Some of the most remembered and greatest accomplishments of presidents...

Presidential Accomplishments
By: Timothy L. Kerofsky, MA
2017

Here are some of the most remembered and greatest accomplishments of Presidents.
that I admired and respected the most:

1. Abraham Lincoln the 16th President (1861 - 1865) -

I was raised in the land of Lincoln; Moline Illinois.
I was born a century after the Civil War; April 3rd, 1965.
However, when learning about the Presidents in elementary school,
President Lincoln and his accomplishments have been an inspiration to me.
And on many other famous leaders and presidents;
like Martin Luther King, Jr. I will get to that.
Lincoln was in during a hard time in America; during our Civil War.
Yet with his infamous Gettysburg Address he brought America back together.
He knew how both sides felt. He was the most honest and forthright President.
After freeing the slaves of the civil war,
became a long civil rights movement for the blacks;
in which is still going on today.
Blacks started taking a stand and what was to follow in 1963
was another infamous speech, the I Have a Dream speech,
delivered by Martin Luther King Jr who was assassinated
on the steps of a courthouse building in Memphis Tennessee on April 4th 1968.
Ironically Lincoln was also assassinated,
but during a Play at Fords Theater in Washington DC,
on April 14th 1865 by John Wilkes Booth.

Interesting fact about Lincoln;
Many people believe that Lincoln was a Republican,
no he was not, nor was he a Democrat.
He was actually a member of the National Union Party.


2. Theodore Roosevelt the 26th President (1901 - 1909)  -

As an Environmentalist I applaud Theodore Roosevelt for passing the
National Park Service program,
and protecting the lands so we can see the beauty that God intended;
now all that has been undone to allow for drilling on these lands.
Drilling and fracking destroys the land and that saddens me.

3. Dwight D. Eisenhower the 34th President (1953 - 1961) -

In under four years we had a major interstate road system from coast to coast.
Today this would never be accomplished, it would still be debated in four years.
A great man; a four star general during World War II known as the Ike.
With this he warned us about the Military Industrial Complex.
Here is an excerpt:
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, 
every rocket fired,
signifies in the final sense a theft 
from those who hunger and are not fed, 
those who are cold and are not clothed."

4. John F. Kennedy the 35th President (1961 - 1963) -

There are many conspiracies about the assassination of JFK.
The biggest reason is because he did not invade Cuba
during the Cuban Missile Crises.
He instead set up a blockade and sanctions against Cuba.
We had that embargo between Cuba and the United States for 50 years.
Unfortunately the greatest accomplishment of Kennedy he never did get to see.
He set up the Space Program with NASA to beat Russia to the moon.
It was the space race between the United States and Russia.
We were the first on the moon, but now we have to get a ride from Russia
to the International Space Station.
That is because our shuttle program is no longer.

5. Lyndon B. Johnson the 36th President (1963 - 1969) -

This is the first President of my lifetime. He was the one here during my birth.
President Johnson finished what JFK started with the Space Program.
The first man, Neil Armstrong, piloted in the Lunar Module Eagle by Buzz Aldren, 
landed on the moon on July 20th, 1969 on 2018 UTC.
The Eagle has Landed!
When he stepped out of the module he said;
"One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

Of course the Space Program grew into the Space Shuttle Program in which we had
the Shuttles; Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis.
Later the Enterprise and Endeavor were built.
There were two major tragedies; the space shuttle Challenger broke apart
73 seconds in flight
on its 10th mission in space killing all on board instantly,
including school teacher Christa McAuliffe, on January 28th 1986.
The space shuttle Columbia broke apart on its return to earth on February 1st 2003.
The last Space Shuttle mission was on July 8th 2011 with the Space Shuttle Atlantis.

6. Richard Nixon the 37th President (1969 - 1974) -

When people hear Nixon they talk about the Watergate scandal.
and his resignation.
But I applaud this man, a republican, for setting up the EPA;
The Environmental Protection Agency.

7. Jimmy Carter the 39th President (1977 - 1981) -

Known as the peanut farmer for Georgia.
He was one of three greatest Democrat presidents;
Jimmy Carter. Bill Clinton, and Barrack Obama.
His accomplishments include the establishment of the Habitat for Humanity,
creating the Department of Energy,
Revamping our immigration program opening our boarders,
and the most important was in keeping Peace with the Middle East;
by signing the Jerusalem Agreement,
to allow for the Palestinians, Muslims, and Jews
to keep peace in Jerusalem in which the famous gate lays in Palestine,
the wailing wall is there where the Jews pray,
and the Dome of the Rock is there which is the biggest Islamic Temple.
With this agreement we set up our Embassy in Tel Aviv.
This has kept peace in Jerusalem for 40 years.
Now with a stroke of the pen this has been undone by now President Trump,
who has stirred up more conflict in the Middle East.

8. Ronald Reagan the 40th President (1981 - 1989) -

This is the president I voted for after turning voting age and registering as a independent.
The president who took no crap! He built up that 600 ship fleet in the US Navy.
He bombed Lebanon for what they did in driving that explosive laden truck to the
marine barracks in 1983 -
killing 220 marines, 18 sailors , and 3 soldiers.
The operation was Operation Golden Rod 1983 - 1987!
I served on one of the 4 battleships he recommissioned at the time;
USS Iowa BB-61, USS New Jersey BB-62, USS Missouri BB-63, and USS Wisconsin BB-64.
I served on the USS New Jersey BB-62 from 1984 to 1990 as a Deck Seaman /
Boatswains-mate 3rd class / Boatswains-mate 2nd class in 3rd division . Deck Department.
I was the Left Lower Powder Door Operator of Turret 3 - 16 inch / 54 caliber gun.
We bombed 276 rounds in one night in Lebanon.
The other thing I liked that President Reagan did was to get Mikhail Gorbachev,
the President of the USSR at that time, to tear down the Berlin wall.

9. William Jefferson Clinton the 42nd President (1993 - 2001) -

Clinton's accomplishments are vast especially with the environment.
He was an advocate for the earth.
Truly one of the greatest environmental presidents.
He set sanctions on emission standards,
set the toughest standards on soot and fog,
enacted the Clean Air and Water Act,
the Safe Drinking Water Act,
restored the pristine view of our National Parks,
accelerated Clean Up of Toxic Waste,
created the Global Climate Change Initiative,
and proposed to have 25 percent of our energy alternate by 2010;
that got raised by Obama to 50 percent by 2020.
Now it is lowered to 33 percent by 2027.


10. Barrack Obama the 44th President (2008 - 2016) -

This is when I finally registered as a democrat!
Now I am a Socialist Democrat
and a Member of the Democratic Socialist Party of America. 
Obama was the most accomplished, to me, and highest respected president ever.
He started with an approval rating of 59 percent
and left office with an approval rating of 56 percent.
His accomplishments are many. He nearly accomplished every promise he made.
He was upset that he did not accomplish the promise of closing Guantanamo Bay.
Which was really the only promise he did not get to keep. 
He was honest and forthright; and he was the only president to serve without a scandal.
He did not get us into any wars. He got us out of the Iraqi war and refocused the war -
to Afghanistan. He got the terrorist Asama Bin Laden who bombed our twin towers -
the 9/11 terrorists attacks of New York, the Pentagon,
and the crash of United flight 93 in the Pennsylvanian field.
He got our relations back with Cuba which was long past due.
We had an embargo for 50 years with them and it was time to lift it.
The first bill he signed and passed, I believe, was the Equal Pay Act;
to break the glass ceiling for woman.
He enacted the Net Neutrality Rule,
He enacted Wall Street Reform, bailed out the auto industry,
came in office during our great recession and raised our economics.
As an Environmentalist and a member of 350.org I like the fact that
President Obama enacted environmental reform, signed the Paris Agreement,
and carried on the environmental programs of President Clinton in
building more wind turbines, solar power, and other alternate energy plants;
he stopped the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline,
he raised the regulations and standards for greenhouse gas emissions,
and he signed the Green Energy Act.
He enacted Education Reform, and Michelle Obama created the
Healthy School Lunch Program.
We needed four more years of Obama to keep America going forward,
now America is going backwards under the Trump's Authoritarian  Regime...

I do not blog much anymore.

I am on YouTube a lot now.
Check out my channel; Timothy Kerofsky and Family.
Thanks! Blessings always!

The Year End Letter Of 2017! It was a Fun Year, but also Sad!

The Year End Letter of the Kerofsky Family 2017

As this year ends I reflect on my son Ken whom we lost just three days before Christmas last year in a drowning accident as he was exploring the Rock River and fell through the ice by Harold’s Landing in Moline. Things are not the same at home without my son around. Halloween, which is our favorite Holiday, was not the same without him and Christmas will never be the same, as we decorate the tree together, open gifts, and have our family feast.

Though I have lost a son my wife and I had a productive year. I went camping alone at Sugar Bottom Campground at Coralville Lake to honor my son Ken over Fathers Day weekend. I went swimming at the beach, rafting, and hiked one of the nature trails. I had fun in spite of getting harassed by a deputy and a park ranger for making a video and camping alone.

I made a video for YouTube to honor Ken. I did not let the harassment stop me from having fun. After camping I went to Perkins, which was my son Ken’s and I favorite place to go after camping. I got the Tangler Burger, Fries, and Pancakes.

In July my wife and I rented a SUV and went on a two week road trip out west. The first day we drove for over 12 hours. We went through Illinois, Iowa, Kansas City Missouri, to Wichita Kansas. Was pretty exhausted by the time we got to Wichita so we crashed at the Super 8; After having a fun dinner at the Carlos O’ Kelly’s. We had a blast there and the waiter was nice. And believe it or not it was authentic Mexican food. The second day we drove through the flat lands of Kansas. Saw lots of cows and hay barrels. We drove through a section of Oklahoma in which we stopped for a picnic lunch at a place called Guymon. We explored the park which had a pig statue and a Rock Island Line train car. It was fun. Then we drove through a strip of Texas and on to Albuquerque New Mexico. In Albuquerque we ate at a place called the Owl Café. It was an unique old time burger bar with one of a kind milk shakes like the Elvis shake I got which was peanut butter and banana and delicious.

The third day we drove on across to Arizona. Where we spent 4 days at Chandler while visiting my wife Jill’s aunts and cousins. It was a joy swimming in the pool and talking to Jill’s cousin Pashay about the martial arts. In Arizona we went to visit my wife’s brother John and we went to the Arizona Memorial Cemetery to see her dad’s grave where I got to see my Grand Master Robert A. Trias grave as well. I took Jill to the Grand Canyon which she got to see for her first time. And then we went to Utah where we visited her Aunt Hannie. We stopped for one night and ate at a place called Houston’s Trail End which had the best Salisbury Steaks. In Utah we went to Sandy where my wife grew up and explored. Went to her old elementary school Oakdale, old high school Brighton, and hung out with her friends at a place called Jims Restaurant. On the last day I took her to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory which she had for the first time. 

We had a lot of fun on the road trip.

Afterwards we hightailed it home through the Utah pass back to Moline Illinois.

In August my wife and I went to the 31^st Battleship New Jersey BB-62 reunion in Chicago.

It was a nice weekend in Chicago. The weather was warm with a nice breeze. We went to eat Chicago Deep Dish Pizza at Gino’s East, went and explored at Navy pier, and saw the big Ferris wheel built during the 1893 Worlds Fair. At the reunion chatted with some of the old battleship sailors and had a nice dinner. I had the Chicken Florentine and Jill had the beef.

So we had a fun year even though we lost our son Ken. His memory is forever in our hearts as the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays approach. He is forever missed. My son Tim is still working at China Café as a delivery driver. He plans on attending college again soon. He helped with the Halloween decorations this year. We set up the yard in honor of Ken.

Though 2018 is approaching the memory of our son Ken will never fade as the years pass.