Today is Obama day... that is President Barack Obama to you and me. If there is one thing this magnificent event stands for, it is HOPE... hope that tomorrow is better than today. We could be living in a lot of places in the world where hope is an emotion few can strongly feel. While hope is not exclusively American, it certainly is inclusive of America... and to every American.
And if, like me, you watched today's innaugration ceremony through the end, you saw President Obama signing a document as his first official act as president. If you paid attention, you saw him sign it with that crooked, smudge-your-own-writing style... that is, left-handed.
Five of our last seven presidents, numbers 38 thru 44, have been left-handed... Ford, Reagan, GHW Bush, Clinton and now, Obama. Of all of the 37 presidents before Ford, only three have been left-handed... Garfield, no. 20, Hoover, No. 31 and Truman, no. 33.
To say it another way, of our last 14 presidents, half have been left-handed. Only one of our first 30 was so oriented.
In the Presidential race of 1992, there were three candidates: GHW Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot... all left-handed... and Clinton's V.P. was Al Gore, also you-know-what. In the race of 2008, Both McCain and Obama were left-handed.
So, with anywhere between 10 and 15 percent of our total population being left-handed, what's going on? Could it be that left-handers are right-brainers... which is generally associated with creative thinking? Maybe it is a lately recurring feeling that in this ever more complex world we live in, we tend to value the need for creativity more than analytical thinking in dealing with all a President has to handle today. That 'kind-of' makes sense.
Oh, don't forget: Left-Handers Day is Aug. 13. Mark your calendar.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Yup, Jerry, 19 percent of the 44 presidents have been lefties, vs. 10 percent of the general popualtion. (I'm part of the generals, though only a left-handed PFC.)
ReplyDeleteSeparately, you made it farther in the media world than I. After newspapering, I opted for corporate comm--writing, editing, publishing, speechwriting, PR--the whole catastrophe. But it was fun, I schmoozed with everyone from the CEO to the guy on the shop floor--and no one second-guessed me because I was the only one who could write a simple declarative sentence.
Keep on truckin!