Dead Presidents

I was definitely bummed to hear that Senator Inouye passed away on Monday.  I had actually been reading quite a bit about Inouye recently, and his death came just a few days after I had mentioned him in a post after the Senate’s despicable rejection of the United Nations treaty on the rights of disabled people. 

The word “hero” is frequently over-used, but not in the case of Daniel Inouye.  The Senator was a true American hero, a legendary warrior in the most decorated American combat unit of World War II, and a man who selflessly dedicated his entire life to serving our country and the people of Hawaii.  I can’t imagine that too many years will pass before Hawaii replaces one of its two statues in the National Statuary Hall with a likeness of Daniel Inouye. 

I also found it to be fitting and beautiful that the last thing that Senator Inouye said before dying was “Aloha”.

I wish I could say that I was surprised that the Senate didn’t do the right thing despite the appearance and support of a nearly 90-year-old Bob Dole who not only dedicated his life to public service, but did so with significant disabilities because of the fact that he very nearly gave up his life fighting for this country in World War II.

I wish I could say that I was surprised, but I’m not.  Nothing surprises me anymore about the Senate or the House, particularly in this 112th Congress.  I’m hoping that enough was done in November to, for a lack of a better term, flush the waste out of the Capitol so that the 113th Congress can get some good things done for our country.

It just makes me angry now.  It makes me angry that these are our representatives.  It makes me angry that 38 United States Senators voted against ratifying a treaty that was basically an international version of our own American With Disabilities Act.  The United Nations modeled the treaty after the ADA in order to urge people around the world to take care of and no discriminate against people with disabilities.  And after frail, wheelchair bound Bob Dole made an appearance in support of the treaty’s ratification, he was wheeled out of the Senate chamber and 38 American Senators said no. 

Thirty-eight American Senators opposed that treaty while Arizona Senator John McCain, who spent nearly six years being tortured in a North Vietnamese prison and can’t even raise his arm into the air to be recognized by the presiding officer, sat in that chamber.  I can’t even imagine how Senator McCain can caucus with those Senators in the future and work together with them.  I can’t understand it.

38.  Thirty-eight Senators rejected that treaty while Hawaii’s Senator Daniel Inouye was in the chamber.  Senator Inouye is 88 years old and disabled.  Do you know why Senator Inouye is disabled?  BECAUSE HE LEFT HIS ARM ON A HILLSIDE IN ITALY FIGHTING FOR HIS COUNTRY.  That was after he had already been shot in the stomach attacking a German bunker.  A German grenade blew his right arm off of his body as Inouye prepared to toss his own grenade.  Do you know what happened when Daniel Inouye’s arm was blown off of his body?  He reached down with the arm he had left, pulled the grenade that he was about to throw out of the closed hand of his severed right arm, and then he finished the job that he had started, tossed the grenade at the Germans, and kept shooting with the arm he had left until he passed out.  Thirty-eight of Senator Inouye’s colleagues rejected an international treaty protecting the rights of people like Inouye as he sat there.

It’s shameful.  After the vote, John Kerry (another American who served his country and was wounded in combat, by the way) said it was “one of the saddest days I’ve seen in almost 28 years in the Senate and it needs to be a wake-up call about a broken institution that’s letting down the American people.”  I couldn’t agree more with Senator Kerry except for one thing:  rejecting this treaty lets down the people of the world — 700 million of whom are disabled.

Thirty-eight United States Senators should be ashamed of themselves and their constituents should be disgusted by their representation.  Shame on you, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Roy Blunt of Missouri, John Boozman of Arkansas, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Dan Coats of Indiana, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Bob Corker of Tennessee, John Cornyn of Texas, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Mike Enzi of Wyoming, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Dean Heller of Nevada, John Hoeven of North Dakota, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Mike Johanns of Nebraska, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Jon Kyl of Arizona, Mike Lee of Utah (who took the lead in opposing the treaty’s ratification), Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rob Portman of Ohio, Jim Risch of Idaho, Pat Roberts of Kansas, Marco Rubio of Florida, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Richard Shelby of Alabama, John Thune of South Dakota, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, David Vitter of Louisiana, and Roger Wicker of Mississippi.  If I were running the DSCC, I would target all 38 of you in your next campaigns and lay your vote for the rejection of this treaty’s ratification on your doorstep every night so that you step in it every morning and drag it with you every time that you speak to a veterans organization or a group of people with disabilities or a senior citizen.  I’d add “go to hell”, but with the 112th Congress in charge, I’m not positive that we aren’t already there. 

No. 

Call me naïve, but I still believe that our Presidents would never intentionally jeopardize American lives or American prestige, and that FDR didn’t just allow Pearl Harbor to happen, LBJ wasn’t responsible for JFK’s assassination, and President Bush didn’t turn his head so that someone could knock down the towers. 

Even if I don’t agree with their politics or policies, I guess I’m still silly enough to believe the Presidents when they raise their hands and take their oaths.

President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 was issued in February 1942 and excluded Americans of Japanese ancestry from living freely anywhere on the Pacific coast, resulting in mass relocation and the internment of over 100,000 Japanese-Americans in “relocation zones”, which were nothing more than concentration camps in isolated areas.

The Executive Order was a knee-jerk reaction following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and it’s not only a dark aspect of FDR’s otherwise heroic Presidency but one of the most conspicuous and embarrassing blemishes in our nation’s history.  It is a very sad action taken by our government and it punished a lot of innocent people and a lot of people who could have been tremendous assets to the war effort during World War II.

I’ve read two really interesting books about the Japanese-American internment during World War II and they were both written by the same author, Greg Robinson.  Robinson’s By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese-Americans is a little older and gives more background of the actual decision and actions of President Roosevelt leading up to the internment.  Robinson’s more recent book is called A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America and was interesting because it also focuses on similarly despicable actions taken by Canada (where the government’s treatment of people of Japanese ancestry was shockingly brutal) and Mexico.

I’d recommend both books, but if you’re wanting to tie it in with Presidents or the Presidency specifically than Robinson’s first book is the one you’ll want.  I’d also recommend checking out one of the many books featuring photography from that era.  The photographs of the internment camps are haunting, sad, and vivid.

One last note about the Japanese-American internment camps is that I lived in California until last year and there are numerous museum exhibits in different parts of the state which feature some very informative and memorable displays about this shameful era in American History.

—Books mentioned in this post—

By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans by Greg Robinson

A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America by Greg Robinson

I guess it can be considered hypocritical, but I think the United States felt an obligation to create some stability and do whatever possible in order to rebuild Japan after the atomic bombs were dropped and the war ended.  Post-war Reconstruction is an essential aspect of peace and healing.

As for the last part of your question, I don’t think that there was anything subtle about the atomic bombings.

I think the two Presidents who faced the biggest challenges were Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt. 

Lincoln, of course, came into office after states had seceded from the Union and armed rebellion was breaking out in the country.  There is perhaps no more difficult task than presiding over a divided country in the midst of a Civil War and Lincoln’s entire Presidency, save for the last few days of his life, were consumed by the conflict which pitted American vs. American, brother vs. brother, states against the states.  For Lincoln the first day of his Administration where he actually saw hope was just a few days after Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox and that hope was extinguished that very night when he was assassinated. 

As for FDR, if you think the economy is bad today, read up on the devastation of the Great Depression and the shape that the country was in on the day that Roosevelt took office in 1933.  Things looked so bad for FDR that somebody actually tried to assassinate him during the transition period between Election Day and Inauguration Day.  On top of the Great Depression and the battle for economic recovery domestically, events were spiraling out-of-control internationally resulting in the deadliest conflict in human history, World War II.  Also, he couldn’t walk.