157
Item
-
Title
-
157
-
Transcription
-
In 1959 I attended a Rotary meeting in Beirut, Lebanon. I sat next to a banker who said to me, "If America does not change its idea on this Israel-Arab problem, there will be a lot of trouble." I now understand what he was saying.
We make our foreign policy decisions from local pressure groups. The local pressures are too much for our politicians, and we will pay for their mistakes for a long time to come. Israel cannot exist with out our support, and some day we will not be able to afford it. and some day we will find that we can no longer continue our support.
Rotary has had a continuous growth since it was founded in 1911 by Paul Harris, a Chicago business man, who felt that it would be a good idea for business men to meet on a regular basis to discuss their problems and meet for good fellowship. Rotary started with 4 men. In 1914 there were 4000 [sic] clubs. In 1957, 9288 [sic] clubs with 439,000 members. In October of 1990 the were 25,163 clubs in 172 countries with a membership of 1,107,950.
There have been many international projects; Hospitals, Schools, Clinics. The major project of 1989-90 was called polio-plus, and with the cooperation of the World Health Organization,the [sic] Agency For International Development, and over 225,000 clubs, a program was launched to eradicate polio in the world. To-date [sic] they have raised over $500,000,000, and more than 530,000,000 children have received the vaccinations.
Since the Berlin wall has come down, all eastern block countries have started clubs again, including Russia. Recently women have joined the clubs in the United States, and a few other countries. Sonoma had its first woman President in 1992, Grace Salt, a very active member since 1988.
-
Rights
-
To inquire about usage, please contact Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. These images are for educational use only. Not all images are available for publication.
Metzger Memories
