Teddy Roosevelt

[Don Rosa]

From: "Fabio Blanco" <longtom at oeste.com.ar>
>>>I can't manage the english wanted for discuss the item about I am
thinking.
But I just read the episode 10 bis, and I am wonder about the opinion of
people of America and the world about T.R. You know, I love him like
character, but I dont'know if I could love him like president.

Off topic and full steam ahead!
What do the people of America think of Teddy Roosevelt? You'd need to get
such an opinion from a historian. The average American would only have an
"opinion" (if you call it that) of the current president, or another one of
about the past 10 years. He'd have only a vague idea of who Teddy Roosevelt
was. We have an increasingly nil sense of or interest in history.
Most of what I know of T.R. came from my own readings, not from the mere
dates and facts we get in school, and my great opinion of him has only
increased as I have read deeper into his own writings while researching
Duck stories. I was at first worried what Europeans would think of my use
of such a character in stories I'm doing primarily for Europe... to Old
World tastes, Teddy was a maniacal imperialist! But at the turn of the
century ... I guess I must nowadays say the turn of the previous
century...he was the man we needed for the job. North and South America
were not like Europe, and N&S Americans were not like Europeans. At that
time, the world was realizing that the United States was inexplicably
becoming the most powerful country on the planet, and there were suddenly
new efforts to gain a foothold in land and politics in North and Central
America, and TR's navy held them back with his method of "speak softly and
carry a BIG STICK". Meanwhile, he did his *own* power-grabbing for the good
of the New World, which is where he displayed his imperialism and "manifest
destiny" of the rights of the nations of this hemisphere. The untold
subtext of my story (which I knew I could never get into a "Disney comic")
was that it was TR's people who masterminded the breaking apart of Panama
from Colombia because that's where we wanted to build the canal for the use
of the world and Colombia didn't want to cooperate. I whitewashing the
whole affair surely, but it did result in the Canal, and the Canal now
belongs lock, stock and barrel to Panama, which was TR's plan.
But aside from that, the reason I think he's a hero was his unbelievable
insight into the future -- he was the guy who began to preserve the quickly
disappearing American wilderness areas from loggers and miners by
establishing the National Park system and rescuing about a bajillion square
miles of just the places where I spend my vacations. He also feared and
fought Big Business which he saw was quickly crushing the small business
people on whose backs America was founded (and this was obviously something
he failed to prevent since we have now sadly become a country where
mega-corporations control our lives and even our opinions).
But his story goes far beyond that and I can't even begin to cover him
adequately in a few paragraphs. He was by all accounts tenaciously honest
and a super-scholar and historian (an HONEST and SMART president... we
actually used to have 'em!), a guy from a modestly wealthy family who chose
to forsake that life at one point and move to a remote ranch in the
badlands of Dakota to make his own way, a sickly kid who made himself
healthy through exercise and discipline, an brave defender of justice (he
once hunted down frontier desperados on his own in the Badlands), an
apparently fearless volunteer warrior as when he lead the charge up a hill
(not really San Juan) in the Spanish-American war, and a near super-hero
when, as police commissioner of New York City, he prowled the streets at
night *himself* wearing a long black cloak seeking police corruption and
miscreants. Admittedly a portion of these fantastic endeavors were done for
theatrical purposes because he was a great overly-dramatic show-off and
purposely (but sincerely) made himself bigger-than-life, which is one of
the reasons I love the guy! He was a great family man who had, at one
point, suffered the loss of his wife to a sickness (that's when he gave up
everything and became a cowboy) but later remarried and raised a huge
family of kids which he never ignored. And he supported himself after he
lost the presidency by writing a vast number of history books and magazine
articles about nature. He lead the first National Geographic sponsored (I'd
have to check that detail) trek, spending about 9 months traveling across
the wilds of Africa on safari, and bringing back a VAST number of botanical
and animal specimens which formed the basis for the Smithsonian Institute
collection and can still be seen on display today.
He was self-made, physically, intellectually and financially. He was honest
and fearless. He valued the wilderness. He thought that the only important
things in your life are what you can accomplish personally by your own wits
and hard work (be sharper than the sharpies, tougher than the toughies, as
long as you make it "square", eh?). He was America's original
bigger-than-life character. He embodied everything I also like about (my
perception of) $crooge McDuck!
And just look at the dumb, richboy, environment-raping, big-business-toady
nut who is the "leader of the world" now!
I'm spouting this off the top of my head about 5 minutes after waking up.
Please don't quibble if I have a fact misstated -- I'm not giving a history
lesson, just answering the question of what I think of Teddy Roosevelt.
And I've already taken up too much of this ML with my rave on this guy. I'd
love have TR teamed up with U$ in every "Lo$" story I do... but that seems
unlikely...