At an early age I found the history of the highest office in our country, the Presidency, to be highly interesting. When I was very young I paid undue respect and reverence to the office and the people who have served in it. I guess I thought a person in that office represented the best of our country, its ideals, principles and ethics.
Funny how reality can put a spotlight on one’s naïveté. (I don’t mean ‘ha-ha’ funny.)
Every U.S. President has been a human being, subject to all the frailties and imperfections that come with humanity. Oh, and they have been politicians… a very peculiar, and primarily self-centered, brand of human. And it’s important to remember these things when reflecting on the qualities and short-comings of any of these creatures. We want to imbue those we admire with superhuman strengths, and we tend to vilify those whose policies we despise and whose personal lives are affronts to all that is good and moral.
Some have accomplished great things in the face of momentous opposition and tumult. Others have been all about self-interests, at the expense of what’s in the interest of the common good. Some grew up in poverty, being raised in log cabins and such; others have been aristocrats. We have had a movie actor and a reality TV personality in that office. We have also had war heroes and members of academia serving as that Commander-in-Chief.
Okay, so where is this rumination leading? I’ve decided to spotlight each of the 46 folks (actually 45, as Grover Cleveland served as both the 22nd and the 24th boss dude) who have been in the role of U.S. President by posting a caricature along with a few notes and facts of each subject on the occasion of their birthday.
Mind you, I had intended to start this little project at the beginning of the year, and I have no excuse for not starting back on January 9 (Millard Fillmore’s birthday), except for laziness and lack of ambition.
Oh, and we got an English Springer Spaniel puppy, who has turned into a project for which I, making the transition from the late-Autumn to the early-Winter years of my life, don’t really have the energy or patience.
But enough of laying the blame on our energetic Leyla. I’m writing this at the beginning of April, and I’ve got to catch up on three-plus months worth of birthdays for the sometime-rogues who have served in that big house on Pennsylvania Avenue (well, not the first guy… slaves hadn’t yet built that mansion on the swamp land that would become the nation’s capitol. Washington’s slaves were busy doing other stuff at Mt. Vernon… making whiskey and such).
I’ll post one a day until I’ve caught up with the birthdays and follow up on the actual anniversary of each one’s birth. Along the way I hope to search out and relay info that may or may not be well-known to us average folks.
It will be a rogues' gallery, of that I’m sure.
Peace to all, and be willing to learn from history.
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