking the Republican nomination for President. His campaign came to an immediate halt when Vitter's name was discovered in the address book of DC Madam Deborah Jane Palfrey.

You may ask why this article at this time. The reason is the present state of the smoldering Trump/Clinton war.

Clinton charges Trump is a sexist. Probably so. Trump responds with a warning. Saying in effect if you're going to get into sex, BE CAREFUL.

Neither is Simon pure. There appears to be checkered activities by both in years gone by.

I fear the election is going to get down and dirty. Perhaps the dirtiest Presidential campaign ever. Gutter politics at its worst.

No one will come out clean.

Nor will the American people benefit.

It bothers me that sex continues to be so important in the United States. European nations laugh that we give sex such importance.

I believe we may be at that time when we give less importance to the sexual lives of people. We live in an age where same sex marriage is legal. Transgenderism is accepted In many states. California has laws protecting transgenders in certain situations. 

People cohabit and live many years or all their years as a family. Bearing children. Never marrying. 

Heterosexual divorce is no longer a bar to the Presidency.

Bisexuality does not seem to phase anyone. Homosexuality in the military no longer a problem.

It is a new world. It may be anti-religious. It may not be what all of us like.That is the way it is, however.

So when the dirt starts flying in this campaign, take it in stride. I suspect the two major candidates have skeletons hidden in their closets.

AN AMERICAN CHRISTMAS

Christmas today and Christmas yesterday are as different as day and night.

The precursor of today’s Christmas is rooted in paganism. Paganism involving debauchery, drinking, rape, murder, and anti-Semitism. Paganism that  preceded the birth of Christ by centuries.

The early Christians did not celebrate Christmas. No one was even sure if December 25 was the day Jesus was born.

Roman pagans celebrated the earliest event. A week-long party. Ended on December 25. Where the forces of darkness prevailed. Sex, food and drink in abundance. Many murders, for the fun of it.

The Greeks enjoyed a holiday made famous in Lucian’s Saturnalia. More despicable. In addition to drinking, rape and sexual license, human sacrifice.

Saturnalia is the predecessor of Christmas.

The Catholic Church wanted to convert the pagans. Actually, the Catholic Church wanted to increase its numbers. The Church offered the pagans a deal. You join us and you can still celebrate all those Saturnalia things you are accustomed to doing. The pagans agreed and the Saturnalia Carnival came into being.

The Catholic Church participated in and permitted Jews to be ridiculed and suffer. Pope Paul II was head of the Catholic Church in 1466. Part of the celebration involved Jews being force-fed/overfed and then compelled to run along the streets of Rome. Difficult with a full belly. People pelted the Jews with rotten fruit, vegetables and stones. The Pope reportedly watched and laughed.

The Saturnalia Carnival continues through the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Relatively recent times. Jews continued to be persecuted. They were murdered, women raped, their property destroyed. Rabbis were made to don clownish attire and run the streets. While running, they were jeered and pelted.

Jews asked the Papacy to stop such activities. Pope Gregory XVI refused.

Many of today’s Christmas customs find their origins in the pagan celebrations.

The Christmas tree is one. Pagans for whatever reason worshiped trees in the forest. Eventually, the trees found their way into pagan homes and were decorated.

The mistletoe. Kiss me under the mistletoe. Druids used the mistletoe to poison human sacrificial victims. Norse mythology spoke of two Gods fighting over the female Wanna. The two synthesized to become reflective of the sexual lives of Saturnalia and the Druid’s sacrificial cult.

Christmas presents. In pre-Christian Rome, emperors compelled Rome’s most despised citizens to bring offerings and gifts during Saturnalia. With the advent of Christianity, the Catholic Church gave gift giving a Christian flavor by bringing St. Nicholas into the picture.

St. Nicholas initially was a combination of good and evil.

St. Nicholas himself was saintly. Of Turkish origin. Died in the mid 300s AD. In 1087 AD, his bones were moved from Turkey to Bari, Italy. He was interred in the burial-place of a traditional Italian woman who had been famous for bringing gifts to children on December 6. St. Nicholas assumed her gift giving qualities merely by burial in her place.

The Catholic Church pushed the pagans to adopt St. Nicholas. Such began gift giving in what finally became Christmas.

Santa Claus as he is visualized today in his bright red clothes and rosy cheeks can be attributed to Coca Cola. In 1931, Coke wanted a “Coke Drinking Santa.” Coke ordered its advertisers to give them such. The result is the Santa Claus of today.

Christmas today is the combination of Christian carnival, pagan gods and a modern-day commercial.

As to America itself, let’s see how the preceding played out.  Starting with the first settlers, the Puritans.

On this wonderful Christmas Day 2015, most of us will be sitting back happy with ourselves. In a joyous festive mood. Thankful for family and friends. Pleased by gifts and food.

And we might believe that Christmas in the United States has always been such. That Christmas as we know it always existed.
Shockingly, it did not!
We start with the Puritans. Those hearty immigrants from England to the shores of Massachusetts. Those who gave us Thanksgiving.

Christmas they did not give us. In fact, they took Christmas away from us. The earliest Scrooges of record!
From 1659 to 1681, Christmas was outlawed in Boston. By the Puritans. They believed that Christmas was not consistent with their Puritan ideas and religious reforms. So they abolished Christmas!

The Puritans were descendant from the Reformation. Certain Protestant groups opposed Christmas celebrations. They firmly believed the holiday was rooted in paganism. It was. Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas in England.

Christmas remained a no no through the American Revolution. The English influence in the colonies prevailed. Christmas could not gain a foothold.

A few years after the Revolution, the colonists, rid of English influence, started celebrating Christmas. But it was not Christmas as we know it.

The early 1800s found Christmas being celebrated in a bit of a rowdy fashion. Much like Mardi Gras and Fantasy Fest.

Then came a couple of books which influenced the situation.

The first was by Washington Irving. In 1809, he wrote The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon. It portrayed Christmas as a peaceful loving holiday. Many attribute Irving's novel as setting the mood for present day Christmas.

Irving actually created with words Christmas Day as we know and celebrate it. He mentally conceived his concept of Christmas and wrote it on paper. Christmas to that point had not been as he portrayed it.

About the same time, there was another writing. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. This, too, captured the American imagination.

During the 1830s, several southern states legalized December 25 Christmas Day as a holiday. The first was Alabama in 1836.

The South continued to favor and celebrate Christmas up to the time of the Civil War. Whereas, the North basically paid little attention to the day. Christmas had become a Southern thing.

Now comes the Civil War. Lincoln wanted to demoralize the Confederate troops. He wanted to show that the South's Santa Claus was on the side of the North. He authorized a famous artist late in 1862 to do a drawing of Santa Claus watching over Union troops. The picture was the front cover on January 3, 1863 of a prominent national magazine. It was sort of God is on our side thing. Some believe it achieved Lincoln's desired effect.

President Ulysses S. Grant is given credit for making Christmas a national holiday. I question the accuracy of the representation. In 1870, Grant signed a bill into law regarding Christmas Day. The new law read that Christmas "...shall be a holiday within the District of Columbia." The  District of Columbia is not the whole of the United States. However, Grant is usually given credit for making Christmas a national holiday by that act.

The last state to legalize Christmas as a legal holiday was Oklahoma in 1907.

I suspect that it was the combination of Grant's signing regarding the District of Columbia and all of the states legalizing the holiday that finally made Christmas Day a national holiday.

Christmas Day received a further boost by the 1897 editorial in the Sun of New York. We all know it. "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."

Christmas was practiced and recognized as a holiday through World War II. For whatever reason, it received its most gigantic step forward recognition and celebration wise following World War II. Everyone got into the act after the war! Maybe because people were happy and grateful to have won.

Such is the story of Christmas and especially America’s Christmas from its earliest times to today.

Merry Christmas!

THE PRESIDENT COULD NOT SPELL

Theodore Roosevelt was the twenty sixth President of the United States. His accomplishments many. Before, during and following his Presidency. 

Roosevelt became known as the phrase maker. He was the first to call the White House "a bully pulpit." He recognized the White House was a great stage to be heard from around the world.

Regarding trusts and corporations, his attitude was to "speak softly and carry a big stick."

He viewed political extremists as the "lunatic fringe."

When asked if he was going to run for President, he said "my hat's in the ring." A statement out of the old west. A boxer would throw his hat in the ring signifying he would take on all comers.

Roosevelt was visiting The Hermitage in Tennessee, the home of Andrew Jackson. He was given a cup of coffee. Finishing it, he exclaimed "good to the last drop." The coffee was generally served at the Maxwell House in Nashville. Turned into a national coffee brand with a great advertising component: Maxwell House....Good to the last drop.

An author, his first work The Naval War of 1812 was acclaimed.

A war hero. Roosevelt led the charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. He later said it was "the greatest day in my life."

He served as assistant Secretary of the Navy under President McKinley. He later was Vice President of the United States when McKinley died from an assassin's bullets.

Roosevelt was for a time a cattle ranger in the Dakotas. He also was an African hunter and an Amazon explorer.

Trusts/corporations had become too strong by the time Roosevelt became President. He curbed their power.

He is known as the man who saved football. College football had become dangerous. By the time Roosevelt became President, more than one hundred players had died from football incurred injuries. The public called for an end to college football.

Roosevelt was a sport enthusiast. He called a meeting in Washington of those who ran college football. He told them shape up or he was going to ban football. He wanted football made a clean game.

They listened.  New rules came into being. One, the forward pass. It was thought the forward pass would lessen the power crunch in the center. The forward pass was adopted, even though many considered it a radical idea.

Roosevelt's face adorns Mount Rushmore, together with those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his efforts in ending the Russo-Japanese War. Some were against his receiving the award. They said Alfred Nobel was probably turning over in his grave. The reason being that Roosevelt had completed the conquest of the Philippines. Many felt his actions in that regard militaristic and imperialistic.

Roosevelt was obviously a great man. He had one short coming, however. He could not spell.

There was no word check to help him.

Roosevelt issued an Executive Order in 1906. Henceforth, all White House documents would be printed with the revised spelling of three hundred words. The words having been proposed by spelling reformers.

Roosevelt's Order required words to be spelled as spoken. Simple. Through became tru. Dropped, dropt.

Congress went crazy. The House voted 142-24 to repeal Roosevelt's Order. British newspapers were outraged at the mockery being made of the English language.

The London Sun responded to Roosevelt's actions by writing an editorial containing the new spelling espoused by Roosevelt: "We ventur to  think that even Prezident Ruzvelt mite manage to get along very wel with the language that was gud enuf for Shakespeare and Milton."

Roosevelt saw the handwriting on the wall. The whole world was against him. He backed off. The issue never to be heard again, except in historical perspective.

HELEN SPERLING.....HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR

Helen Sperling died last week at the age of 95. She survived Buchenwald. A significant portion of her life thereafter was devoted to reminding others of what occurred during those World War II days.

Helen lived most of her free adult years in Utica, my home town. A close friend Sharon Smith knew her well. I did not. Sharon frequently spoke of her.

I met Helen only once at some gathering. We were introduced. It was a hello, how are you, and on our separate ways.

Helen's story sad. Hard to believe, unless a person shared her death camp experiences.

Helen lived with her parents and brother in a small Polish town near Warsaw. Her father an architect. Her family middle class.

As a child, Helen was spoiled, pampered and imaginative. She was at home on vacation from college when the Germans marched in. Her first recollection is that of "boots.....the ugly, ugly black boots" the Nazis wore. 

The Nazis stormed into her home. They emptied the drawers and closets. One sat in her father's chair. He shoved his booth in her mother's face. He then threw some of the family's fine linens at her. The German yelled....."Polish them!" Helen helped her mother.

That day was the beginning of six years of helplessness, humiliation and degradation.

The family was first sent to a ghetto. Then to prison camps or death. Her parents were sent to their deaths. Helen was transferred to Ravensbruck, a transition camp. The last stop before a death camp. She was subjected to manual labor. The purpose of the labor was to break the prisoners' spirits. Her time there she describes as demeaning. She lived in squalor, hunger and fear.

Helen says, "You did not realize who your friend was and who was your enemy." She had a close girl friend before the Nazis arrived. Her closest girl friend. It was her girl friend's birthday. Helen escaped from the ghetto for a short time. Her purpose to wish her girl friend a Happy Birthday. Her girl friend was a gentile.

She telephoned her girl friend. Helen was received with all kinds of racial slurs. At that moment, Helen says ".....something dreadful happened to my soul."

Helen was transferred to Buchenwald. A death camp.

She has memories of the cattle cars and sorting. The sorting involving a German officer telling her when she arrived at Buchenwald which of two lines she was to get into. One you lived, the other you died.

Helen was selected for the live line. She was young and strong. She was able to avoid the death part of Buchenwald for that reason. She was directed to the work phase of Buchenwald.

She was made to work in a munitions factory. She and other prisoners produced artillery shells.  When the guards were not looking, they did whatever to produce a defective shell. If caught, it meant death. Fortunately, Helen was not caught. She describes the destructive activity as revenge. It kept their spirits up.

Living quarters at Buchenwald were terrible. Filthy, cold, crowded. Food was limited. One piece of bread a day and whatever other slop was provided.

Each barracks/living quarters had a "block supervisor." Also a prisoner. A trustee of sorts. The block supervisors had all kinds of privileges, including beating the other prisoners. Which was done frequently. In some instances to the same prisoner daily.

Helen's block supervisor was a prostitute and murderer in her former life. She frequently stole Helen's bread. The block supervisor did treat Helen good in one respect. Helen wrote poetry. She needed paper to write on. The block supervisor at great risk to herself would steal paper for Helen to write on.

Helen recalls the block supervisor thusly: "She still owes me the bread, but I owe her my humanity."

Beatings by block supervisors and Nazi guards were constant. Helen owed her life to her fellow prisoners. On several occasions, she was beaten so badly that she was still bleeding at roll call time in the morning. Her fellow prisoners would hide her in the back row. In winter, red blood was obvious on white snow. Bleeding was not tolerated. The Germans would put such a bleeding Jew to death immediately. Then and there on the roll call field.

Helen says she constantly wondered while in Buchenwald why no one came to save her and the others.

Buchenwald was liberated in April 1945.

Helen was going nowhere. Except to a hospital. She was too sick. She was hospitalized for three years. When liberated, Helen was suffering from kidney cancer, pneumonia and malnutrition. She weighed sixty pounds. She also was infertile. No longer capable of bearing children.

At some point, her brother found her.

Helen immigrated to the United States. She met Leon. Leon was another Holocaust survivor. They married. Lived in different parts of the United States before settling in Utica. They adopted two children.

One day, Helen's daughter came home from school crying. The other children had called her ".....a dirty Jew."

Helen was incensed. She hurried to the school and confronted the principal. Helen insisted that she be given the right to speak to her daughter's classmates the next day about anti-Semitism. She was given permission.

Not knowing exactly what to say, Helen decided to simply tell her story as told herein thus far. The impact on the class was astounding. She was invited to return every year thereafter to speak to the succeeding class.

The name calling and her first talk to a class took place sometime in the mid 1970s. Helen was not a public speaker. Her words made an impact, however.

Helen caught hold. Word spread. She was asked to speak everywhere. She gave the same talk three times a week for years. At colleges, universities, public and private high schools, police academies, monasteries, and churches. She gave these talks into her ninety's. In central New York and through out the northeast.

It is seventy years since the end of World War II. Helen's basic thrust was her concern that despite the lessons of the Holocaust, genocide has been ongoing. The story of the six million Jews has not taught man a lesson. The world stood by quietly while the Jews were being exterminated. Such conduct can never be permitted again. Speak up, yell!

Helen told her audiences that there was an Eleventh Commandment: Thou Shall Not Be a Bystander. No longer remain silent. 

We talk about the genocides worldwide. Do we really do anything about them?

Some of Helen's words I would like to share with you.

Helen started each of her talks with "Hello, my name is Helen Sperling. I am a Jew and a survivor of the Holocaust."

Regarding those who stand by and do nothing as genocides occur: ".....a mistake. You cannot be a bystander. A bystander is someone who helps the evil."

"There is no closure for a survivor. I tell the stories of what happened because they help me to survive."

"Ninety nine percent of survival was sheer luck."

Regarding survival: "A little bit of it was hanging on to dignity. Once you lost that, you didn't have a chance."

At the end of one Helen's talks, a student asked whether she could forgive the Nazis. Helen's answer: "The issue is not whether we can forgive the Nazis, the issue is whether we learned the lesson - genocide continues to occur in our world.....we have not learned our lesson."

Helen challenges students to "Go and save the world!"

"I still don't believe it happened."

The memory "never stops hurting."

"The days are mine, but the nights still belong to Hitler."

Regarding hope and dignity: "You can live without food for a long time and without drink or anything. But you cannot live without hope and without dignity.....the Germans were trying all the time to take it away from us."

"We do not have the right to be silent. The Eleventh Commandment is Thou Shall Not Be A Bystander."

Rest in peace Helen Sperling. The first true peace since that day the Germans entered your home.

THE EIFFEL TOWER

Paris is much in the news these days because of the terrorist bombing. I thought it appropriate to write about something of a French nature which especially symbolizes Paris.

The Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 Paris Centennial Exhibition. The World's Fair. Its purpose to commemorate the French Revolution 100 years earlier. The Tower was to remain for only 20 years. Then to be torn down.

Most Parisians were opposed to the Tower. They thought even 20 years too long. The Tower was referred to by them as a lamp post stuck in the belly of Paris, an odious column of bolted metal.

A public campaign ensued to prevent the Tower's construction. Called the Committee of the Three Hundred. Composed of important French art figures. Architects, artists and writers. The Committee considered the proposed Tower useless and monstrous. A barbarous mass overwhelming and humiliating other monuments. An eyesore.

The Committee failed. The Tower was built.  Took 2 years to complete. Not torn down after 20 years. Stands to this day.

Tourists liked the Tower from day one. Two million visited the Tower its first year. Millions more in subsequent years. The Tower today averages 7 million visitors a year.

Radio saved the Tower. Note the Tower was built for the 1889 World's Fair. Radio was invented and developed in the 20 years between 1890 and 1910.

The Tower was nearly 1,000 feet tall. It became a state of the art wireless facility. Capable of transmitting messages initially to London, Berlin and North Africa. Then the United States when the Tower became part of the U.S. Army's wireless telegraph system.

The Tower had a war time value. During World War I, the radio tower intercepted enemy communications, relayed Zeppelin alerts, and was used to dispatch emergency troop reinforcements. 

During World War II, Hitler ordered the Tower destroyed when it was apparent Paris would fall to the Allies. Fortunately, the scheme was not carried out. Also during World War II, French resistance fighters cut the elevator cables so the Nazis had to climb the stairs. The fighters kept the cables cut throughout the occupation.

The Tower's infancy began with a competition to build a monument for the World's Fair. More than 100 competed and submitted plans. Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel's company Eiffel de Compagnie received the commission. The company had a solid reputation as an architectural, consulting, bridge building, and construction firm. 

Eiffel had a valued employee, the structural engineer Maurice Koechlin. Eissel and Koechlin worked as a team regarding the Tower. The two had collaborated earlier on the Statue of Liberty's armature.

The Tower was constructed of puddle iron. Another name for wrought iron. The Tower consists of 18,000 pieces of puddle iron and 2.5 million rivets. It stood nearly 1,000 feet tall when completed. One thousand feet tall being comparable to an 81 story building.

The Tower consisted of 3 platforms/floors. Initially, only 2 were open to the pubic. Later, all 3. Today serviced by 9 elevators. Restaurants among present day tenants.

The Tower is repainted every seven years. At the beginning, 3 colors. Lighter at the top. Gradually getting darker as the bottom was reached. The purpose to make the Tower compliant with the Parisian sky. In 2013, the Tower was painted bronze.

The Tower received a major face lift in 1986.

The Tower is owned by the City of Paris.

The top floor had a small apartment reserved for Eiffel himself.  Eiffel used the apartment to entertain. The apartment remains today even though Eiffel is long gone. It has been decorated in the period style as when constructed. Lifelike mannequins of Eiffel and notable guests are part of the apartment. The rooms are open to the public.

Charles de Gaulle could be hard to live with. History tells us of Eisenhower's trials and tribulations with the man. His ideas did not always make sense.

In 1967, de Gaulle was President of France. He secretly arranged with Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau to dismantle the Tower and relocate it to Montreal for Montreal's Expo 67. When the plan was discovered, all of Paris and France went crazy. The French people feared the Tower would never return. The plan was dropped.

The Eiffel Tower.....one of the Seven Wonders of the World.