{"id":27707,"date":"2025-06-04T23:07:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T03:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=27707"},"modified":"2025-06-09T18:04:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T22:04:24","slug":"dear-george","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=27707","title":{"rendered":"Dear George"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Linda Lou Burton posting from Little Rock, Arkansas<\/em> \u2013 Dear George, it\u2019s been almost a year since I wrote a post about you. You were #1 in my quest to write about all the presidents of the United States. And remember the first thing I wrote about you? It endeared you to me the most of anything \u2013 the fact that underneath that powdered gray hair, you were a redhead! A redhead with blue eyes, no less, who loved to dance. I daresay the portrait painters of the day chose to depict your somber side because you were in charge of so many things at a young age \u2013 estates, family, and dealing with incredible change. You took the oath of office as the first president of the United States of America at Federal Hall in New York City on April 30, 1789. You were 57 then. Ten thousand people came to witness the event; important dignitaries, regular folks, people eager to be part of a new beginning. There was a marching band! You made a speech. You got a 13-gun salute. And the new \u201cexperiment\u201d began.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Well George, a lot has happened since then. There have been 46 more inaugurations, and 37 states added under the \u201cUnited\u201d title. And our 50 states now house almost 400 million people, whereas you were dealing with a mere 4 million. So much has changed in 236 years! There have been 27 amendments to that original Constitution. We\u2019ve had way too many wars \u2013 worldwide conflicts and inhouse breakdowns and squabbles. We\u2019ve had times of great prosperity and times of great depression.<\/p>\n

But we keep hanging in there, though not surprisingly everybody isn\u2019t pleased with everything. We\u2019re like a household of siblings fighting for attention, or even indulging in sneaky tricks. My Dad used to tell of sharing a bed in the middle room with older brother, and how they were supposed to take turns by the window on hot summer evenings. Yet no matter how they settled in for the night, he\u2019d wake up every morning on the sweaty side of the bed. One night he pretended to be asleep and caught big brother sliding him out of the way so he could take the cool spot. Imagine people in a country, or nations in the world, doing that kind of stuff. Lots of pillowfights.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Believe it or not George, we have another red-headed president in office today. He is tall, like you; and he inherited a lot of privileges and responsibilities at an early age, like you. One of the major differences between the two of you is his lack of military or political experience; he\u2019s the first person we\u2019ve elected who has neither. He grew up in the business world, where the goal of the day is making a deal and making money. You experienced much of the business world as you were growing up too. But you had an amazing amount of public service under your belt by the time you became president, and once in office you began to set the tone; you insisted on the title \u201cMr President\u201d rather than \u201cHis Majesty\u201d or \u201cHis Highness the President.\u201d You introduced the idea of an inaugural address, and regular messages to Congress. Good communications. You began the two-term tradition, and the notion of \u201cpeaceful transfer of power.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019re still doing inauguration ceremonies \u2013 over the years some have been a bit over-the-top, sort of a \u201cshow-off\u201d tactic; you can read about them in my posts. Some have been tense \u2013 President Lincoln\u2019s for instance, when the country was about to split. Andrew Johnson and Chester Arthur and Teddy Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson were inaugurated in secluded haste after an assassination. Yes, four of our presidents were flat-out murdered! A few died of health issues, one was forced to resign in a terrible scandal, and more than a few were notorious women-chasers. One or two were just plain skanky and mean. Out of the 45 men who have been president, five continually rank at the top for a \u201cjob well done\u201d\u2013 Abraham Lincoln, both Roosevelts, your old buddy Thomas Jefferson, and you, George.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You set a high standard for the presidency. I read the letter you wrote to James Madison expressing a devout wish that the precedents set early on be fixed on \u201ctrue principles.\u201d So a question. Back then, when you guys were figuring out how this dramatic new idea of democracy could work, how did you imagine the electorate who would CHOOSE a new leader every four years? The original voters were white male landowners, whereas today we expect each citizen \u2013 whatever race, sex, or social position \u2013 to shoulder the responsibility of choosing our president. Over the years we’ve chosen some who did not ascribe to those \u201ctrue principles\u201d you hoped would be the norm.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the \u201cpresident\u2019s job\u201d has become immensely more difficult and complex (a hundred times more!) since you first took that oath. It costs billions of dollars to get elected these days but the bar for an applicant is surprisingly low; then popularity is the key to a win. And although a win means you’re a sitting target for criticism, anger, and blame, you\u2019re also in reach of thousands of strings you can pull to impact the tiniest aspects of your constituent\u2019s lives, a tantalizing prize. So you blaze your name across every breath of air nonstop for years before election day. It\u2019s excruciating. For everyone.<\/p>\n

Lots of people are angry with our current redhead, and frustrated with his buffoonery. But more people chose him than the other candidate. That’s the way our system works. Whether we choose a good person or a bad one – red headed or bald headed or empty headed – by our choice we literally \u201cmake our own bed.\u201d And sometimes it\u2019s a bummer. Reminds me of Dad’s story, waking up on the sweaty side and wondering what happened while he was sleeping.<\/p>\n

I wish you\u2019d come back for a look-round at the situation, and help us refresh the vision. Just be prepared for an endless media assault.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linda Lou Burton posting from Little Rock, Arkansas \u2013 Dear George, it\u2019s been almost a year since I wrote a post about you. You were #1 in my quest to write about all the presidents of the United States. And remember the first thing I wrote about you? It endeared you to me the most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4589,4031],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27707"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27707"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27755,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27707\/revisions\/27755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}