One of the things that I always thought was cool was that you could draw a direct line from James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, all the way to Michael Jordan.

Naismith invented basketball.  He coached the University of Kansas’ Phogg Allen.  Allen coached Dean Smith at KU.  Smith coached Jordan at North Carolina.

It’s the great unbroken baseline of basketball, if you will.

I think there’s a similar (though slightly less direct) line that can be drawn from President Thomas Jefferson to President-elect Barack Obama.

Jefferson created the promise that all men (people) are created equal. President Abraham Lincoln helped to partially fulfill that promise with the Emancipation Proclamation. President Harry Truman took another step to integrate the armed forces.  President Dwight Eisenhower used troops to make sure black men and women could get an equal and non separate education.  President John Kennedy advocated for the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act.  President Lyndon Johnson got them passed and put the first black, Thurgood Marshall, on Supreme Court.  President George H.W. Bush elevated Gen. Collin Powell to lead our armed forces.  President George W. Bush appointed the first black man (Powell) and black woman (Condeleezza Rice) as Secretaries of State.

And then Barack Obama was elected President.

These Democrat and Republican Presidents looked beyond the prejudices of their times and helped fulfill the promises of our Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.  Sure, it took far too long.  But without their actions, we might not have President-elect Obama.

It’s a legacy all Americans should be proud of.

The following quote comes from my friend Deb McIntyre, executive director of the South Dakota Peace and Justice Center.  Seems that ol’ Jimmy Madison knew we’d someday have a W in our midst.

“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended. Its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war … and in the degeneracy of manners and morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”

James Madison, April 20, 1795

Portrait: President James Madison.

Technorati Tags: James Madison, President James Madison, George W. Bush, Pres. George W. Bush, South Dakota Peace and Justice Center, SDPJC, Iraq War

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As a American history major in college and someone who loves the topic (and has written articles for scholarly journals on aspects of American history), these are about as sad of words as I think I’ve ever read on the unpopularity of the topic.

• “There is no market for American history,” said Scott Masterson, a senior V.P. at Forbes Inc. and president of its American Heritage unit.

The quote is in the May 21, 2007 print edition of Mediaweek about Forbes’ suspension of publishing its once proud bi-monthly, American Heritage.

A country of 250 million can’t support a six-times a year, high quality magazine on its own history?

No wonder no one seems to learn the painful lessons our nation seems to go through on a generational basis. 

God help us all if our own American history and culture doesn’t interest us.