Member-only story
When a President was Totally Bad-Ass
“I don’t give a rap about being shot, not a rap!”
In an election year when America’s choices for President offer inspiring visions for the future like “I don’t take responsibility at all…” or “nothing, fundamentally, will change…” I’m not here to judge. I’m just going to highlight one afternoon in the life of a former president who, whether people agreed with him or not… nobody thought he didn’t totally kick-ass. Except maybe the guy who shot him in this story. He apparently had a negative view. But even then, this president was cool with all that, too. He had a speech to give, and no open bullet wound in his chest was going to stop him.
Seriously, this happened. Read on.
If nothing else, this story offers another reason why people should read more history — besides the regular reasons, like, reading more history might help us to NOT repeat the steps that led to the Great Depression, or the Great War, or many other things that were really a lot less “great” than their nicknames imply. In fact, I would like to know how it is possible that I made it through grade school without hearing this story, without a single history teacher realizing that true stories like this would probably make every student a little less jaded, a little more courageous, and maybe a little less likely to grow up aspiring to…
