I’ve always loved history. It was one of my favorite subjects throughout my career as a home-schooler. The parallels between centuries past and modern times never fail to surprise me. And on occasion, when I am brought back to a favorite era – one I may have studied at great length – I will always find something new, something unexpected, and something remarkable. By looking at the past, I find insight into my own being and how I have come to view my country, the world, and the inhabitants thereof.
Just a few days ago I mentioned how I’d become obsessed with the Past Master game on HistoryChannel.com. I’ve been playing regularly and I’m pleased and proud that I’ve finally made it to level three (quite an accomplishment considering the obscure nature of some questions and the fact that I play most often after three in the morning while waiting for my pain medication to kick in.) Repeated play, however, has renewed my obsession with study. I’m shocked that it’s taken me this long to get to level three, I thought I had remembered more details than that. But that shock alone wasn’t enough to kick me into gear.
I swear, I am in love with the History Channel. I was flipping channels several nights ago with my brother Steven when we spotted a special called ‘The Presidents’. First off, I have to say that I love my brother – how many other siblings would be pleased as punch to share in watching something educational? (Not to mention someone who’d be just as giddy as I was when we stumbled across a ridiculous bit of Communist propaganda from the 80’s on who-knows-what local station. Once we figured out what the crap it was, we were done giggling and thus changed the channel.) Anyway, as I was saying, the History Channel is dissecting the history of the American presidency with such succinct accuracy that we’re enthralled with the miniseries. My Mom was no slouch when it came to covering American history when we were still busy home-schooling, but goodness, I never knew so much about Rutherford B. Hayes in my life!
For instance, I had completely forgotten that Abraham Lincoln founded the Republican party. And did you know that African Americans were first given the right to vote in the 1870s? With their votes, the entire South – from Virginia through to Texas – flipped from Democrat to Republican in one single election. Hence the birth of the Ku Klux Klan! I had completely forgotten that the klan was initially politically driven. Ulysses S. Grant and his successor, Rutherford B. Hayes, actually had to send federal troops to guard the newly elected Republican leaders because the Democrat-funded Ku Klux Klan was attempting to overthrow the state governments by force. President Hayes referred to their actions as terrorism and attempted to launch the very first a “War on Terror”. Unfortunately, after the losses sustained in the Civil War, he was unable to maintain the federal armies in the South. One by one, the Southern states fell to Democrat coups and the nation saw the birth of segregation. For a few brief years following the Civil War, Lincoln, Grant, and Hayes granted African Americans their Civil Rights. It was only after the Ku Klux Klan overthrew the elected governments in the South did we face another hundred years of bigotry and racism. Interesting, isn’t it? In all my studies I had never heard of any of this! Coups in state governments? It’s remarkable. Horrible, but remarkable.
My favorite part of this whole miniseries is how absolutely inspiring it is. I remembered that when I was very little, I saw Ronald Reagan on television and thought to myself how very much I would like to be President some day. I’ve entertained the thought on several occasions, mostly with just dreamlike wonder of what it would be like. But now I’m starting to think it might be a worthwhile goal. Naturally I have a whole lot to learn and a whole lot to experience before I can really expect to do anything about this idea, but I think it might be a good guide for future career decisions. At the moment I think, based on character, I’d have a great shot at it – I have no skeletons in my closet, I’m fairly accomplished, and have a history of sticking up for others and influencing legislation (in more ways than I’ve been able to blog about).
In addition, just the other week, I was speaking with my Mother about how disappointed I was with the rather lackluster response to De-Lurking Day. While I appreciate the 16 people who de-lurked, do you realize how small a percentage that is of my daily visitor count? It’s ridiculous – not even 15%! That’s when my Mother reminded me of the sort of people who read my blog, and the various reasons why they may not want to advertise their presence. When I attended the awards ceremony after party for the Childnet Awards in London, I was stunned when strangers would come up to me and ask me very personal questions. It was a while before I worked up the nerve to ask them how they knew such things – they just laughed and said they’d been reading my blog for quite some time. To give you an idea of the caliber of the people in attendance, I was congratulated personally by the Lord Mayor of London, the staff of the American Embassy, and so on. In short, I was only 18 at the time and I held my own with accomplished individuals.
So now I have a tentative ultimate goal, a culmination of achievement that will help guide the direction and ethics of all future accomplishments. Let’s say in theory that I’ll run for President when I’m between the ages of 50 and 55. (Don’t laugh.) By then my children will have grown and hopefully I’ll have accomplished several things on my To Do list. I’ll start out (relatively) small with my various educational television pursuits and my children’s charities. Already underway with that, so that’s good. Maybe ten years from now I should have the experience and the clout to bring my dream of an exclusive tuition-free leadership university to fruition. I have absolute faith in my idea, it will just take more time and more experience before I will have the respect required to make such a substantial undertaking become a reality.
If that works out, I imagine I’ll serve on the school’s board for five to ten years. Because I would never want to be a career politican, I wouldn’t enter into politics until later in life. Perhaps becoming Mayor of some town in either Connecticut or Texas (since I plan on owning homes in either or both of those states), then campaigning to become Governor. If all of this works out, a Presidential campaign between 50 and 55 years of age. Throw in a few other odd charitable and/or educational pursuits in between those mammoth goals, and I think I’d make a pretty decent candidate.
That is, of course, if people could get over the whole Mormon issue. That is my one major concern – I’m not even bothered by the home-schooling (hey, Abraham Lincoln was home-schooled.) People never said we’d have a Catholic President, and sure enough, John F. Kennedy got elected. My hope is that by the time I’m in my fifties, the world will have become educated and accepting enough of my faith to ignore those out there who would spread lies about my beliefs and wish to persecute those who share them. So long as I live my life free from scandal, conduct all of my business dealings with honor and integrity, even ignoring my gender I could be a very unique Presidential candidate – one without any skeletons in their closet.
At least for the time being, I like this idea. Even if I change my mind later on and decide the Presidency or politics just aren’t for me, then hey, what have I lost? I will have lived my life honorably, keeping doors open for myself, and helping to improve the lives of others along the way. Like Lincoln says, whatever I am, be a good one. I think with the Presidency as a model for behavior and expectations, I’ll be good no matter what I set out to do.