Passed Presidents - # 35 – John F. Kennedy

Since the ‘Dead President’ stories began, they have all been about figures long gone and histories long past. There’s no need to rehash this man’s story, especially since the media has been flooded with documentaries, dramatizations and remembrances all month. Why? Because ‘50’ is a nice round number, he was murdered and - there are still many people alive who remember him.

The Kennedy grave viewed from the Custis-Lee Mansion,

Arlington National Cemetery (14 November 2013)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have been exposed to the milestones of JFK’s life. Rich, Catholic family; badass Joseph P.; Faithful Mother Rose; Harvard; PT 109; three-term Congressman; two-term Senator; Elegant Jackie; Marilyn Monroe; Peace Corps; Man on the Moon; Bay of Pigs; Cuban Missile Crisis; Hyannis Port; Dallas; Lee Harvey Oswald; John-John’s Final Salute; Arlington National Cemetery.

For me, the John Kennedy story is different because I remember him. I remember the famous televised debates with Richard Nixon and how the young, handsome Senator changed election strategies forever by looking so fine against Tricky Dick’s uncomfortable, sweaty demeanor with the added five-o’clock shadow. In 1961, I saw his inauguration on a small, grainy black and white TV in a hospital lounge. Even as a teenager, I thought his invitation to, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country” was resounding.

As everyone in my parents’ generation knew where they were when Pearl Harbor was bombed and every adult now remembers their personal details of 9/11, people my age know what they were doing when Kennedy was shot. I was working at my first job after high school at a Wall Street business with one radio in the office. Work ground to a halt as we waited for better news that never came. My wife was ten years old in a Catholic grade school. She remembers the PA announcement that the president had been shot. The nuns and then all the students were crying. She went home to find her mother crying. Our only Catholic president had been murdered.

John F. Kennedy grave, Arlington National Cemetery (7 August 2005)

He was so different. So young and handsome. And there was Jackie...glamorous, outgoing...a breath of fresh air after Mamie Eisenhower, Bess Truman and Eleanor Roosevelt. Camelot. Young children in the White House. Touch football on the lawns.

Would JFK have been elected to a second term? Would he have gone on to greater glory as a statesman? He was only 43 when elected. That would have made him just 51 if he served two terms. What would he have done for the next 30+ years, assuming a normal, full life?

In 1988, I lived in New Orleans and attended a history class taught by Steven Ambrose. He wrote biographies of Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon and gained greater fame for his D-Day and Band of Brothers books. The combination of this star author and the class subject [20th Century Presidents] made me sign up to audit this class after work. There I learned that JFK’s ethically-challenged father Joseph P. Kennedy, had bullied the Pulitzer Committee into changing its vote so that his son’s book, Profiles in Courage (largely written by Ted Sorensen), would win the prize.

Two infants are buried with their parents (14 November 2013)

It appears that his thousand days in office were otherwise unremarkable. There were few significant legislative achievements. Kennedy was a Cold Warrior who was more interested in foreign affairs and battling the spread of Communism. Some fault him for not doing more to improve civil rights laws but he needed the support of southern segregationists who were Democrats like him. He did plan to introduce legislation in his second term but the assassin ensured that Lyndon Johnson would get the credit for that.

There were the Peace Corps, the ambitious commitment to land a man on the moon and the Cuban Missile Crisis success. But there also was the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion and the escalation of the Viet Nam war. When he took office, we had 60 soldiers in Viet Nam. When he died, the number was 16,000. On top of that, he was an avid skirt-chaser. By the time Slick Willie was in the White House, the press cooperation and public acceptance of that particular behavior had changed.

Kennedy was young, glamorous and rich. We were young and wanted to be glamorous and rich. I’m sure he lingers in our memory because of that. But he was also inspirational. He prompted many in the great Boomer generation to live lives of public service and reach for the stars.

Sometimes, I get the sense that we revere him because he was so handsome and smooth, Jackie was inordinately popular AND his life was cut short. Especially that last part. James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and many others who died young remain iconic. We’d rather not think about what their lives would have been like if they lived them out. They might have reached even greater heights or they might have faded away. We’ll never know.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

35th President; Served 1961-1963

Born: May 29, 1917, Brookline, MA

Died: November 22, 1963, Dallas, TX

Grave Location: Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA

Dates Visited: Many

Passed Presidents - # 21 – Chester Alan Arthur

This one can be called a story of redemption. Our 21st president was a shady character. The poster boy for the political spoils system, he held no elective office until he became James Garfield’s vice president. Before that, he was appointed the head of the New York Customs House, the patronage plum given to him by his benefactor, the fabulously foul Roscoe Conkling. The powerful senator and New York kingpin ran a tight machine that was the envy of that corrupt era. Why do you think this period was called the ‘Gilded Age’?

Even today, some politicians understand that this is the way to keep it all together. You start with a powerful, elected official who rewards his friends with government jobs. The friends are there to serve the needs of the guy who put them there...not the public. They make a decent living, maybe skimming some graft for themselves...not a problem as long as they pass some of it up the food chain to their patrons AND support the party at election time. Is this a great country or what?

Especially because of their common whisker style I can’t help but

see Chester as Mr. Smee to Roscoe Conkling’s Captain Hook

The future president was fired from his Port Collector job by President Hayes and continued to be Conkling’s toady until the 1880 Republican convention. At the time, the Republican Party included some powerful machine factions. The ‘Stalwarts’, led by the sleazo Conkling, favored the spoils system and wanted Ulysses S. Grant to run for a third term. The ‘Half-Breeds’ wanted to reform patronage politics and pushed for Maine Senator James Blaine to be nominated. The deadlocked convention continued to choose ‘None of the Above’ and finally nominated James Garfield after 36 ballots. As a concession to the Stalwarts, they added Chester Arthur to the ticket. The Vice Presidency was his only elected office and a few months after the election, he was president.

As much as Conkling liked that his boy was VP, the job was, then more than now, a pretty meaningless endeavor. Meanwhile, President Garfield, like Hayes before him, wanted to reform the spoils system and install a merit-based civil service system where workers were not allowed to support the political parties. Little did anyone expect Garfield’s term to be over in months and Arthur to become president.

(A fun footnote – Garfield’s assassin Guiteau wrote a letter to Arthur before he was convicted. He thought the vice president should have been grateful that Guiteau cleared the way for his rise to the Oval Office. Meanwhile, Roscoe Conkling’s smarmy reputation took another hit as he was widely suspected of orchestrating the assassination so his puppet could be president)

President Arthur Grave, Albany Rural Cemetery, 

Albany, NY (12 October 2009)

Chester Alan Arthur was born in northern Vermont in 1829. In the ‘What is Old is New Again’ Department, his detractors tried to spread rumors that he was really born in Canada and thus, disqualified from being president.

(One wonders if this ‘Birther’ nonsense that has plagued our current president ought to fade now that Tea Party darling Ted Cruz acknowledges he actually WAS born in Canada. He says that since his mother was a U.S. citizen, he was automatically a Naturalized American Citizen. I see. Just as long as it doesn’t apply to the black guy who was born in Hawaii)

Angel of Sorrow, Chester A. Arthur Grave

Albany Rural Cemetery, Albany, NY (12 October 2009)

Since August, when I changed the presentation of Passed Presidents blog posts to the dates of their demise, we’ve had tales of murder, family tragedy and political ineptitude. This one has a happier ending. The Gilded Age was a time when Congress was the real power in Washington and so many of these guys were corrupt. Patronage jobs and doling out pork to their districts was what they believed they were elected to do. After a career as a patronage pol, Arthur turned into a reformer. His primary accomplishment was signing the Pendleton Act that created the modern Civil Service system.

Some sources note that Arthur was one of five incumbent presidents who sought re-election but failed to secure the nomination from their party. I’m sure Chet lost the support of his patronage pals in Congress when he became a reformer. Also, I suspect he didn’t try very hard for a second term since he knew he had terminal kidney disease. His retirement period of less than two years is the second shortest of all the presidents and he died 127 years ago today in 1886.

President Arthur Grave, Albany Rural Cemetery, 

Albany, NY (12 October 2009)

One last vanity from “Elegant Arthur”, the New York dandy who proudly owned eighty pairs of pants. When he was in his 40’s, he decided to change his birth year from 1829 to 1830.

Chester Alan Arthur

21st President; Served 1881-1885

Born: October 5, 1829, Fairfield, VT

Died: November 18, 1886, New York, NY

Grave Location: Albany Rural Cemetery, Albany, NY

Dates Visited: 9/26/2004; 10/12/2009

Autumn 2013...Another Bust

In the autumn post from 2011, I vowed to be more prepared and serious about shooting the splendor of the next fall’s colors in a special place. A year went by and other travel, some medical surprises and Hurricane Sandy scratched 2012. This year, I had in mind getting up to Rickett’s Glen State Park in Pennsylvania where there are over twenty named waterfalls. Autumn’s colorful trees frame the cascades and add colorful leaves to the surface of the quieter waters.

Weather affects how much color we see in the fall. The wrong amount of rainfall or temperature will produce what we have in our part of Maryland this year...sporadic color or too many trees doing what I call ‘brown and down’, where the leaves just dry up and fall off. I called Rickett’s Glen and they confirmed it was ‘iffy’ there and past peak in places as well. So, we put off the trip another year and I have substituted some digital favorites from the Archives. True to my nature, most are from my forays to visit dead people.

On Post-Retirement Road Trip III, I drove a circuitous route to Wisconsin so I could visit five presidents’ graves. The old, worn Appalachian Mountains of western Maryland can look magnificent in the fall.

Autumn in Western Maryland (20 October 2006)

On the last stop of Road Trip VI, the New England State House Scramble, I was heading back toward home through Albany, New York. I re-visited the Albany Rural Cemetery to get digital images of Chester A. Arthur’s grave. The 167-year old cemetery with old trees and big stone gravestones looked good in its early autumn colors.

Albany Rural Cemetery, Albany NY (12 October 2009)

Road Trip III’s drive through the Midwest included a stop in Indianapolis. I thought about visiting the state house before going to the cemetery where Benjamin Harrison rests. However it was a Sunday and the Colts were playing at home. The downtown area was already crowded with fans. Parking anywhere close to the capitol, given its proximity to the football stadium, was out of the question.

So, on to Crown Hill Cemetery I went. If I ever get the bug to document the graves of our vice presidents, this place has given me a head start since three guys I never heard of are planted here...along with John Dillinger, the famous bank robber and depression era outlaw. I believe the grand display of the living trees juxtaposes nicely with the dead all around.

Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, IN (22 October 2006)

It was a gloomy day when I visited ‘Cool Cal’ Coolidge the second time. The autumn New England state house trip came at a time when driving between the sights was as much fun as the destinations. There was color everywhere. Outside the tiny town of Plymouth, Vermont [2010 population – 619], is the Coolidge farm and the town cemetery. In addition to the president’s family, I found the headstone of the “Longest surviving Revolutionary War widow” who died in 1906. For the history and math-challenged, that war ended in 1783, 123 years before she died. Details on how this record was achieved will be provided when we visit the 30th president’s grave in January.

Anyway, many photographers prefer gloomy days when autumn trees are the subject. Bright sun casts shadows and the colors are more vibrant on cloudy days. On a deserted road, away from the president’s grave, was one of my favorite views. There are no great trees in the shot but the wall and old headstones make for an autumn scene that is authenticated by the quiet, leaf-covered road.

Plymouth Cemetery, Plymouth, VT (7 October 2009)

I recognize that this blog has clearly documented that some of my promises are not worth spit. But I really mean it this time. NEXT year, I WILL get up to Rickett’s Glen State Park and I WILL take quality pictures of the wonderful autumn on display.

Unless something comes up...

The Lazy Lout’s Lament

This piece was drafted TWO years ago and set aside. I’ve updated only the time references as everything else has been consistent. With the haunted computer theme, I should have posted it yesterday for Halloween.
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Those of you who are parents or supervise people on the job know the difference between reasons and excuses for NOT doing things. There wasn’t enough time. There were higher priority tasks to do first. Something else came up. Be honest. Maybe the task seemed too hard. There were other things you’d rather do. There were distractions that were more appealing.

Here I am, thirty-two months into this blog experience and I haven’t succeeded with my original objective. I have not stretched or learned much of anything new. On March 11, 2011, I said I was going to expand my knowledge so I could become a better photographer and thus have more to share and write about. Instead, personal quests and current events have presented story opportunities and I have plenty of archived images and adventures to riff on. Eventually, I will run out of interesting pictures and stories and will have to get to work.

Drabble by Kevin Fagan

(From sometime in the 70’s; saved because 

it reminded me of my study habits)

I have to admit that much of this inertia relates to computer-phobia. Cameras are no longer simple machines that let in light and expose film. They are computers. Pictures are no longer pieces of film or paper. They are computer files. These files are organized, edited and archived using software programs.

You can do wonderful things with a digital image. You can turn a throw-away shot into a keeper and you can turn a keeper into something you want to frame and hang on the wall. Plus, the ‘film’ is free so it’s easy to fire away and take loads more pictures than you did in the film days. In 2008, I did a quick inventory. Since my slides are in boxes that hold 750, it’s easy to calculate that I saved about 8000 pictures in 35 years of shooting film. After three years of digital picture-taking, I had over 15,000 pictures…and that was five years ago.

Anyway, it’s clear I have not stopped taking pictures. I just haven’t learned (or assimilated) much about how to manage and improve them. It seems that my capacity for computing is stunted. Learning doesn’t stick. Plus, it’s so easy to get into trouble with a computer. With PC’s, there are menus and drop-down options and multiple ways to perform any given task. That also means there are many ways to go off in the wrong direction. And once I have taken a wrong turn, I go deeper in the hole and nothing gets done. I cannot help but conclude the following:

Ringger’s Rule of Computing - 

Computers are like dogs –

when they sense your fear, they turn on you.

Ray’s Gate, New Orleans (11 August 2006)

You laugh. I’ll give you two inexplicable, senseless examples that occurred in the past couple of weeks. One week after the new laptop’s warranty expired (Isn’t that so often the case?), I lost sound. I have desktop speakers and listen to iTunes and watch video clips frequently. Out of the blue, the sound was gone. A check of the computer’s sound settings showed nothing wrong. I returned to the store and the clerk connected the machine to other speakers and there was sound. Great. I’ll go home and all will be well. Fat chance. Is it my speakers or the docking station or any of the wires connecting them? I fiddled with every connection…no sound. Finally, I disconnected the entire system…not an easy job since much of the wiring is behind a large, stationary desk and bookcase. In the kitchen, I tested the speakers on another computer and they worked. I switched and tested all the parts on both machines and everything worked fine. So, I return to the office and reconnect the desk system…and it works fine. So, what was the problem? I don’t know. What did I do to fix it? Don’t have a clue. Gave it some air? My best, considered, rational, scientific explanation is that the laptop is possessed by gremlins.

Shortly after that incident, I had trouble with a power strip and my external hard drive. The drive is where I keep the digital images…best to back them up in a place separate from the haunted computer. After working fine for years, the drive would not power up when plugged into the power strip…but it worked fine when plugged into the wall outlet [?].

It was time to improve the power feeds for all the plug-in things in my little man cave so I bought another power strip, dove under the desk into the Gordian knot of wires and extension cords to devise a cleaner arrangement for all the machines in the room [two computers, printer, monitor, scanner, two desk lamps, speakers, phone]. I turned off everything before disconnecting and reconnecting them and when I turned the computer back on, there was nothing on the screen [!?!]. All I did was turn it off…like I do all the time…why no screen life? Plus, with a dark screen, how do I find a setting or instruction that can fix this problem? Step Number One in any Information Services solution – re-boot. I turn it off and on TWO more times…no screen – Aaargh! But wait. The monitor was not powered up. Try again with monitor on…now both laptop AND monitor are dark – Double Aaargh! Re-booted TWO more times and voila…the monitor worked. So, what was the problem? I don’t know. What did I do to fix it? Don’t have a clue. Yelled a lot? Hard to see how that helped.

Haunted computers ARE valid reasons for lack of progress. The rest are all excuses. I am a lazy lout who’s having a good time doing other things. Now I need to make the time to grow in this craft….do something new and different. There are magazines that have not been read. There are software programs that need to be opened and learned. There are thousands of picture files that can be worked and improved.

Maybe next week.

Merry Belated Halloween to All and to All a Good Night.