A Trifecta of Sorts...
A visit to LBJ's presidential library on the UT campus finished up a trifecta of sorts as I have now spoke at three libraries closest to me. It was the same situation here as it was at Bill's and H.W.'s. They told me to keep my voice down and if you don't identify these presidents by first names or popular initials you need to steer from this page and google Brittany or something that people born after 1975 do for fun.
Here's me outside the library. Kind of messy, had some construction happening around the grounds. No stately bored academia like H.W.'s on the A&M campus or bragging gleaming modern mobile home chic similar to Bill's in Little Rock. LBJ was tired after 37 years in public service. He wanted the old cold war security of a good place to hunker down.
I think these three presidents have somethings in common. All had some great success and some incidents less than great. LBJ had great domestic achievements but got bogged down by a war. Bill was good at domestic policy, but had some less than stellar personal choices. H.W. was good a foreign coalition building but brought down by the usual Republican party economic policies. While these things are similar they are not what made these men do great things.
LBJ and Bill drug them selves up from a hard scrabble kind of life. LBJ had to quit college and teach at a border school in the 1930s to have enough money to continue on to a degree himself. If ever traveling through Hope, Arkansas check Bill's boyhood home, it's modest. H.W went to war very young, shot down, his crew men killed he spent 30 days on a sub after rescue. You did not just go home in those days, the going frequently got tougher. These men learned hard lessons early on.
So here is where I get subversive, not that you ever see that here, but the guy that just left the White House had none of this learning. It showed in the way he governed and in the shape he left the country in. I look forward to a visit to his soon to be constructed library at SMU. The guy we got in White House now has pulled himself up in a way very like these greats of the past. I expect we shall see some of the same highs, some of the disappointing lows. It's what makes us human and able to give service to others.
Here's me outside the library. Kind of messy, had some construction happening around the grounds. No stately bored academia like H.W.'s on the A&M campus or bragging gleaming modern mobile home chic similar to Bill's in Little Rock. LBJ was tired after 37 years in public service. He wanted the old cold war security of a good place to hunker down. 
I think these three presidents have somethings in common. All had some great success and some incidents less than great. LBJ had great domestic achievements but got bogged down by a war. Bill was good at domestic policy, but had some less than stellar personal choices. H.W. was good a foreign coalition building but brought down by the usual Republican party economic policies. While these things are similar they are not what made these men do great things.
LBJ and Bill drug them selves up from a hard scrabble kind of life. LBJ had to quit college and teach at a border school in the 1930s to have enough money to continue on to a degree himself. If ever traveling through Hope, Arkansas check Bill's boyhood home, it's modest. H.W went to war very young, shot down, his crew men killed he spent 30 days on a sub after rescue. You did not just go home in those days, the going frequently got tougher. These men learned hard lessons early on.
So here is where I get subversive, not that you ever see that here, but the guy that just left the White House had none of this learning. It showed in the way he governed and in the shape he left the country in. I look forward to a visit to his soon to be constructed library at SMU. The guy we got in White House now has pulled himself up in a way very like these greats of the past. I expect we shall see some of the same highs, some of the disappointing lows. It's what makes us human and able to give service to others.
Labels: subversive
posted by Carl at 7:58 PM
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