Wadda Guy

YOU MAY NEVER SEE THE LIKES OF HIM AGAIN.

Posted by Dan the man

This is one you want for your Children and Grandchildren to know about. Hard to believe it happened.. and it really did.

Harry & Bess

Harry Truman was a different kind of President. He probably made as many, or more important decisions regarding our nation's history as any of the other 32 Presidents preceding him.

However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House.

The only asset he had when he died at home in Independence , Missouri .

His wife inherited the house from her mother and father, and with the exception of their years in the White House, they lived their entire lives in the house in Independece.

When he retired from office in 1952, President Truman's sole income was a U.S. Army pension of 13,507.72 a-year. Congress noted that the President always paid for his own stamps. He licked the stamps and never put personal mail through the White House franking machine.

Congress granted him an 'allowance' and later, a retroactive pension of 25,000 a year.

After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess got into their own car alone--just the two of the, and drove from the White House in Washington, D.C. to their home in their own car to Missouri by themselves--just the two of them. There was no Secret Service following them.

When he was offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, "You don't want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn't belong to me.. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale."

Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it. He wrote,  "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise."

As president he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food.

Modern politicians have found a new level of cashing in on the Presidency, resulting in uncounted personal wealth. Today, too many in Congress also have found a way to become super rich while enjoying the 'perks' of their offices. Political offices today are for sale (look @ Illinois ).

Good old Harry Truman was correct when he observed, "My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!"

Wadda Guy.