Looking back
is sometimes needed. I guess that's also not what most people think these days. History, well, that's past. That's what I hear from people who are actually very smart but obviously not intelligent. This morning I awoke with fright but somehow I got also moved to the end of last century in my thoughts, desires and aspirations. Is this a new dawn? Can we move to something that's better? Can we hope that there's enough in us to set us back on to the right path? The truth is that we're always somehow off the right and narrow path, and the secret is to just follow the light at any time anywhere.
Once there was the common belief that the mythical Roman general and statesman Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was the example to follow. While plowing his small farm across the Tiber River, he was summoned by messengers to serve as dictator when a Roman army was trapped by the Aequi, an ancient Italic tribe that lived in the Apennine Mountains east of Latium in central Italy. One might be amazed by the certain performances these days, but how would anyone these days still raise a mere citizen army and defeat the enemy in just a fortnight. Perhaps one needs to think of a general Washington or Winston Churchill here.
George Washington was one who believed in the Cincannatus principle of not keeping onto absolute power rather to resign ones office and return to ones home. Another one was Harry S. Truman. After leaving the White House in January 1953, he returned with his wife, Bess, to his hometown of Independence, Missouri. His retirement spanned nearly 20 years until his death in 1972. He faced tight finances initially and declined corporate board seats, famously stating he would rather "die in the poor house" than exploit his former office. What a man indeed. He actually also saved the White House without altering its actual appearance.
I'm perhaps not the only one but I miss those kind of men. One forgets too easily, and settling with mediocrity, fraude and corruption all about is never good. The addition of the second-floor South Portico balcony to the White House by Truman in 1947–1948 sparked heavy criticism over architectural aesthetics, executive overreach, and process. Are we not too far from the right path now? Truman funded the actual project—costing roughly $15,000 to $16,050—using the president's household budget and savings rather than requesting an official congressional appropriation. What do we have now? No set budget, no set sources of funding, it leads to the obvious. Corruption.
Ironically, this precise heavy construction project stressed the aging building that was the White House, eventually revealing severe structural rot and instability in its actual interior—culminating in the Trumans having to move out to Blair House while the mansion underwent a total interior reconstruction. One that saved the beautiful building. Eventually the so-called Truman Balcony became a permanent, celebrated fixture of the White House used by subsequent first families. The story behind the White House reconstruction is still little know now, but should be told more because it's one of doing great things but staying humble and keeping the structure sound.
[media=https://youtu.be/oOKVa9p-yWo]
Once there was the common belief that the mythical Roman general and statesman Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was the example to follow. While plowing his small farm across the Tiber River, he was summoned by messengers to serve as dictator when a Roman army was trapped by the Aequi, an ancient Italic tribe that lived in the Apennine Mountains east of Latium in central Italy. One might be amazed by the certain performances these days, but how would anyone these days still raise a mere citizen army and defeat the enemy in just a fortnight. Perhaps one needs to think of a general Washington or Winston Churchill here.
George Washington was one who believed in the Cincannatus principle of not keeping onto absolute power rather to resign ones office and return to ones home. Another one was Harry S. Truman. After leaving the White House in January 1953, he returned with his wife, Bess, to his hometown of Independence, Missouri. His retirement spanned nearly 20 years until his death in 1972. He faced tight finances initially and declined corporate board seats, famously stating he would rather "die in the poor house" than exploit his former office. What a man indeed. He actually also saved the White House without altering its actual appearance.
I'm perhaps not the only one but I miss those kind of men. One forgets too easily, and settling with mediocrity, fraude and corruption all about is never good. The addition of the second-floor South Portico balcony to the White House by Truman in 1947–1948 sparked heavy criticism over architectural aesthetics, executive overreach, and process. Are we not too far from the right path now? Truman funded the actual project—costing roughly $15,000 to $16,050—using the president's household budget and savings rather than requesting an official congressional appropriation. What do we have now? No set budget, no set sources of funding, it leads to the obvious. Corruption.
Ironically, this precise heavy construction project stressed the aging building that was the White House, eventually revealing severe structural rot and instability in its actual interior—culminating in the Trumans having to move out to Blair House while the mansion underwent a total interior reconstruction. One that saved the beautiful building. Eventually the so-called Truman Balcony became a permanent, celebrated fixture of the White House used by subsequent first families. The story behind the White House reconstruction is still little know now, but should be told more because it's one of doing great things but staying humble and keeping the structure sound.
[media=https://youtu.be/oOKVa9p-yWo]
