Being that this day marks the day when we celebrate the lives of all our past Presidents, I thought it fun to publish a couple of essays on the lives of the Presidents whose faces are chiseled on Mount Rushmore.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT WAS A ROUGH RIDER
Teddy, as he was affectionately called, was a Rough Rider. That is not a reference to his stance in a saddle; it is a term that was assigned to the group that then Colonel Roosevelt lead in battle over San Juan Hill, Cuba. If you have ever watched any episodes of Blue Bloods, you would probably be aware that Commissioner Frank Regan was a big fan. After reading and refreshing my memory of this historic figure, so am I.
Theodore Roosevelt was born into a wealthy family. He grew to be a very dynamic and learned man mostly attributed to his photographic memory. He is also known as our most prolific and literate President to date. He is said to have read up to three books a day, penned 35 books and wrote over 150,000 letters in his day. Theodore Roosevelt was also a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
When Teddy was a young politician, he lost both his wife and his mother to disease on the same day. These deaths rocked his world so greatly that Theodore retreated from politics, headed out west to spend a few years as a cowboy working on a ranch.
Perhaps, it was during these years out west that President Roosevelt found his passion as a naturalist. After he returned from his respite and re-entered politics, he created the US Forest Service hence protecting 230 million acres of public land. Whenever you visit a National Park – stop and give a hearty thanks to Teddy as it was his vision that made these Parks possible for all of us and our children’s children to enjoy.
During his presidency, Theodore continued to practice his boyhood hobby of boxing almost daily. During one of these spars, Teddy was blinded in one eye from a detached retina. After that, the President gave up boxing but turned to Jiu-Jitsu instead.
Also, during his presidency, it was widely known that the President enjoyed an early morning dip in the icy waters of the Potomac River. And, although we might think of early 20th-century America as a somewhat prudish place, the president had no hesitation in swimming buck naked.
This rough riding president also survived an assassination attempt taking a bullet during a campaign speech. True to his gritty personality, Teddy addressed the audience, finished his speech and then retreated to the hospital where it was determined that there was a bullet lodged in his rib. That bullet remained in his bone for the rest of his years!
When we hear the adage, ‘Walk Softly and Carry a Big Stick’, we think of this tough old coot of a man. Roosevelt was a cowboy, soldier, explorer, hunter, environmentalist, family man and President of the United States. I have always appreciated a well-rounded man!
Read the below excerpt from a 1908 speech where Roosevelt expressed the importance of preserving the environment. How incredible is it that our environment is suffering so severely now – 112 years later!
“But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil and the gas are exhausted, when the soils have been still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields, and obstructing navigation. These questions do not relate only to the next century or to the next generation. It is time for us now as a nation to exercise the same reasonable foresight in dealing with our great natural resources that would be shown by any prudent man in conserving and widely using the property which contains the assurance of well-being for himself and his children.” – Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States
