IN SHOCK …

Like so many others I am quaking at the thought of four years with Trump at the helm … but, it is what it is. It has put me in a reflective mood and I decided to go back and take a gander at the Presidents that have been in office in my lifetime. There have been twelve of them starting with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Democrat. He was sworn into office on March 4^th, 1933 … when I was 17 days old !

For the very few of you who do not know … FDR is the only President in our history who served 3 consecutive terms and was actually inaugurated for a fourth term but died in office on April 12, 1945. The Vice President Harry S. Truman took over and served until Jan. 20^th 1953.

 

 

Now this down-to-earth guy from Missouri I remember well because my parents spoke of him in glowing terms. He is mainly remembered for making the excruciatingly difficult decision to drop the Atomic bomb on Hiroshima but his legacy is much more than that. 

 

Those of us receiving Medicare can thank him for getting it all started. He was a ferocious advocate for National Health Insurance and, although nothing came of it while he was in office he lived long enough to see it become a reality. In 1965 President Lyndon B Johnson, Democrat, signed the Medicare bill into law and Harry Truman and his wife Bess received the first two cards in honor of his past fight for government health care.

 

Truman was a very humble man who also fought for civil rights reform and was responsible for wiping out segregation in the armed forces. He is one of the most quoted of our past Presidents and is often pictured in the oval office with his famous “The buck stops here” sign.

 

The picture above sums up his philosophy and is eerily appropriate for today. I can only pray that the “gluttons of privilege” will be stopped in time … before they do indeed swallow up our country.