June 9 · This Day in America
For four years Senator Joseph McCarthy has run on fear, waving lists, ruining names, daring anyone to stand up. On this afternoon, in a packed Senate caucus room with the cameras running, he attacks a young lawyer on the Army's legal team. Joseph Welch, the Army's soft-spoken Boston counsel, has heard enough. "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness," he says. And then, quietly, the line that ends an era: "Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" The room breaks into applause. Millions are watching at home. Something shifts that cannot shift back. By year's end the Senate censures McCarthy; three years later he is dead. It turns out the country could still be shamed into remembering itself.
Source: www.senate.gov
Also on this day · 1934
In a Silly Symphonies short called "The Wise Little Hen," a hot-tempered duck in a sailor suit makes his debut, squawking in a voice nobody can quite understand. He has no idea he will outlast almost everyone in the room. Decades on, Donald Duck is one of the most recognized characters on earth — proof that American genius sometimes arrives sideways, quacking, and refusing to do its share of the work.
Source: www.history.com
“Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”Joseph N. Welch, 1954