AN AMERICAN LION ROARED NO MORE

   It was on a Monday, on the sixth day of the month of January, in the year of our Lord 1919, that the former twenty-sixth President of the United States of America, Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt went to be with his his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
   He had a larger-than-life personality, and he enjoyed life to the fullest.  In his lifetime, he was a member of the New York State Assembly, a rancher in the Badlands of North Dakota, appointed by President Benjamin Harrison to the United States Civil Service Commission, New York City Police Commissioner, Assistant Secretary to the Navy, co-founder and leader of the First U.S. Volunteer Calvary Regiment "Rough Riders" during the Spanish-American War, Governor of New York, Vice President of the United States, President of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize winner, big game hunter in Africa, leader of his own political party, the Bull Moose Party, and explorer of the jungles of Brazil.
   Roosevelt's influence on American culture is very broad.  It was he who saved the sport of American football.  In its early years, many thought that the sport was too brutal, and should be made illegal.  As President, he convinced the representatives of Harvard, Princeton, and Yale (The Big Three) that the rules of the game should be change so that it would not be so brutal.  He developed the National Park Service that saved millions of acres of America's natural beauty.  He was the inspiration for the teddy bear and a comic book super hero, Batman.  He has been attributed to coining the phrase, "Good to the last drop" after having a cup of coffee that came from the Maxell House Hotel.
    As a child, Theodore was weak and an asthmatic, but through determination and self discipline, he trained his body to be healthy and strong.  One proof of this fact came to past on October 14, 1912 when Roosevelt was shot by a local saloonkeeper, a Mr. John Shrank,  in Milwaukee, Wisconsin during a campaign stop for the office of the presidency.  The bullet went through a steel case for his glasses and a single folded copy of his fifty page speech into his chest.  Roosevelt was admonished to go to the hospital, but he decided to give his speech since he saw that he was not coughing up blood.  He did go to the hospital afterwards so that doctors could check the wound, but it was deemed to dangerous to remove the bullet.  The bullet remained in his chest for the remainder of his life
   Roosevelt once said:

"Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering."

   By that standard, President Roosevelt, we will never forget you.

SELAH

Proverbs 28:1

   The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.

Proverbs 28:1