I'm trying to visit all of the Presidential Libraries. I love the experience. I love the small slab of history, the patriotic passion, the reflection on contemporary society (all of them are since Hoover). We have three more to see all of them (one is under construction). This week we saw The Eisenhower Library and the Truman Library. The brochures say that most people spend an hour or two--we spent 6 or 7. I want to soak out of it all I can. I am in love with the experience.
In the Eisenhower museum we had spent 3 hours when we looked at the clock for the first time. We realized we had not yet left the WW2 section, we still were not to the section of the presidency. Panel by panel, artifact by artifact we read and studied his command of the Allied Expeditionary Forces. The section on the end of the war and the liberation of the camps was particularly moving.
I read the memoir of a soldier who helped liberate a camp. He shared this in a letter to his parents, "While there they showed us the stars which the Germans made them wear with the French word "Juif" meaning Jews. I told them now that we had arrived they wouldn't have to wear them again." The words jumped off the page. Why are we still fighting this battle! How can it be that people still think that Nazi ideology is appropriate?
We traveled to the Truman museum and read about his efforts to integrate federal employees. He had entrenched racist in his family, yet he knew that our constitution and our history spoke to fairness. He decided to work to change the world.
Our work is not done. We must continue to press forward to eradicate the narratives of hate, division, superiority until we achieve God's eternal design, "on earth as it is in Heaven" what we are calling Mañana Today.