By Edwin Cooney
When I was 10 going on 11, my fifth grade teacher Mrs. Hilkin began teaching the class how to read a map of the United States. First, she began by introducing us to wooden relief maps and finally she used tactile Braille paper maps pressed by zinc plates on to 11 by 14 sheets of Braille paper. She began by teaching us the location of states along the west and east coasts which included the most prominent states such as Florida and Texas. We learned the “COW" states — California, Oregon, and Washington. Next, there were the “CAN'T states" — California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Then, there was Florida which stuck out into the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico like a sore thumb. Then came the six New England states with Maine sticking up above them like a baseball mitt waiting for a fly ball with New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island (known as "Little Rhody”) residing beneath in all their glory. After that came New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia and Old Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida which occupied the Atlantic coast. The Great Lake States of Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois pretty much filled up the north and midwest. Finally, there were the states on the Mississippi: Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana.
The rest was up to me to learn and I worked harder on that than I had ever worked on such mundane topics as math, science, spelling, or English. I took my Braille maps back to my room to study and restudy the states. I didn’t wait for my teacher to help me identify new states. After all, that was my mission and I got help from houseparents and other adults confirming and reconfirming which states were which. Between October 1956 and March 1957, all the states, their capitals, their products, their major cities and even their people really and truly became mine. More than merely an academic study, learning about the parts of America was a personal quest. However, there was a question beyond that: who was I to them and who were they to me? They were hardly my family. I couldn't claim to own them as property. I certainly wasn't President Eisenhower! But somehow, all of the people mattered to me and were linked to me. Exactly how they were related and what their link was to me was difficult to grasp.
I lacked the necessary perspective to start understanding civics or politics for quite a few years. Slowly, altogether too slowly, I began to vicariously live the American experience through the stories of the men who were elected to the presidency of the United States. What I've learned about their backgrounds, life experiences, motives, ambitions, hopes, fears, and values has taught me what America is all about. To me, the President of the United States has been America's caregiver ever since.
Last week I offered my version of a speech President Trump should have given in the wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Imperfectly as I may have designed this speech, had the president given something like it, I believe he would have quite effectively drawn the public into a closer identity, perhaps even a partnership, with his responsibility for them, and his accountability to them. It seems to me that presidents ultimately fall or flourish in direct proportion to how important John and Suzie Q. Citizen's fears and hopes appear to matter to him. This is especially obvious during an election year!
Sometime soon, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden will reveal his running-mate. This person may, sooner than we think likely, even become President of the United States. Should Mr. Biden make a poor choice, it could mean President Trump's re-election. Certainly, the Republicans will do their very best to demonstrate whatever weaknesses there may be in Mr. Biden as a choice. They could hardly be expected to do otherwise!
It's my guess, however, that President Trump has gotten himself into a position where only he alone can save himself. As I pointed out a few weeks ago, FDR considered himself the only issue back in 1936 and it turned out to be true. The difference between then and now is that by election day in 1936, it was clear to people in 46 of the then 48 states that FDR was the issue because of what he’d done for their collective benefit. Just the opposite appears to apply to President Trump in 2020! Nevertheless, it seems to millions that President Trump has conducted himself in such a way that this year he has become his very own Hillary Clinton.
Back in 1960, author Theodore White observed that one of Richard Nixon's advantages going into the campaign against young Jack Kennedy was the "magic stamp of legitimacy" as Ike's sitting Vice President. Nixon's "magic stamp of legitimacy" wasn't adequate to sustain him against the handsome and vigorous Massachusetts senator, but in the wake of four years of constant presidentially-inspired political turmoil, Joe Biden's vice presidential calm may well bring about a new version and era of vice presidential legitimacy.
Four years ago, candidate Trump ran on the promise to drain the swamp. Rather than draining it, he has flooded it! He's infested it with viral-laden directives and judgments that literally tell people to be patriotic enough to get sick to bring about herd immunity.
Joe Biden doesn't appear to be under the illusion that he can solve all the problems or avoid all the dangers of the nation he seeks to lead. However, a lifetime of experience in the Senate and eight years as Vice President, imperfect as they may have been, appear to have taught him that an angry, resentful self-absorbed presidency will never create a truly great people!
As I mastered knowledge of our national physiognomy 63 plus years ago, I realized it was too big, too peopled, too mighty to be merely mine. That realization set me forth on a quest to understand who could master it on my behalf. I found the answer to that in the Office of the President of the United States. He (and eventually she) will invariably preserve this beautiful land "...to the best of his or her ability!"
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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