Fall sure slipped in early or I didn’t get enough of summer to suit my subconscious mind. We had a great summer, no high usage of electricity at my house but we didn’t have lots of high temperature days either. My greatest fear is after the fall elections are held, many of the local TV stations will have to lay off people because they won’t be selling political ads. We have heard so much about political candidates on my TV this summer that we almost know what color underwear they wear.
We saw political candidates at every event open to the public this summer. There were more politicians in the two Rodeo of the Ozarks parades this July than horses almost. Well if you want to stay in office or get elected you had to get out and give handshakes and kiss babies. I guess by mid-November we will know who won. For many there will be election recounts, I figure. I will vote and hope you do because we live in a free country and your vote counts in my book. We may not share the same political philosophy but that doesn’t matter, the majority wins. Think about those revolutionary farmers that fought the British. They were torn between families. Hand to mouth farming and poorly equipped soldiers; they beat a major world power for the freedoms we enjoy.
Democracy was a new thing then. A rich man’s vote did not matter, the common man’s vote elected officials to serve them all. They thought when Andrew Jackson won the Presidential Election that the country would sink. All those hobnail boots ruined the floors in the White House after his inauguration ceremony but he didn’t.
My grandfather thought Harry S. Truman was too common a man to be President. But really Harry proved to be a strong President. He had to make decisions like dropping the bomb on Japan to end the war. He crossed swords with Stalin, his one time ally, and stopped the Russians from gobbling up all of Europe. Harry didn’t do everything right but he did some big things for a Kansas City politician.
However, smart as he was, Jimmy Carter talked about how weak America was and how strong the Soviet Union was. A real southern gentleman his kind leadership and weak decisions led to 25 percent interest loans to curb inflation. It took a tough talking movie actor, of all people, to restore America’s face in the world. Ronald Reagan by voice command forced the Russians to tear down the Berlin Wall and to liberate Eastern Europe. In the footsteps of Teddy Roosevelt, he spoke softly and carried a big stick.
Let me throw in one more bone about the history of this land of ours. It was proposed that when Tennessee was to become a state they wanted to name it Franklin for all his services to this country. But Andrew Jackson, way before he became President and who as a boy had been struck by a sword from an English officer in the Revolutionary war, said, “We must stop acting like the British and stop naming places after men. We must call it Tennessee.” He won.
Jackson must have been a powerful orator. He took hundreds of men and fought the bloody British in a town called New Orleans. These words came from a song written by an Arkansas songwriter and schoolteacher, Jimmy Driftwood: The Cherokee Indians supported his army; hundreds rode down there and fought beside him. But Jackson turned his back on them and also the Supreme Court decision as President to ship those people west in the Trail of Tears that scared our history.
God bless you and all of America, Dusty Richards
