Some think too little about it while others think too much. At some point most people consider their legacy. “How will I be remembered?” Most people are born relatively anonymously. They live and die such that only friends and family know them, but the world does not unless they have “That One Moment.”
Almost everyone famous has had That One Moment when they went above themselves, or below. Some are branded by events that define their entire life. Former President Richard Nixon is best remembered from the aircraft door waving as he left his tarnished presidency. Harry Truman is remembered holding up an incorrect newspaper headline: Dewey Wins. President Gerald Ford will forever be stumbling down stairs.
President Bill Clinton is remembered for his believable denial, “… I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky…” It was a great performance ruined later when he confessed he was lying the whole time. Vice-President Nelson Rockefeller had a heart attack possibly in the intimate embrace of a woman who was not his wife. The family has tried to shield his reputation but he is forever branded by that moment.
Even the last moments of President John Kennedy are played more than his best moment when he set America’s quest to land on the moon. Kennedy was lucky the press of that day ignored his marital affairs.
First President George Washington was afraid he was going to be impeached before he could finish his second term. History instead remembers his best moments. History gave a moral pass to Thomas Jefferson, Lyndon Johnson, James Garfield, perhaps Eisenhower and certainly Franklin Roosevelt.
Last week there was a moment which may become the legacy of President Barack Obama. It was the placing of an unnecessary fence around the World War Two Memorial. No other government shutdown resulted in the closing of Memorials. For some people it meant little but to many it was huge, especially those who served in our military.
The core issue is that President Barack Obama was trying to make the partial government shutdown worse than it needed to be for ordinary Americans. There was no reason to hold 90 year-old veterans hostage other than the spitefulness of a Chicago style Mobster President. In the Chicago style of politics the Vietnam Memorial was also closed.
Men who had served honorably in war were trying to make peace with lost companions in wars still being fought in their souls. These heroes were unnecessarily fenced out of open-air Memorials for no reason other than a Mobster President’s politics.
There was a hurt look on the faces of Veterans when they saw the fence put up by the direct command of the White House. Initially some veterans thought they had traveled ever so far in vain. Then someone pushed over the fence and they all went up to their Memorials to do their business with war and remembrance. Police subsequently cleared the veterans out of their Vietnam Memorial.
This past week this Mobster President insisted our most sacred war heroes be fenced out of their Memorials. He did so knowing that many were at the absolute end of their lives. To Mobster President Barack Obama it did not mean anything special. It was just politics. He was still off to play golf.
Some people, carrying this Mobster President’s water, dismissed these complaints saying veterans could have come at other times. Partisans even question who cares about veterans? One person said President Obama is more important than all of the veterans because he gave healthcare to all Americans. Wrong, veterans gave us liberty and without liberty you can forget all about your healthcare.
To many Americans this action was an indecent exposure of the Mobster President’s soul. This evil will be his legacy. It erases all of the good he did in other things because history will remember him for That One Moment. The only thing worse is if he declares Martial Law to get his way.
Dr. Michael Swickard hosts the syndicated radio talk show News New Mexico on six to nine a.m. Monday - Friday on a number of New Mexico radio stations and through streaming. Email: michael@swickard.com
