OPINION:
I still remember a cool October night in 1957 when my father took me downtown to a football game at Griffith Stadium between George Washington and the visiting Air Force Academy. The game had barely started when in walked President Eisenhower, surrounded by admirals and generals, without fanfare or announcement of any kind. You might have thought, however, that Caesar had just entered a Roman arena, the way a hush fell over the 12,000 spectators. All eyes turned to stare at the president, whose smooth head stood out among the behatted warriors around him.
The awe and the reverence with which we held our president then was something we felt to our core. We were proud of him. We were proud to be Americans. At halftime, even though Air Force was losing, they put on a display of a falcon flying around the stadium and swooping in to capture a swinging lure.
I don’t know whether my dad knew Eisenhower was going to be at the game. He was in on a lot of top secrets in his post in the Pentagon, but I suspect there were a lot of people at that game who wanted to be there to support Ike, who had had a rough week. First a reporter at a press conference had asked him about the new Russian Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, then the Russians had put the satellite Sputnik in orbit. Some Americans were a bit rattled, but not Eisenhower. He simply attended a football game.
I don’t mean to wax nostalgic about a bygone era, but we were one people then. We rooted for our leader and were united for the good of the country. Sure, we had a real, external enemy posing a genuine threat to us, but the politicians who came into office then brought honor along with them. They weren’t tainted by scandal or rumors of malfeasance, dishonesty or shady and distasteful lives. They made the American public healthier and lifted up ideals that young people could admire and aspire to emulate.
Lately, by contrast, it seems we are poisoning the body politic. We have become like the thoroughbreds at the Kentucky Derby who stumble out of the gate. We aren’t running our best race.
I am not 10 years old anymore, pinching myself over seeing the president of the United States sitting a mere 50 feet from me. But doggone it all, it would sure be nice if someone wanting to be president realized there are young Americans out here who would love to feel that way about their president again.
JIM FRENCH
Dakota, Ill.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.