Hey, Hey LBJ

How many kids did you kill today? I remember that chant. Back in the 60s I'd have been among the chanters. I truly didn't think he cared about the Americans who were dying in southeast Asia. But after visiting the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin I came to realize that this man cared. More deeply than most of us knew. That war devastated that president. He understood that he couldn't win it and he didn't want it to be the undoing of everything else that he'd worked for.

And what else had he worked for? The Great Society - Civil Rights, Medicare, Head Start. Clean air and water. Things we take for granted today. While most of our government leaders today come from a legal background, Johnson's background was in education. It's my belief that this shaped the types of programs and legislation that he pursued. No telling what he might have accomplished if that war hadn't got in the way.

Anyway, as I learned in this visit, presidential libraries are not just about the papers and books of a particular president. They are designed to help you understand the context of the presidency. What was going on culturally, socially, and historically as well as politically. Having lived through the Johnson presidency, the exhibits in the Johnson library brought back lots of memories.

I'd assumed that presidential libraries are dull, boring places. Not so. (Same goes for the Library of Congress in Washington DC. - fabulous place to visit.) The Bush library is just down the road. I think we'll be paying a visit sometime soon.