By sheer coincidence, the presidential election next year will
take place on the same day as the birthday of American political
humorist Will Rogers. With a whole year of campaign shenanigans to
look forward to, I’d like to now ponder what the famous cowboy
comic might think of what will be one of the fiercest bids for the
White House in recent memory.
By sheer coincidence, the presidential election next year will take place on the same day as the birthday of American political humorist Will Rogers. With a whole year of campaign shenanigans to look forward to, I’d like to now ponder what the famous cowboy comic might think of what will be one of the fiercest bids for the White House in recent memory.
Rogers was born on Nov. 4, 1879, in Oklahoma Indian Territory. He grew up to be a rare thing – a celebrity that truly kept in touch with his working man’s roots. He was a star performer in the Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway, wrote a weekly humorous columns read by millions, and starred in a number of blockbuster Hollywood films. His words still make us laugh at ourselves as a nation. He understood that humor is the best way hit our hubris and get the truth.
He also enjoyed visiting our South Valley area – stopping here occasionally when it was still mostly a rural region. He enjoyed dining at the famous Milias Hotel in downtown Gilroy, and even made a joke about the city’s garlic industry with his famous quote calling Gilroy “the only place in America where you can marinate a steak by hanging it on a clothesline.”
A born horseman, Rogers also liked to hang out with the cowboys of San Benito County. In his column published on May 17, 1934, he described his time at a ranch near Tres Pinos. “Sure had a good time today, been out to a calf branding at the Quien Sabe ranch. Forty thousand acres and one of the prettiest in California. Didn’t mind all the men beating me roping, but when a girl did, it looks like golf will be coming on me pretty soon.”
In the same column, Rogers called Hollister “a real old cowboy town,” but lamented that “prunes and Easterners are getting a hold in here and they are both hard to eradicate.” Still, his time in San Benito was well spent. “There is not a better day in the world to be spent than with a lot of wise old cowmen around barbecued beef, black coffee, and good free holy beans.”
Unfortunately, one year after writing that column, Rogers’s philosophical meanderings ended. His life was cut short when on Aug. 15, 1935, the airplane he was flying in with his pilot friend Wiley Post crashed while taking off from Point Barrow, Ala.
In 1973 when I was a kid, my family took a station wagon drive back to visit relatives in Oklahoma. We stopped in the town of Claremore to visit the Will Rogers Museum. On the garden grounds just behind the museum, Rogers rests in peace. A life-sized statue of him on his horse Soapsuds facing west is placed over his burial site.
I remember how my dad, an “Okie,” felt so proud that Rogers was also a son of the Sooner State. As we stood at the cowboy’s grave, tears flowed from my father’s eyes. He didn’t have to tell me how much he admired his hero.
Well, somehow the American republic has managed to survive without Will Rogers to guide us with his gentle observations of politics and presidents. With a twinkle in his eyes, he’d certainly crack some knee-slapping jokes about the current crop of senators and congressmen. And he’d probably be astonished that the same issues folks faced back in his time – war, taxes, crime, immigration and such – are still being hotly debated today. But then, maybe he wouldn’t really be all that amazed. He had an innate understanding of human nature, and human nature hasn’t changed much since his day.
The election that will be held on his birthday in 2008 will no doubt be one of the most important in U.S. history. I’d like to think that, through his written words, Rogers still speaks to us Americans. We can make the best election decision possible if we’d only listen. His words also still remind us of what our nation needs to be. That’s why I’d like to end my column with the wisdom the comic cowboy shared at the end of his newspaper ramblings he wrote from Hollister one fine spring day in 1934.
“Cattlemen have lost more in the last few years than anybody and say less about it,” he wrote. “When you ever have any doubt as to what might happen in these U.S., go to the country and talk with them and you will come back reassured. Yours, Will Rogers.”
