The Observer, November 30, 2007
Volume XL, Issue 12
A Wandering Fool: Take a trip through U.S. history, filled with entertaining lessons
I think my history and government classes should been combined in high school. American history can be dull, but everyone loves a good laugh at our politicians. I liked government class, as it showed me how funny our leaders can be. Just recently, for instance, Dennis Kucinich introduced articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney. It was known in the House that it was a futile gesture, but Kucinich felt it worth making. The YouTube video of the bill being read is fairly inspiring, actually. The Republicans had planned to send it to committee to die. Instead, they saw an opportunity. What better way to make the Democrats look like fools? They proposed to open the bill for only one hour of debate, long enough for the cameras. The Democrats ended up sending it to committee.
It's rare to find such comedy in our government, given our short history, but here and there, there are tidbits. Only 150 years ago, our nation was at the mercy of party politics during a period of particularly poor government. After Lincoln's assassination we hit a bad patch. Andrew Johnson wanted to be sympathetic to the Southern states after the civil war, and was nearly impeached after radicals took power in midterm elections. Grant made things even worse, by appointing a cabinet of the greediest men on the face of the earth and subsequently destroying the U.S. economy, though he did try to improve things, making several great strides forward in foreign policy. Hayes, an Ohio lawyer, next took office after losing the popular vote and let the civil service get away with anything it liked, leaving the growing issue of reform to his successor, an unwilling James Garfield.
The comedy ends with Garfield, but his tomb makes an excellent field trip. Garfield tried to be a reformer and had some success, but he didn't get much of a chance. He was shot by Charles Guiteau four months into his presidency. He died two months later and was laid to rest in Lakeview Cemetery. The tomb says something about his America. Garfield cuts a majestic figure in marble. The halo of incandescent lights over his head may be broken, but it's still bright. His statue looks toward the docks, the Cleveland skyline, the hope of a city that he never saw realized. His statue has watched the skyline rise and empty in the past century. Maybe the bill he's holding would have stopped it from emptying.
When I toured the tomb this semester, I lingered on the observation deck, watching the sun start to fall. The campus is beautiful under the glare, and I noticed that the statue is looking right at PBL as well. The only other thing I could see there was the pyramid head of the phallic symbol that marks John Rockefeller, shining bright white. The marble and granite that make his marker still glows like the day it was erected. The brick and mortar of Garfield's tomb has suffered bitterly for its century-and-a-quarter immersed in Cleveland's atmosphere. From what I could gather from the pictures downstairs, the memorial used to be the color that the University Hospitals tower is right now. I wonder what Rockefeller's monument will look like in 150 years.
History is replete with entertaining little lessons like this, but we were last taught them in high school. Now that we can understand them, they are banished to our dusty and unmemorable past.
Wesley Brue is a senior English and theater major.
