My 5 Favorite Presidents, and Why I Admire Them .....

In about a month, most of us will be doing our American duty. We will be voting for a new President to lead our nation. It is a duty, and a right that others have literally died for to defend. Many people today take that right for granted and even abuse it.

They generalize by saying, "My vote doesn't count". What disturbs me is that this apathetic attitude is especially true among young people. Many I know are not even registered to vote. I wish I knew why.

When I was young you had to be 21 to vote, but you could be drafted into the Army at 18. People saw the hypocrisy of that and the voting age was changed to 18 by the Twenty-Sixth Constitutional Amendment.  I remember my first vote like it was yesterday. It was the election of 1972. The incumbent President Richard Nixon was running for re-election against the Democrat, Senator George McGovern. He was an anti-war candidate and the Vietnam War was was literally dividing America. McGovern was strongly supported by the youth of America. But on election day the youth of America must have been stoned or drunk. Because they sure didn't vote. Nixon won in a landslide. I became a little bit disillusioned after that.  BTW, Nixon resigned two years later in the Watergate scandal.

I've always enjoyed U.S. history and the Presidency. I've had my favorites and some I just smh. Some were President over hundreds of years ago, but have a direct effect on my life today. No, I didn't fight in the Civil War, but decisions they made, ideas they had are important to me today.

So without further ado, let me announce My 5 Favorite American Presidents - and the trait I admire the most in them.....

• John F. Kennedy - Steely-Eyed - JFK became President when I was very young. He was the first televised President. He looked good on TV too. But when he went on TV to explain that the Russians were putting nuclear missiles in Cuba we knew that meant trouble. Key West, Fl is closer to Havana than it is to Miami. JFK drew a line in the sand and told the Russians to get the missiles out during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was a stare down that those in the know say was the closest to nuclear war that we ever were.
• Theodore Roosevelt - Vision - Teddy Roosevelt is known as a "trust-buster" and also instituted
  the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. Those were important then as now.
  
  But the thing I am most thankful to Teddy today is for the creation of the National Parks. and the US Forest Service. The National Parks are some of the most beautiful places on Earth and need to be protected. I'm sure some businessman would've loved to put a Wal Mart by the Grand Canyon, but thanks to Teddy, that won't happen.
• Franklin Roosevelt - Do It Now - FDR became President  in the middle of the Great Depression. America was a mess. FDR quickly got programs passed like the WPA that employed millions of Americans. Projects like the Hoover Dam, highways, and electrifying rural areas changed America for the better. He guided America through the days of World War II till his death. America trusted him.
• George Washington - Leadership - The more I learn about the founding of our nation, the more I am fascinated by George Washington. To take a leap of faith, and lead a rag tag Army

  

  A rock.

  against the strongest Empire on Earth,,, To defeat that enemy after initially suffering defeats,,, To then resign his Army commission when many thought he could have named himself king,,,To then lead as President of that struggling nation. All I can say is that I'm  proud to have him on the money in my wallet.

Abe Lincoln - DoThe Right Thing - Slavery is a concept I don't fully understand today. The idea of one human being owning another just is totally foreign to me. But that's the way it was. The remnants of slavery may reverberate in today's headlines. Lincoln knew it was a concept that was wrong and had to change for America to move forward. It tore the nation apart. The Civil War was the bloodiest war we were ever in. But he persevered and won the war. He was going to welcome the South back - as Americans - without repercussions. He saved the United States of America.

The greatest speech ever.

When someone becomes President you're not really sure what you'll get. Some Presidents grow into the job and surprise people. When Harry Truman took over after Franklin Roosevelt died, people didn't know what to think. Roosevelt had been President for the past 12 years. Truman was an unknown and plain spoken man who was thrust into the end of WWII. It was his decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan to hopefully end the war and avoid a bloody invasion by American troops. It ended the war and destroyed two major Japanese cities. But these are the types of decisions a President makes.

Whoever becomes our next President I hope they can grow into the job. Maybe the spirits of these 5 guys can inspire them. God Bless America.