It’s so beautiful, I think, as I drive through in the Hill Country of Texas. It’s not the dramatic vast ocean and mountain beauty of California, or the lush oak trees draped with moss, verdant beauty of Louisiana, but still, an awe inspiring beauty. There are vast blue skies with huge fluffy clouds hovering over and nestling themselves on the green rolling hills.

It’s good to get out, drive the highways – especially the back roads – and see the great diversity of this country.

There aren’t a whole lot of tourist attractions in the Hill Country. The main attraction for me was visiting the LBJ Ranch, part of our nation’s historic park system.

Some of us children of the 1960’s, who came of age during the Vietnam War debacle, may have a difficult time seeing past LBJ’s role in that when scrutinizing his legacy. But God knows, Presidents are human, and humans are flawed, in spite of greatness in other areas. Sometimes it seems the greater the leader, the deeper the flaws can be.

That time was a time, not unlike today, so fraught with discord, unrest and tension. LBJ’s legacy is so pertinent today – the shepherd and signer of the Voting Rights Act, now under assault; the visioneer of the Great Society and the War on Poverty. The work remains unfinished.

I felt something wild, sacred and compelling about his deep connection to this land, a land he believed molded the character of the people who lived on it – land inhabited by native tribes, Mexican ranchers, Africans – some free men who entered from Mexico, some enslaved, and some who, post-Civil War, roamed it as the famed Buffalo soldiers – sturdy German immigrants, all who made up the great diversity that is America, something that seems almost lost to us today, only a few generations later. And something powerfully moving as I considered how the policies so important to him were informed by that land and the various peoples who’d lived on it – and often worked cooperatively alongside each other – over time.

As I left the site, the park ranger asked me how I enjoyed the visit. I replied, it’s so good to look back on a time where there was great leadership in this country. Her eyes widened behind the plastic shield covering her face, and she silently and enthusiastically nodded in agreement.