A love letter to Nixon

Talking to a gym friend the other morning, a guy who happens to be a world-renown research scientist whose grant is now in jeopardy, we found ourselves reminiscing about the good old days of, gasp, Richard Nixon. Yes, Tricky Dick. Yes, Mr. Watergate and Mr. Watergate coverup. Yes, the “secret taping system”/ missing 18 minutes on the tape Nixon. Yes, Cambodia.

But.

The man was not a power-mad narcissistic psychopath intent on rending the fabric of our (flawed, but slowly evolving) democracy. He was not an aggressively ignorant, bombastic no-nothing denier. Bonus points: He was married only once!

And, in, case you forgot (as I did), Nixon did the following:
>signed the National Environmental Policy Act that created the EPA,
>signed the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, and the Endangered Species Act,
>created OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration),
>and (although not his initiative), signed into law Title IX.

Also:
He expanded Social Security, providing additional financial assistance to the elderly, blind, and disabled.
He expanded the Food Stamp program (as it was then called) to help millions more low-income families.
He played a crucial role in enforcing school desegregation, particularly in the South.

Internationally, he kept our allies close, unlike the current occupant of the White House, and reached out to our foes strategically, unlike the current occupant of the White House. Remember the historic visit to China? The SALT treaty? The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty? And he did finally (because we were strong and organized and did not give up…oh, and the US was losing the war effort) manage to get us out of Vietnam.

Imagine, if you will, the legacy our current president will leave behind.

You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.

And now for my personal connection to Richard M:
His (in)famous dog, Checkers, is buried in what is arguably the oldest pet cemetery in the US, Bideawee, established in my hometown of Wantagh in 1915 (when there was no town, and the only homes were a few farmhouses dotting the potato fields). In the mid-70s, I found the grave and—apologies to all dogs everywhere—I turned the little American flag by the gravestone upside down in the dirt.

(Other famous dogs buried there—you know you want to know: Jon Stewart's Pit Bull Mix, Nathan Lane's French Bulldog, Roberta Flack’s Shiba Inu.