When I got old enough to comprehend that the obligation of Secret Service agents in the presidential detail is to take a bullet, to sacrifice one’s own life to preserve the president’s, I decided they’re underpaid. I still believe that. I don’t know how much they earn, but it is paltry in exchange for the willingness to give their lives. They earn every penny.
I suspect it’s truer than ever now, with so many threats against President Obama and with right wing extremists, self-proclaimed Christians, openly hoping and praying for his death. I hope those despicable creatures rot in hell. Slowly. Each and every one of them. They call themselves patriots but a more fitting word is hatriots.
It’s been a glorious autumn Sunday in the Washington area, mild and sunny with a cloudless blue sky. This morning I thought it would be a good day to go to Arlington to pay my respects to Senator Kennedy, which I’ve intended to do since I returned. Then I realized what day it is and knew the anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination would not be the opportune time for a quiet visit. Instead, I pay tribute to him and the brave men who guarded but couldn’t save him and to Bill Mauldin, one of the 20th Century’s leading political cartoonists.
Mauldin’s cartoon in the wake of JFK’s murder is one of the most famous. It and others are part of a profile of Mauldin and his work at Comic Book Resources. For a video of the announcement of Kennedy’s death, please see my Walter Cronkite obituary.
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Love your food and your comments. So true, that people are openly “praying” for President’s Obama’s assisination turns my stomach. I appreciate your honesty and I will now be following this site just a little bit closer. Thank you.
Oh, thank YOU, Heidi. I really have no stomach for hate and hypocrisy, no matter the source. It sickens me that hatemongers with microphones are braying their racism, coded or not, and their willfully ignorant disciples swallow it whole and regurgitate it. I thought we were better than that. I was wrong.
Please come back often! I have some delicious apple dishes coming up and a reduced-sugar pecan pie and…