RSS Feed
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Editor's Notes
Congressman Jo Bonner's office helped secure a 7:30 a.m. tour of the White House (I figured the Secret Service wouldn't let me in but somehow I got by). I deadpanned to Maggie that we were going to have grits with the President and she believed me...for a little while! Maggie has been watching "Cory in the House," a Disney Channel show about this kid whose daddy works in the White House. She was anxious to see the real thing. We toured the first floor, seeing the Red Room, the Blue Room, the East Room and the State Dining Room. I was impressed but my 9-year-old daughter wasn't. She said it wasn't nearly as big or nice as the White House on the Disney Channel. Oh, well. Realty can't hold a candle to fantasy, can it? **** Afterwards, we walked a few blocks away and had breakfast at a little downtown shop. It made me wonder... could President Bush walk the few blocks and enjoy a ham and cheese omelet? Hardly. For all the power and prestige that goes with being President, the occupant of the White House is somewhat of a prisoner, too. Anywhere he goes, traffic stops and bystanders are cleared or screened. He and the First Lady can't go out for a casual dinner. They can't run down to the corner drug store for a Band-Aid (we stopped at one next to the breakfast shop for some for our aching feet). And it doesn't end when a presidential term ends. A former president is always a celebrity. I am no fan of President George W. Bush, but after seeing his taxpayerfunded home, nice though it may be, and thinking about all he has to put up with and the way his freedom is curtailed, I kind of feel sorry for him...and for everyone else who calls 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue home. I salute all of the presidents who give up some of their personal freedoms to serve their country. I don't think it is nearly as glamorous as it appears to be. **** Lady Bird Johnson died last week. She was 94. The widow of President Lyndon B. Johnson was heralded by the press as an "environmentalist first lady" but in the 1960s what she did was more simply called beautification. She urged the planting of wildflowers, litter cleanups and the limitation of billboards along the nation's interstates. Our highways and urban areas are prettier places because of her work. She was also an astute businesswoman, amassing and overseeing a multi-million dollar financial empire that included radio stations, banks, real estate and other businesses. Mrs. Johnson had Alabama ties. Though born in Texas as Claudia Alta Taylor (a housemaid dubbed her "as pretty as a lady bird" and the name stuck), her mother was from Autauga County. Her mother died when Lady Bird was 5 and her father moved to Alabama. The family lived in Milton, near the Dallas County line, until she was about 13 when her father moved the family back to Texas. Mrs. Johnson was proud of her Alabama roots and last paid a visit to the state about 10 years ago to help dedicate a historical marker. Her family still owns about 1,700 acres in Autauga County. **** When we toured the White House Saturday morning, I noticed the big black SUVs that are a part of the presidential caravan parked in the driveway of the home. One had bicycles strapped to the back. I guessed that the President and Mrs. Bush were going to Camp David because of the bikes. On the flight home Sunday I read in the Washington Post about Lady Bird Johnson's funeral Saturday and saw that former Presidents Carter and Clinton were there as were a number of former first ladies and First Lady Laura Bush. The article noted that President Bush was bike riding with his financial advisors that day. So, maybe presidents can sneak out of the gilded cage occasionally! **** A word of caution from someone who doesn't fly much: Make sure your photo IDs are up to date! My birthday was in June and my drivers license expired at the end of that month but I hadn't noticed...how many folks look at their own drivers licenses? But an eagle-eyed security lady at Reagan International Airport did Sunday as I tried to be Bama Bound. She declared my ID was outdated and invalid and I couldn't fly. I told her I guessed I could walk back to Alabama but I didn't really want to. She said I should have never been allowed to fly with an invalid ID and wanted to know who let me. I told her it was simple...that I had flown out of Mobile, Ala. at 7 a.m. one morning and the nice security lady there and I had chatted about delicious Krispy Kreame donuts with my daughter and neither of us paid close attention to my license that got only a brief glance. The D.C. lady eyed me up and down, shook her head, initialed my ticket and waved me off and here I am back in Grove Hill, thank goodness.
Jim Cox is editor and publisher of The Clarke County Democrat.
|
for larger version       |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
