http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101014/lf_nm_life/us_queen_4
YAHOO! News
Queen Elizabeth cancels Christmas party in tough times
REUTERS
LONDON (Reuters Life!) – Queen Elizabeth has canceled a planned Christmas party at Buckingham Palace after deciding it would be inappropriate to celebrate as ordinary Britons feel the pinch from tough economic times.
The royal household thought the event, paid for by the Queen herself and usually staged every two years, would be unseemly as Britons cope with deep public spending cuts to bring down a record peacetime budget deficit.
"The queen is acutely aware of the difficult economic circumstances facing the country," a palace spokeswoman said on Thursday.
"It's the first time in memory the party's been canceled," one unnamed worker told the Sun. "We're all devastated
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=38671
The American Presidency Project
Ronald Reagan
XL President of the United States: 1981 - 1989
Address at the United States Naval Academy Commencement Exercises in Annapolis, Maryland
May 22nd, 1985
Congresswoman Holt, Secretary Lehman, Admiral Watkins, General Davis, Admiral Larson, distinguished guests, members of the class of 1985, ladies and gentlemen: I am so proud and honored to be here and to have a 22-gun salute. [Laughter]
But it's an honor for any President to commemorate the graduation of new officers from our service academies, but today is a special privilege for me. I was reminded on the way up here that we have a lot in common. You were the first class to enter the Naval Academy during my term in office, and you might say we've finished a 4-year course together. Now we're both about ready for the real stuff. [Laughter] One thing bothers me, though. I still seem to be climbing that greased monument and you only had to do it once, 3 years ago. 1 [Laughter]
1 The President was referring to the Herndon Monument, an obelisk which freshmen must scale on the first afternoon of Commissioning Week.
Well, looking out over your faces in this inspiring and historic setting gives reason for confidence in our nation's future. These last 4 years have been spent preparing you to assume responsibility for the protection of our country and all that we stand for. You're part of a noble tradition.
America's independence and freedom, since we were but 13 Colonies huddled along the Atlantic coast, have relied on the bravery, the good sense, and leadership of her officer corps. We've leaned heavily on men of the sea, on our Navy and Marine Corps. Your careers will be no less significant to future generations of Americans than those of past naval heroes.
You will hear during your career, as I've heard during times in my life, that maintaining the military at peak readiness-keeping our forces trained and supplied with the best weapons and equipment—is too costly. Well, I say it is too costly for America not to be prepared. As Presidents since Washington have noted: The way to prevent war is to be prepared for it.
And as obvious as that is, it's not always appreciated. There's a story about John Paul Jones' chief gunners mate. It was during the gore and thunder of that most historic battle. He was loading and firing cannon and carrying the wounded to the medical officer, cutting away the tangled rigging. And apparently in the midst of that first fight, John Paul Jones went below momentarily and changed into a new uniform. And as he emerged on deck a voice rang out through the smoke and fire—it was the British captain asking, "Have you struck your colors?" And the gunners mate, sweat and blood dripping from his body, turned and saw Jones now in his fresh uniform reply: "I have not yet begun to fight." And the gunners mate said, "There's always somebody who didn't get the word."
Now, my chief of staff, Don Regan, is a marine, and he keeps telling me that story's incorrect—that it was a marine in the rigging and not the gunners mate that said that.
Well, today as throughout our history, it is strength not weakness, resolve not vacillation, that will keep the peace. It's about time that those who place their faith in wishful thinking and good intentions get the word.
During the 1930's I saw America, disillusioned by the First World War, permit our military power to decline. The lack of will on the part of the Western democracies encouraged the totalitarians of that day. Churchill called what followed the most avoidable of all wars, and it turned out to be the most costly of all wars, both in terms of resources and in terms of human suffering.
Americans were spared much of the direct ravages of the Second World War due to geography, the grace of God, and the incredible skill and unmatched courage of our Armed Forces in the desperate months after Pearl Harbor. Fighting a delaying action, often against overwhelming odds, they bought the time needed to build our forces. Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal are names that have gone down in the annals of truly historic battles. I couldn't help but see those names up there on the stadium. Many good men gave their lives in the 1940's for America's unwillingness to prepare in the 1930's. Let me promise you: As long as I'm President that will not happen again.
Since the end of the Second World War, American military might has been an immensely positive force in the world. We used our economic resources to help rebuild the devastated homelands of our allies and of our former enemies as well. Those people, wherever they are in this world, who've enjoyed the rights to speak and to pray and to direct the course of their government through democratic elections owe their freedom to one degree or another to the protection of the United States military. It doesn't take much imagination to know how different things would be had the Soviet Union, not the United States, militarily and economically dominated the world after 1945.
