Destiny of the Republic - revisit the Garfield Presidency before RNC 2016

Submitted by lmcshane on Tue, 08/11/2015 - 23:23.

 

My summer reading this year included Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard.  I highly recommend that NEO residents pick up the book before the RNC convention.  So much has changed, but so much is the same.  The "spoils system" especially threatens to derail our country - not to mention the seemingly never-ending racial divisiveness.

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National Park in 2016 -RNC 2016 in Ohio

Submitted by lmcshane on Tue, 08/18/2015 - 20:18.

 

CLE celebrate in 2016 by visiting your National Park - James A. Garfield National Site!  

 

 It's a short drive from Cleveland (Mentor, OH) - and, hopefully - also soon to be more accessible via public transportation and bike access.

Ohio is a significant state for the Republican Party as seven men born in Ohio have become US Presidents.  Eight presidents have been from Ohio, if you count William H. Harrison http://www.ohiostatehouse.org/visit/school-tours/ohio-presidents  Visit the Garfield National site to learn more about our president - but also learn about his amazing wife and First Lady Lucretia Garfield, who improved their homestead, after her husband's death to include wind power and natural gas and more:

Lucretia Garfield also helped support the artistic career of Caroline Ranson - a forgotten - but signficant painter from Northeast Ohio.  Find out more about her at : http://www.case.edu/artsci/wrss/documents/Woods_001.pdf  And, learn the sad story behind the painting of St. Roderick modeled after Murillo found at Lawnfield:

 

 

2016 is also significant, because it commemorates the birth of the National Park System - in many ways, the most significant legacy of any president, of any political party - conceived by Theodore Roosevelt  (a Republican)  but realized by Woodrow Wilson (a Democrat) in 1916.

 

Image Credit Wikimedia

(Image Credit- Wikimedia)

 

 

Fortunately - for convention visitors in 2016, the Cuyahoga Valley National Park is already accessible car-free.  

Make the trip by bike this fall and experience our rich American heritage.