Chasing Ghosts...

Chasing ghosts this weekend in Austin and I don't mean the Halloween kind. I am talking the political kind. The kind we need to look back and reflect on. First photo is Cathy outside the LBJ Presidential Library. She has been reading the Caro books on LBJ. If the initials and the author's name mean nothing you can probably stop reading here.  

It was our second visit to the library. Not a good time to go as the exhibits are under some construction and are a little limited. That's ok as we had seen it before. The next day we decided to head on out for a tour of his ranch. I'll have some photos of that later. I do wish I had made it to town a little earlier as Newt Gingrich had spoke at the library. Not a big Newt fan but it was free and he is a famous guy and it was a program as opposed to some kind of ugly election thing.  Nice things to do are offered in connection with our public government buildings. 

Here's me and a life size statue of LBJ. He was a big guy. He was also a lot of other things. He was cagey, manipulative, caring, a physical coward, crude, a champion for the poor, course, vulgar and a believer in equal rights for all. He would violate your personal space kind of like I am doing to him right now. He grew up dirt ass poor in the Texas hill country. He did not go to a college that is known for producing presidents. It took him several attempts to get through what was then Texas State Teachers College. The reason for the attempts is because they were interspersed with activities like school teaching at border towns to make enough money to carry on. He went on to pass great legislation on civil rights, workers rights, consumer safety, and environmental protections to name a few. He was undone and hated because of the Vietnam War. It was a war with it's course set for him by preceding Presidents which he continued at the advice of the "wise men" of the day. 

I guess LBJ is interesting because other than vague memories of the events surrounding Kennedy's assassination I became old enough to be more aware of political events, things in newspapers and on TV with him. 

Here's a picture I took of an exhibit. I believe in these things and think they are possible in the way LBJ imagined them to be if things had not run off the rails for him. You should be able to click on the photo and read the text.   

Visiting Presidential Libraries is fun for me.  I have seem Clinton's, Bush I and LBJ's twice. I'll check out Bush II if enough time passes so they can put a spin on his mess to build one for him. With our visits to the PK in Chicago I bet I get a chance to see Obama's.   

More on LBJ later.