Stand in the Trenches

Meant to publish this on Presidents' Day, but never got around to finishing it. So, either belatedly for this year, or early for next year (so you have time to memorize them??), here's my little strategy for memorizing all the United States presidents.

First, we "chunk" the names into manageable groups. It's easy to chunk them in groups of three, which then are grouped in chunks of three, which gives us five sets:

Set One (1 - 9): Washington through Harrison. For these, we use some rote memory.
Set Two (10 - 18): Tyler though U.S. Grant.  A couple of mnemonic devices help with the first six, and the last three of this set revolve around Lincoln, one of the four assassinated presidents, which make them easy to recall.
Set Three (19 - 27): Hayes through Taft. These I call the "Funny Name Presidents" for reasons that will become apparent.
Set Four (28 - 36): Wilson through Johnson. As with Set Two, the first six have some mnemonics (they are the "Double Letter" Presidents), and the last three revolve around JKF, another assassinated president.
Set Five (37 - 44, so far): Nixon through Obama. For me, this is what we call "current events". For my kids, a little memory work helps.

So, ready? Here goes:

SET ONE:
The first three have a place of honor, and thus should be memorized with their first names -- along with a factoid or two.

1. George Washington (stepped down after two terms, setting a long-lived precedent)
2. John Adams (was Washington's VP)
3. Thomas Jefferson (author of the Declaration) 

The next three all have first names starting with "J":
4. James Madison ("Father of the Constitution")
5. James Monroe (Monroe Doctrine)
6. John Quincy Adams (son of the first Adams)

7. Jackson
8. Van Buren
9. Harrison (William Henry, to be distinguished from the future president Benjamin Harrison, his grandson)

10 - 12: TYLER POLKed TAYLOR (visualize Tyler poking (Polk) Taylor!)
13 - 15: FILLMORE PIERCEd BUCHANAN (a fencing match, perhaps? again, a visual there... )

And the next three should just be memorized, with some dates, as they revolve around Lincoln:

16 Abraham Lincoln (elected in 1860, assassinated in 1865)
17 Andrew Johnson (became president after the assassination; same last name as Kennedy's successor; impeached but not convicted)
18 Ulysses S. Grant (memorable for both his initials "U.S." and as a Civil War general)

19 RUTHERFORD B. Hayes (Rutherford? Really? He's much loved in Paraguay, by the way)
20 James A GARFIELD (as in Garfield the cartoon cat)
21 Chester A. ARTHUR (as in Arthur the cartoon aardvark)

22 GROVER Cleveland (as in Grover the Sesame Street muppet)
23 Benjamin Harrison (OK, not a funny name, but he's in the middle of a Grover Cleveland sandwich...)
24 GROVER Cleveland, again.

25 McKinley (a man with the NAME of a mountain - Mt. McKinley)
26 Theodore Roosevelt (a man ON a mountain - Mt. Rushmore)
27 Taft (a man as BIG as a mountain, haha; he was about 300 pounds)

28 WOOdrow Wilson
29 WaRRen "G. I wish I hadn't died in office" Harding
30 Calvin COOlidge

31 Herbert HOOver (or Hoobert Heaver, as he was once famously introduced)
32 Franklin D. ROOsevelt
33 HaRRy S. Truman

34 Dwight D. Eisenhower (IKE)
35 John F. KeNNedy (JFK)
36 Lyndon B. Johnson - (LBJ; no double letters, but he is memorable for taking the oath of office on a plane, after JFK died.) 

37 Richard M. Nixon (notable for being the only president to resign)
38 Gerald Ford (notable for being the only president never elected to national office; he was moved up first to VP and then President after the double resignations of first Agnew the VP and then Nixon)
39 Jimmy Carter (notable for ... oh, never mind.)

40 Ronald Reagan (of fond memory)
41 George H. W. Bush (who was Reagan's VP)
42 Bill Clinton (impeached but not convicted)

43 George W. Bush (son of George H. W. Bush)
44 Barack Hussein Obama

I couldn't make the Religious Freedom rally in Milwaukee yesterday. Hundreds of people did, however, and thousands across the country attended other similar rallies. Perhaps there weren't many priests and nuns at Tea Party rallies a couple years back, but they were out in force at yesterday's rallies.Had they known what was coming, I suspect more would have been at the Tea Party rallies, too.

More than ever, I am convinced that these events - as well as the phone calls to legislators, the political activism, sharing of information with friends and relatives - all make a difference. 

Politics can be discouraging; it can tempt us to cynicism or even despair. I believe we have to fight that temptation and stay engaged.

This article from The Weekly Standard explains how pro-lifers are winning legislatively, and just as important, are winning the battle for hearts and minds. It's great encouragement for political activism, as it shows how voting in pro-life representives really matters. It's just not true that there's "no difference" between candidates. There is, and it matters tremendously.

We should also be encouraged by recent Supreme Court decisions -- both of them unanimous, which is pretty amazing. One decision slapped down the federal EECO in a matter of religious freedom. This was very encouraging, as the HHS mandate will probably have to be fought in the courts. Nice to know that this Supreme Court -- unlike the Obama Administration -- seems to understand what religious liberty really means.

Another, just last week, was also unanimous. It defended the right of a couple in Idaho to sue the EPA. The details of this case were incredible; the EPA was fining this couple $75,000 a day - A DAY! - for refusing to comply with the bureaucracy's interpretation of "wetlands". (The lot they bought, in an existing subdivision, was never listed as a wetland, but the EPA somehow decided it had "navigable waters" and therefore couldn't be built upon.)

These two decisions cheered me tremendously! I think we owe a debt of gratitude to Clarence Thomas, the Supreme Court justice who was viciously attacked by the leftists during his nomination hearing. He's known as the "quiet judge"; but he's had a great impact on shaping this court toward a more conservative view of the law.  (Somewhere, recently, I read an article about that, but can't find it now, sadly.)

Let's hope that this same Supreme Court will exercise that same good judgment in the Obamacare decision.

Be of good cheer!

Note: I'd originally posted this in our homeschool discussion forum, and am posting here with some minor edits, just so my two readers have something new to read. :)

So today I went searching through my Pot Roast recipes to find one for Sunday dinner.