Clinton's "Contract With America" - Little Rock Part 3

This post is a continuation of the story of the stops my daughter Katrina and I made 

during our recent trip down to Texas and back to tour 5 Presidential Museums.

After hours of research and preparation I am ready to share the story of the visit to our 5th Presidential museum on our trip: Bill Clinton's Presidential Library in Little Rock.  This one was a re-visit for Katrina but has been at the top of my list for years and I'm glad I finally made my way there.  The 1992 election was the first one that I voted in.  Pushing Katrina in a stroller and with Cory strapped to my chest I cast my ballot for Clinton-Gore down at the water utility building in downtown Kenosha.  I guess I wasn't moved by George W. Bush or Dukakis in 1988, you know how it can be when you're barely old enough to vote and you think what happens in the world doesn't affect you.

The museum was modeled after The Long Room at Trinity College in Dublin, and all the blue boxes in cabinets hold records from the White House Office.  The museum contains more exhibits than one would think including an interactive exhibit on how decisions were made at the White House and of course a recreation of the Clinton Oval Ofice.  We didn't even get close to looking at them all, we just didn't have enough time so I guess I have a reason to go back.  I'm pretty sure these museums occasionally change up their exhibits so who knows what will be on display when Wayne and I get back there someday?

Hillary got her due for all her work both before and after her husband's presidency, including her work as a lawyer investigating President Nixon and her appointment by President Carter to the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation.  As First Lady she traveled to 78 countries promoting women's and human rights around the world.  She brought her message to presidents and kings, the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations and even to rural villages and war zones. Together with Secretary of State Madeline Albright they established the Vital Voices Democracy Initiative.   There is much to be said about her extensive career in public service, but now is unfortunately not the time.

Here's the short list of some of President Clinton's actions that I was happy to re-familiarize myself with during our visit.  As with the other presidents' data I've listed I stuck mostly to domestic issues.  See how much of it still sounds like familiar ground we've been covering and re-covering in the years since...

• The Federal Budget was balanced for the first time in nearly 2 decades, going from a $290 billion deficit to a $236 billion SURPLUS by the time he left office.  If the budget hasn't been balanced since who is to blame?
• Within the Balanced Budget Act was investment in the education of our citizens, including tax credits for college and investments in Head Start and Pell Grants.
• Increased the minimum wage by 90 cents.
• The Retirement Protection Act required corporations with underfunded pension plans to increase their contributions.
• Ended the marketing of cigarettes to minors and made the tobacco industry spend millions on anti-smoking campaigns.
• Vetoed the Republican budget plan that contained massive cuts in funding to Medicare, Medicaid, Education and the environment.  Extended the Medicare trust fund ensuring it wouldn't run out of funding in 1999 but would continue until at least 2025.
• Earmarked $300 million in grants to help communities tackle homelessness with job training, home construction and other services.

• The Brady Bill was signed into law after 7 years, requiring background checks before gun purchases.  Guns were kept from 160,000 prohibited individuals in the first year.
• Got gunmakers to approve putting child safety locks on guns and passed the Assault Weapons Ban as part of his 1994 crime bill.
• Required welfare recipients to go to work within two years or risk losing benefits.  Welfare rolls were reduced by 60%, the lowest level in 32 years.
• During the Clinton years the Internet exploded onto the scene and his Administration launched a campaign to connect every school and library to the Internet.  Internet access to students at public schools went from 3% to 98%.

On the left: Clinton's DNC of 1984 speech mentioning President Truman.
Top right: Bill was 1 of 2 Arkansas delegates at Boy's Nation
Bottom left: Bill introduces himself to President John F. Kennedy at Boy's Nation

For the heck of it I'll toss in a few things that expanded beyond our borders a bit.

• Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
• Expanded trade with Canada and Mexico when NAFTA passed Congress with bipartisan support, with increased U.S. exports supporting hundreds of thousands of American jobs.
• Brought America into the Kyoto Protocol - an international treaty aimed at reducing emissions to combat global warming.

And speaking of global warming, let us not forget the Administration's environmental efforts, nor that Vice President Al Gore was the point man for many environmental causes during the Administration.  Here is some of the work they got done together to make our planet a better place as well as our country.

• Signed the Food Quality Protection Act, setting limits on pesticide use on food.
• Strengthened the Safe Drinking Water Act, requiring America's 55,000 water utilities to provide regular reports to their customers on the quality of their drinking water.  The EPA worked feverishly in January 2001 with environmental groups and farm worker unions to produce new regulations for the first time in 60 years, to require substantially lower quantities of arsenic, a naturally occurring substance, in drinking water. The new rule reduced the standard from 59 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion.
• Launched the Climate Change Technology Initiative to spur the development of clean energy technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that lead to global warming while saving money and creating jobs.
• Approved the strongest air quality standards in history to control pollution from smog and soot.
• The President defended Yellowstone National Park from potential toxic runoff from a proposed gold mine near the Park's boundary, and acquired land near the Park to expanded critical habitat for bison.
• The Administration has also strongly opposed efforts to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the President vetoed legislation that would have opened the Refuge to new exploration.
• Created 11 national monuments - including Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah; Grand Canyon-Parashant in Arizona; Agua Fria in Arizona; Sequoia in California; and the California Coastal monument- and expanded two others.
• Secured a billion dollars to restore Everglades National Park.
• Also launched the Lands Legacy Initiative, establishing funds to protect other green spaces.

Presidential gifts have been on display at each museum 

There was a gorgeous piece by Dale Chihuly on exhibit, and apparently in 2014-2015 there was a full exhibition inside and outside of the museum of his work.  Just the reminder I need to find out where I can find exhibits of his work this year.  I'm always so inspired when I stumble upon his work, but my favorite experience was when I went to an exhibit of his in OshKosh in 2013. Unfortunately photography was not allowed, but I can still see some of his pieces if I close my eyes!

Katrina's always been a huge Clinton fan, here are a "few" of his accomplishments I know she wholeheartedly supports.

• His cabinet, White House staff and judicial nominees were the most diverse in history with qualified individuals that embodied his belief that diversity makes us a stronger nation.
• Signed health insurance reform that required insurance companies to sell to individuals who had lost their group insurance and to protect individuals from denial due to pre-existing conditions.
• Authorized stricter enforcement of exiting child support laws.
• Signed the Violence Against Women Act which provided for investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women, imposed automatic and mandatory restitution on those convicted, and allowed civil redress in cases prosecutors chose to leave un-prosecuted. The Act also quadrupled funding for women's shelters and established the Office on Violence Against Women within the Department of Justice.
• Signed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act.  Not up on the latest data of Human Trafficking in this country?  Go to this link.
• Boosted funding for HIV programs and overturned a policy that denied security clearance to gay persons.
• The Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention Act helped low income, uninsured and underinsured women secure preventative healthcare
• Signed Megan's Law which makes registered sex offenders information public knowledge.
• The first thing Clinton signed was the Family and Medical Leave Act, allowing workers to take up to 12 weeks upaid leave to care for a newborn or sick family member.  Contrast that with Trump's attempt to roll back Obamacare.  We'll see where that goes, hopefully not too far astray since it was passed into law by Congress and cannot go away with the stroke of his pen.
• Created Americorps in which almost 1 million Americans have participated, and placing thousands of young adults into service positions where they learns valuable skills and earn money for education.

Madame President Katrina??

And here's the list of things that didn't get accomplished while he was in office.

• Universal Health Care.  (Insert heavy sigh....)  However he did enact HIPAA which not only protects patient privacy but protects against discrimination due to mental illness and allows people to keep their health insurance when they change jobs.  He also enacted the State Children's Health Insurance Program which provided insurance to millions of eligible children.
• Between 1993 and 2001 the Senate failed to confirm 114 judicial nominees, nearly as many as during the previous 7 administrations combined.
• After 8 years of investigation (costing the taxpayers $70 million, by the way) NO evidence of wrongdoing was found when the Clintons were investigated over the Whitewater real estate issue.
• President Clinton was also acquitted of all impeachment charges that were brought against him as well.

Wearing my Clinton-Gore t-shirt that I bought in the Gift Shop!

Also making an appearance at the museum was an exhibit about the Beatles.  I enjoy the Beatles but I want to listen to their music, not go to an exhibit about them so it only got a cursory glance.  I did learn though that they considered Buddy Holly a main influence on their music. 

Katrina and I got so caught up watching Darrell Hammond's impression of Bill Clinton on video that we almost overstayed our welcome at the museum.  Luckily the internet had a link so I could finish getting my giggles in.

But this one was even funnier, maybe President Clinton missed his calling and he should have been on Saturday Night Live.  Don't give up on it, the laughs keep coming and it gets funnier as it goes on.

If you want to see video of four decades of his Democratic National Convention speeches over the years try this link. If you haven't had enough of White House Correspondents Dinner videos, check out the one from 2011 where President Obama made jokes after they released his long form birth certificate.  Trump was in the audience - it looked like he wasn't laughing though.

Arkansas State Capitol -Little Rock Part 2

This post is a continuation of the story of the stops my daughter Katrina and I made 

during our recent trip down to Texas and back to tour 5 Presidential Museums.

Stop number 2 in Little Rock was at the Arkansas State Capitol.  Construction of the new Arkansas State Capitol began just before the turn of the 20th century in July 1899 and the destruction of the old building as well as the construction of the new building was assigned to convicts from the nearby penintentiary.  Missouri architect George Mann designed the original plans for and oversaw the project until 1909. The work was slow with a series of delays brought on by cost overruns, budget shortfalls and even charges of bribery. The state eventually replaced Mann with renowned architect Cass Gilbert, who is noted for his designs of the Minnesota State Capitol and the United States Supreme Court building.

Hard, lustrous limestone from Batesville, Arkansas formed the exterior walls while a softer Indiana limestone was used for the dome.  The ball finial at the top of the dome is covered in gold leaf.

I was drawn to the 10 foot tall bronze doors which were purchased from Tiffany’s of New York in 1910 for $10,000.  In order to keep the uncoated bronze surfaces shining as the architect envisioned, the doors are polished by hand, inside and out, each week. The glowing doors served as the main public entrance for much of the Capitol’s first century, but since September 11, 2001, visitors have entered via the ground level tunnel doors through security stations.

When we arrived they were in the process of dismantling the Christmas decorations.  I loved the Santa Claus and wish I could've taken him home with me.  I'm sure he cost more than I had in my souvenir budget though.

Also on display for the holidays were two cases full of nesting dolls.  Did you notice the presidential ones in the top row??

Real money, Honey!

One of the unique aspects of this Capitol is the office of the State Treasurer which contains a vault secured by a series of four doors and three time locks.  Tours are given without appointment and stacks of heavy cash were hoisted out for our inspection.  The cash is actually there to cover payroll!

The new architect removed inferior building materials when he took over the building project and even many were upgraded including marble for the floors and wall panels that came from Vermont, the grand staircases were carved of Alabama stone, and elegant fluted columns were quarried in Colorado.  It is a beautiful building that felt warm and light as we walked through it.

Suspended from the rotunda ceiling by a 73-foot chain, the rotunda chandelier weighs more than 4,000 pounds and is approximately 12 feet in diameter and 18 feet in height. This intricate piece of art was assembled using thousands of brass, copper, zinc, iron and glass parts.

From the Arkansa State Capitol self guided tour guide: Above the grand staircases leading up to both the House and Senate chambers are four handpainted murals at the ends of the vaulted skylights. They remain the only public artworks commissioned for the building. The themes represented over the south Senate staircase are Education and Justice; over the north House staircase are War and Religion. These murals came from the studio of Paul Martin Heerwagen, a Bavarian-born artist and interior decorator from Fayetteville, Arkansas. 

Unfortunately the murals were so high up I couldn't see them very well.  I did see myself reflected in the bronze doors though!  More posts to come, I'll get them out quickly because I have new things going on that I can't wait to share!

Texas State Capitol Architecture

Boy I kind of jumped ahead with that last post talking about Arkansas because I didn't finish relating our adventures in Texas yet!  While in Austin to visit the LBJ Library and Museum of course we had to scoot on over to the Capitol building.

It is a Renaissance Revival beauty!  A lot of folks were outside on the grounds, many of them catching Pokemon on their phones or just lounging around on benches enjoying the fantastic weather.  Capitol Square has been around since 1839 but this is the second Capitol building that has occupied the space.

The current Capitol building broke ground in 1882 and was finished in February of 1888.   It's a three story beauty made of Sunset Red granite with a zinc Goddess of Liberty statue atop the dome.  Every state has their symbol and in Texas it is all about the Lone Star.  We were seeing stars everywhere, even on the doorknobs!

Standing guard in the entry was a guy with a large a rifle in front of a closed door.  I was too intimated to take a picture of him!  The terrazzo floor commemorates 12 battles fought on Texas soil and the South Foyer also contains life sized statues of Stephen F. Austin and San Houston made by Elizabet Ney in 1903.

Elizabet Ney was German born and studied sculpture in Munich and then Berlin, after of course proving that she could study alongside the men without causing distraction.  In 1857 she set out to persuade the famous philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, to sit for a portrait.  Under Schopenhauer's influence, Ney began "to construct for herself a theory of life, a mixture of idealism, materialism and radicalism held in check by an essential purity of mind." In addition to meeting philosophers, she did work for statesmen, scientists, diplomats and artists, as well as two kings. How did she end up in Texas?  In July 1870, the Franco-Prussian War began and a few months later she discovered she was pregnant.  An invitation to come to idyllic America from a friend came at an opportune time and she and her lover fled leaving all their belongings and her work behind.  They remained in Germany for another 25 years!  They lived in Georgia for two years and then Ney traveled alone (yes alone!) around the country before settling on a plantation in Texas.  Of course her doctor lover had to sign the papers though she was the one who ended up running the plantation.

Hey there's a star again!

Outside on the grounds there was an "inverted rotunda" with yet another star in the center.  Drains are incorporated into the design, how cool is that?

The Senate chamber was still decked out for the holidays, but it was the ceiling that I couldn't keep from staring at.  The original skylights admitted too much heat and they along with the decorative ceiling panels were blocked. The 1990s Restoration installed reproduction acid-etched tempered skylights with a Plexiglas barrier as a safety precaution in case of glass breakage.  Those might be the best ceiling lights I've seen anywhere, don't you agree?

After wandering around we were hungry so we went to El Mercado for a simple Tex-Mex lunch.

It was much better than McDonald's for about the same price.  Though both places had sculptures!

More to come about Arkansas, sorry it's trickling out so slow I've been distracted by my non-traveling life now that I'm home!

Little Rock Nine and Segregation Today

Along our way home we stopped in Little Rock for three reasons, and the first one was to visit Central High School.  When Katrina was studying at UW Eau Claire she went on a Civil Rights Pilgrimage that included a variety of stops and one of those was the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site run by the National Park Service.

"No state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction
the equal protection of the laws" - Fourteenth Amendment

There are many great items in their gift shop and some stunning artwork on display as well.

If you're not familiar with the story Little Rock's Central High School, now Central High School National Historic Site, was the location of an intense de-segregation battle in 1957  three  years after the momentous Brown vs. Board of Education decision. Katrina and I listened to a podcast in the car "Stuff You Missed in History Class" called The Aftermath of Brown v. Board that shed a lot of light on the subject before we arrived and I highly recommend it or any of the other podcasts they produce.

From the NPS website: Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus defied the court, calling in the Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine African American students, "The Little Rock Nine", from entering the building. Ten days later in a meeting with President Eisenhower, Faubus agreed to use the National Guard to protect the African American teenagers, but on returning to Little Rock, he dismissed the troops, leaving the African American students exposed to an angry white mob. Within hours, the jeering, brick-throwing mob had beaten several reporters and smashed many of the school's windows and doors. By noon, local police were forced to evacuate the nine students.

The battle for civil rights in this country didn't end with Abraham Lincoln, of course.  Since we've been talking about U.S. Presidents so much here's a quick run down on what they did for the cause:

• July 26, 1948- President Truman signs Executive Order 9981, which states, "It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin."
• Although Eisenhower did not endorse the Brown decision, he had a constitutional responsibility to uphold the Supreme Court’s rulings which he did in the case of the Little Rock Nine though at first reluctantly.   In 1957, he signed the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. The law provided new federal protection for voting rights. In most southern states, the great majority of African Americans simply could not vote, despite their constitutional right to do so, because of literacy tests, poll taxes, or other obstacles. Overall though his lack of strong support and caution to "go slow" with desegregation didn't make the impact it could have.
• President John F. Kennedy of course is the one who was on the front lines during some crucial civil rights battles and finally tried to get meaningful legislation passed by Congress but it did not pass before his death.  As we already talked about in my LBJ post, Lyndon Johnson was the president who finally passed the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968.
• Here's one I didn't know: Overriding President Reagan's veto, Congress passes the Civil Rights Restoration Act in 1988, which expands the reach of non-discrimination laws within private institutions receiving federal funds. 
• And another one: After two years of debates, vetoes, and threatened vetoes, President Bush reverses himself and signs the Civil Rights Act of 1991, strengthening existing civil rights laws and providing for damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination.

Back to our story of the Little Rock Nine: When Governor Faubus did not restore order, President Eisenhower dispatched 101st Airborne Division paratroopers to Little Rock and put the Arkansas National Guard under federal command with soldiers surrounding the school, bayonets fixed.

While on the Civil Rights Pilgrimage Katrina was fortunate enough to have met one of the students, Minnijean Brown who has spent years as an activist promoting minority rights in Canada and the United States.  She was very impressed with her and meeting her has made a lasting impression on her. Under federal protection, the "Little Rock Nine" finished out the school year though they were subject to extreme harassment and Minnijean was the first to be suspended and expelled for standing up to her tormentors.

Want to know what happened to all those brave faces?  Here is a link to a 20 minute video of the surviving eight on a visit to Chicago where they received the 2015 Lincoln Leadership Prize from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation.

The most shocking fact of the battle for integration in Little Rock to me was that the following year Governor Faubus closed all the high schools, forcing the African American students to take correspondence courses or go to out-of-state schools.  I can't even imagine that!  The school board reopened the schools in the fall of 1959, and despite more violence - for example, the bombing of one student's house - four of the nine students returned, this time protected by local police.

Little Rock Nine sculpture at the State Capitol - our next stop

The issue of segregation is still relevant today, believe it or not, and not just in the south.  Researchers define "isolated schools" as those with 75% or more of the same race or class and if you take a minute to think about how our neighborhoods and school districts are laid out you can see that this is obviously still an issue.  I've been mad for decades about the fact that schools in poverty stricken areas don't get the same opportunities and funding as other schools and Katrina sees it in her work with Girl Scouts when she visits the public schools as well. Personally I am always happy to pay my taxes that support schools (even though we home schooled most of our school years) and wish more attention was paid to quality education for all instead of  iPads for the elite.  Off my soapbox for now, have a great weekend!

LBJ - Our 36th President

This one is full of lots of history nuggets, and it took me awhile to get around to writing it because I knew it would be research heavy!  Of the 7 libraries I have now visited, I am surprised to say that the LBJ Library and Museum in Austin, Texas was my favorite.

Lyndon Baines Johnson had a long career which began as a teacher and not in politics.  His years in a poverty stricken school left an impression that ended up influencing policy.  In 1931 his political career began when he became a Congressional Aide and he ran and won in a special election in 1937 when a Congressman in his district died. When Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941 he was the first Representative from Congress to volunteer for active duty in the U.S. Navy. In 1955 he was elected the Senate Majority leader and that same year suffered a severe heart attack.  He quit smoking, lost weight and learned to delegate responsibilities so he could continue to work for many years to come.

But despite his years of experience it was John F. Kennedy who won the nomination for Democratic Party candidate in 1960.  As Vice President Johnson was assigned to be Head of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, Chairman of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, and representative of the United States on trips abroad as well as serving as President of the Senate.

In the wake of Kennedy's assassination Lyndon Johnson gave a wonderful speech to Congress imploring them to pass Kennedy's Civil Rights Bill.  A topic too complex to get into in this post, of course this legislation had a profound effect on our country and is immensely important even today.

Upon his successful election to president in 1964 LBJ quickly got down to business and proposed the largest reform agenda since President Roosevelt's New Deal. Calling his plan the road to The Great Society,  in 1964 he signed the Economic Opportunity Act to start his fight against poverty.

The goal was to create job opportunities through education and other community services and break the cycle of poverty. Part of that was The Elementary and Secondary Education Act which provided   funding to individual states to distribute to public school districts with a high percentage of low income families. It also included creating a domestic volunteer organization called Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) which many years later was incorporated into President Bill Clinton's Americorps.  I loved this letter from an 11 year old student who wanted to help out too.

In 1965 at the Truman Library in Independence (hey, we've been there!) President Johnson signed the Social Security Amendments of 1965 which created Medicare and Medicaid.  President Truman and his wife Bess were given the first official Medicare cards, calling Truman the true father of Medicare.

I love how we learned about how all these presidents are inter-connected through the years with the work they do!

Another part of his war on poverty that is still in place today is Head Start.  Lady Bird Johnson herself was its champion, and she also led the effort to get the Highway Beautification Act passed.

Katrina and I were truly impressed by LBJ's list of undertakings, here is a sampling of what we discovered:

• The Wilderness Protection Act and to date Congress has designated more than 100 million acres of federal lands as wilderness.
• Signed the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act remarking: An unspoiled river is a very rare thing in this Nation today. Their flow and vitality have been harnessed by dams and too often they have been turned into open sewers by communities and by industries. It makes us all very fearful that all rivers will go this way unless somebody acts now to try to balance our river development.
• The Voting Rights Act of 1965 banned literacy tests and other discriminatory methods of denying suffrage to African Americans.

• In 1967 appointed Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Marshall is the first African American Supreme Court Justice.
• Signed the Arts and Humanities Bill which created the National Endowment for the Humanities. NEH grants typically go to cultural institutions, such as museums, archives, libraries, colleges, universities, public television, and radio stations, and to individual scholars.
• The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 ended discriminatory quotas based on ethnic origin and focused on reuniting immigrant families and attracting skilled labor to the United States.  More on immigration in another post!

• The Civil Rights Act of 1968 prohibited discrimination regarding the sale, rental and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin or sex
• Signed the Public Broadcasting Act in 1967, establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting which supports PBS and NPR.
• Congress tightened pollution controls with stronger Air and Water Quality Acts.
• Standards were raised for safety in consumer products.
• The Gun Control Act was signed in 1968.  It is a U.S. federal law that regulates the firearms industry and firearms owners, focusing on regulating interstate commerce in firearms by generally prohibiting interstate firearms transfers except among licensed manufacturers, dealers and importers.

I admire the etched magnesium plates depicting Lyndon B. Johnson over the years with
Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy in the stately Great Hall

Wow, right? Of course much of his domestic accomplishments were overshadowed by the war in Vietnam, and the end of his term in 1968 included the assassination of both Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy.  President Johnson himself was not well and that is one of the major reasons he chose not to run for re-election. When he left office it was with a balanced budget and a 3.3% unemployment rate (so I don't want to hear about how government involvement doesn't lead to jobs, wink wink!).

re-creation of LBJ's oval office

He died at the LBJ Ranch in 1973, but did live to see this museum finished in 1971 and published his memoirs "The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency".  One of the sources he used to write that book was those taped phone calls from the Oval Office.  Much has been made of his taped calls, but every president from Franklin Roosevelt to Richard Nixon with the exception of Harry Truman had some type of recording system in place.

Of special interest to Katrina at this museum was the women's suffrage banner from 1919 belonging to Jane McCallum.  She fought for the 19th amendment and had the distinction of not only winning that fight to vote but she also served as the Secretary of State for Texas.

And, we learned that the Kansas City Chiefs were defeated by the Green Bay Packers in the first Super Bowl in January of 1967.  Obviously these two Wisconsin girls do not come from a football family, right?  One more presidential stop in Arkansas....

"Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men's skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact."
                                                                                                     Lyndon Johnson, May 30, 1963