Dorothy Brush "Random Thoughts" Published April 21, 2004

The good stuff is deep in the newspaper

The most interesting part of the newspaper for me is found buried deep inside the paper. All sorts of odd but informative stories can be found filling space. They are not lengthy and they are scattered on inside pages where they are often overlooked. That is where I found a three paragraph item that I cut out and laid on my desk to think about for a few days.

The first sentence was what I was thinking about. "Yellow ribbons tied around utility poles to welcome soldiers home from Iraq were removed by the National Park Service which says they are a political statement." Another case of an action being caught and trapped in that web known as political correctness. Do you believe that anyone who ties a yellow ribbon 'round the old oak tree is making a political statement? I don't. If that is true how long will it be before that popular tune is banned? Am I the only citizen who believes we are living in a strange new world?

This story came from West Branch, IA, a small town in the southeastern part of the state. It was the birthplace of Herbert Clark Hoover, the first United States president born west of the Mississippi River. The Hoover Presidential Library was built in West Branch and when Hoover died in 1964 it was turned over to the nation making it the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site supervised by the National Park Service. About a dozen yellow ribbons were hung along the park service-owned street that runs through the site and these were removed because they made a political statement on federal property. The spokesperson explained there is a designated free-speech area in the park but did not say if they hung the yellow ribbons there.

Some years ago I visited the Hoover Library and found it impressive because it was modest compared to the elaborate presidential libraries/museums built later. These memorials evolved over a long period. Birthplaces and homes of presidents were noted with markers and burial monuments were built on a grand scale but the very first Presidential Library was for the 19th president, Rutherford B. Hayes, who served 1877-1881. It stands in Fremont, Ohio.

The next president memorialized with a library in Niles, OH, was William McKinley, the 25th president. In 1940 the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum in Hyde Park, NY, was turned over to the government. Two wings to that original building were dedicated in honor of Eleanor in 1972. With the building of the Truman Library and Museum a new era began. There is nothing simple in the design and scope of these modern repositories for the life story and accomplishments of succeeding presidents.

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Dorothy Copus Brush is a Fairfield Glade resident and Crossville Chronicle staffwriter whose column is published each Wednesday.