David: Chris and I picked Johnson City somewhat out of the blue as the
place to sleep. We biked two days out of here. Yesterday, we learned
that this is the hometown of Lyndon Johnson, our former President. Today
we toured the Lyndon Johnson State Park and Historical Museum.
We biked beside the River that runs through his ranch: LBJ bathed and
swam and fished there. He walked the hills and pastures we rode through.
I saw the one room school he attended. We saw where LBJ is buried
beside his wife, Lady Bird Johnson. It was moving.
There are two pictures on the wall of his first school, one of George
Washington, and one of Robert E. Lee. I wonder how the Civil War was
taught to young Lyndon?
In the visitors’ center beside his birthplace in Johnson City there is a
brief exhibit. It includes mention of Johnson’s dismay that his
domestic legislative agenda - think Civil Rights, the War on Poverty,
public education - would be overshadowed if not destroyed by his leading
the United States ever deeper into the war in Vietnam. He knew it would
happen, but was seemingly unable to stop it.
I have a story in my memory that I believe is from a reputable
historian. Johnson was looking out the White House window in the midst
of his final deliberation about whether or not to make a decisive
escalation in the war. He stood silent for a long time. Then he said to
his advisor, who recorded the story for posterity, “We’re going to go
in, and we’re going to lose. I know that. But I’m from Texas, and we
don’t walk away from a fight.”
It is easy to consign the war in Vietnam to the history books. But our
tour through LBJ’s home and the reminder of his “historical legacy”
reminded me of another encounter just about two weeks ago.
Another rider, let’s call him “Jim,” missed a ferry boat ride (through
no fault of his own). I gave a several hour ride around the lake that
would have cost him 24 hours to do on his own. During that time we
talked.
At first his was a story of success. A career as a physician, two
children, successful and supportive partner. His ride was an early-mid
life time of recalibration of how he was living his life. All of which
was true.
What was also true was a sense of loss when it came to his parents. His
mother divorced his father when Jim was young, because of Jim’s father’s
erratic behavior. Erratic like burning down the family home: Jim
remembers coming home on the school bus seeing his house in fire.
Jim also remembers his father waking him up in a fit of rage and beating him so badly Jim was taken to the hospital.
Jim’s father was an early returnee from the war in Vietnam. Jim’s father
had PTSD from what he experienced there - he had PTSD before we knew
that was a thing, and long before we had even a faint idea of how to
treat it.
But the “legacy” passed on a generation. Jim is also scarred by Vietnam.
He doesn’t know how to trust people. After all, if you can’t trust your
father not to beat you up, who can you trust? Jim goes to therapy. He
is working to overcome the outcome of decisions that were made 60 years
ago.
I never knew Lady Bird's birth name, nice pic - an unadorned gravestone for a lady who created nationwide floral adornment. Growing up in the 60's makes me realize my dismay with the recent presidency is largely based in LBJ's authentically rooted efforts to make people's lives better
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