Presidential Libraries

Presidential Libraries And Museums Issue Defense Of American Democracy!

Ronald Leave a comment

The state of American Democracy is in great peril, and has led to all Presidential Libraries and Museums to issue a joint message expressing their alarm at the growing crisis presented by Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans, but without specifically naming individuals or anti democratic movements.

From Herbert Hoover through to Barack Obama, the joint statement of all the libraries and museums is like an alarm bell in the night, calling for compassion, tolerance, and pluralism.

The fact that these Presidential libraries and museums of both political parties felt a need to issue such a statement is recognition of the crisis democracy faces in 2024 and beyond!

Time To Plan Obama US MINT Presidential Medals And Obama Presidential Library

Ronald Leave a comment

Now that Barack Obama is safely a resident of the White House for a second term as President, it is time for the US MINT to issue a first term Presidential medal, and start planning for a second term Presidential medal, as they do for every President of the United States.

It is likely that they already have the first term medal ready for production, but we all, anxiously, await it, as there are millions of Americans, including this author, who are avid coin and medal collectors from the US MINT.

But also, more serious discussion of a Barack Obama Presidential Library and Museum should move forward now, with the likelihood of the library in Chicago, maybe on the campus of the University of Chicago, where Obama was an adjunct Professor of Law for many years; and the museum being in Honolulu, Hawaii, where Obama was born and spent many years of his youth.

Since Gerald Ford has separate locations for his library in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and his museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, there should be no issue to having two locations to commemorate the 44th President of the United States!

So let’s get moving !

The Kennedy Presidency Is Finally, Truly, History!

Ronald Leave a comment

With the death of Sargent Shriver yesterday, Ted Sorensen in October, and Ted Kennedy a year earlier, the Kennedy Presidency is finally, truly, history!

Shriver died just two days before the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961.

There are no leading figures left from the Kennedy years, and even people who were associated with Kennedy in other ways are just about all part of the past.

As we commemorate the Kennedy years tomorrow, we can all be pleased that the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Massachusetts has made all of the Kennedy materials in its library available in digital form online, the first Presidential library to do so.

It was an undertaking of a long period of time, and should become the model for all of the other 12 Presidential libraries, along with the less official Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois and the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library in Staunton, Virginia.

For those of us who lived through and remember vividly the Kennedy years, therefore, there is good news in the midst of the final emergence of Kennedy as part of History, not current events!