2016 has come to an end. Goodbye to what for some was a forgettable year. With a new president, we can hope for the best, but for me there is little clarity as to his intentions.
Thinking back, I have lived through fourteen presidencies, some good, some
not so good. The first was Herbert Hoover, though I was too young to remember him. The financial crash of 1929 occurred on his watch. I do remember Franklin Roosevelt, however..
That was about the time that my father bought a Philco console radio and installed it in the living room of the farmhouse. Then he and my brother Karol erected a tall pine antenna pole about a hundred feet from the house and strung an antenna wire to the eave, down the side of the house and into the living room (the pole was later struck and splintered by lightning).
Between the tuning squeals we could find a few stations. I recall the radio play "The Shadow" which came on every Sunday afternoon.
I remember well Roosevelt's Saturday night "Fireside Chats" that always began with: "My Friends," with the emphasis on "My." He was the right man for the times. Our only three term president. He put the country back to work through the Worker's Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps. Even artists and sculptors were hired to do murals, artworks, etc. I have in my possession a plaster bust of Roosevelt executed from life in the White House….a gift from the sculptor's wife.
The aristocracy didn't like him, though he did come from a wealthy family.
Soon after he was elected, JP Morgan attempted a Fascist coup when he tried to enlist Marine General Smedley Butler to raise an army to march on and take over the government. Butler would have none of it and reported it to Congress, but nothing came of it. Today the aristocracy appears to have taken over the government by other means, judging by the number of billionaires in power. Who knows where that will lead.
I also remember the real-time Adolph Hitler speeches, haranguing his followers to a fever pitch during his rise to power. I didn't understand it, as he spoke in German, but the tone of it was decidedly unsettling. People are still letting demagogues have the upper hand.
The 1930's were quite a time: The United States recovery from the depression, the rise of the demagogues Hitler, Mussolini, the Ethiopian War, the Hindenburg disaster, the Long Island Express Hurricane, frigid winters, the Merrimack River flood, the Lindbergh baby kidnapping; Amelia Earharts disappearance in a flight over the Pacific, Orson Welles scary "News" broadcast of a Martian Invasion, Robert Goddard's rocket inventions which the Germans adopted and the onset of World War II.
Here's to a serene and productive 2017, but don't bet on it.
