A long-awaited visit with President Polk
Post-Star panel will present at the Saratoga Book Festival in October
By Ken Tingley
As I took my photos along a dirt path on the grounds of a Tennessee State Capital Tuesday a small group of guys came towards me. It looked like it might be a father with his two teenage sons.
I suspected it might be a brief history lesson. Perhaps they had just viewed the statue of President Andrew Johnson, then President Andrew Jackson on horseback, so it would be fitting to stop and pay their respects at the grave of the 11th president, James K. Polk.
As they neared me, they stopped and casually glanced at the place where Polk is buried. But it was just for a second, then they were on their way. It did not seem to impress them that this was a former president,
For nearly 40 years, I have been visiting the gravesites of presidents. Only two had eluded me in those years - Ronald Reagan and Polk.
It’s been a busy year for me with the Dead President’s Society. First there was Gerald Ford in Grand Rapids, Michigan, then George H.W. Bush in College Station, Texas. These are not places you happen upon, you have to be going there.
Two years ago when I was moving my son to Texas, we stopped just outside Nashville to see Andrew Jackson’s grave. Polk was in downtown Nashville, but I decided we didn’t have the time for the detour. So on Monday, I made a special trip.
The idea came a couple weeks ago as I planned another trip to Texas to help my son move.
I heard that Allegiant Airlines has a non-stop flight out of Albany to Nashville each Monday and Friday. I had never even heard of Allegiant Airlines. So since I was gong to Texas anyway, I figured I could first go to Nashville, visit my dead president and then head on to San Antonio.
James K. Polk was president from 1845-1849 and was responsible for one the largest expansions of American territory in our history as we annexed Texas and acquired the Oregon territory. But it eventually led to a war with Mexico.
Polk was a career politician who served seven terms in the House of Representatives, including two as Speaker of the House. He even served a term as governor of Tennessee.
Oddly, he was elected president even though he did not carry his home state. I guess they didn’t like him there.
Polk also owned slaves and used enslaved labor at the White House. He secretly purchased enslaved people and separated children 10-to-17 from their families while in office. Maybe that’s why no one was there when I visited.
Four years ago, the Tennessee legislature voted on a measure that would have moved the remains of Polk and his wife to their home 50 miles away in Columbia, Tenn. The measure failed by one vote and Polk remains just a stone’s throw from statues of President Andrew Jackson and President Andrew Johnson.
It’s sort of a trifecta of presidential slave owners.
Maybe that’s why the father kept walking.
Saratoga Book Festival
Mark your calendars for Saturday, Oct. 22 for the Saratoga Book Festival. I know, book festivals aren’t normally what you do on weekends, but I think you might enjoy this event.
The Saratoga Book Festival, in just its second year, will be the coming-out party for my second book “The Last American Newspaper.”
It is a memoir of the great work we did at The Post-Star, a love letter to newspapers that pulls back the veil on how community journalism is done and who does it.
Joe Donahue, the amazing WAMC Roundtable host, will act as host and moderator on a panel that will address the importance of that work and the difference it can make it in a community. The panel will include Schenectady Gazette editorial page editor and Pulitzer Prize winner Mark Mahoney, retired Post-Star Projects Editor Will Doolittle and myself.
Both Mahoney and Doolittle and their work are prominently portrayed in the book.
Donahue will lead the discussion on the importance of community journalism. It should be a great discussion. The panel will take place at 9:30 a.m. at Cafe Lena in downtown Saratoga Springs.
Nashville airport
I remember my former colleague Greg Brownell telling me about a hotel he stayed at near the Hartford, Conn. airport that was right at the end of the runway. Greg admitted staying up late in the night and watching the planes land.
After arriving in Nashville, Tenn. near midnight Monday, I stayed at a hotel close to the airport. I didn’t get to sleep until nearly 2 a.m. only to be abruptly woken by a repeated roar as the jet airliners made their approach to Nashville International Airport. It was 6 a.m.
It turned out my hotel room had a perfect view of the planes making their final landing approach. I appreciated that later in the day after I got some sleep.
Funding journalism
The American Press Institute reported last week that the editor of the The Sentinel in Aurora, Colorado attended the annual meeting of the Green Bay Packers to see if its community model might work for their newspaper.
If you didn’t know, the Green Bay Packers are owned by stockholders, many of which have been Packers fans in Green Bay for years.
The Aurora editor was wondering if his newspaper could become funded by loyal citizens who wanted to share in its success while also serving its community. It would be a new business model.
It is a fascinating concept. The question is whether local citizens will embrace their local newspaper the same way they embrace their local football team.
I had a boss many years ago that had a goal of reading a biography of each president. At the time he was on his third president. I thought that was so cool and wonder if he made it thru all the presidents biographies. Could be an interesting book club...
Interesting, tho I don’t know what you meant by the long walk.