But on this day (3-28) back then, former President Eisenhower passed into history. He was the first President that I was aware of in my life. In fact my first memory of politics (I was maybe eight years old) or anything other than what I wanted at the moment was of my mother or father telling me sternly - as I made a noisy entrance into the room where our television was located - to "Be quiet! The President is speaking!"
I remember being confounded about why it was so important to be quiet while some old guy on TV was talking about something I neither understood nor cared about. But my parents were watching intently, (dare I say reverently?) and I knew something was different about this telecast. I have no memory about the subject of that speech, and even today I'm not even mildly curious.
President Eisenhower is not a political or even philosophical ideal of mine. He was not a libertarian. It wasn't fashionable or even desirable in a world which he just helped save from the horrors of German Nazism, Japanese Bushido or Soviet Communism to be one. A President, like every other person, must be judged in the context of his times.
I have no idols, but I do have heroes. And he is a hero of mine for many reasons this space won't allow me to bore you with. So he wasn't a libertarian, but he was a patriot.
On a whim, in preparation for writing this, I googled the word "ike." The results were depressing. A word which used to mean only one thing to the vast majority of the world didn't yield a single result which referred to the former President. The number one entry was for a sandwich shop. I gave up after four pages.
My Ike was a hero, not a hero sandwich. I wish we had more heroes today.
By Grant Davies,
Regular Columnist, THL
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