Here’s something to think about that Joe McKay and I talked about today. Mr. McKay is an architect in Lubbock, and I was assigned to photograph him because he owns something very special. And when I say special, I mean drop-your-mouth-in-awe special. The book you see laying in its box in front of Mr. McKay is one of the greatest contributions to and collection of United States history ever.

The book contains autographs from pretty much each historical U.S. service figure since Abraham Lincoln. In fact, the first page of signatures begins with Abraham Lincoln’s signature. To name a few other notable “John Hancock’s”: Charles Lindbergh, Ulysses S. Grant, Henry Kissinger, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, John McCain, John F. Kennedy, and the list goes on and on and on. I could have looked at the book for three hours, and I spent a good part of two hours talking to Mr. McKay about the contents of the pages. I won’t spoil the details about the book just yet (go get a copy of the March/April issue of the Lubbock Magazine when it’s out), but to say the least, it’s an epic event just viewing the still very legible signatures of those people that have shaped our country since the Civil War!

More to the point of this blog is the part of our conversation about the historical value of the book. The very first signature in the book, as stated above, is Abraham Lincoln’s. In the relatively near future, Barack Obama will be the latest signature placed on the pages. Now, this is the part of my post that I tell you that this is not a political posting (please don’t take it as such). I don’t care if you are a die-hard Republican, staunch Democrat, lean more conservative or liberal, what happens today, just as Mr. McKay and I were talking about in relationship to his priceless book, is indeed a historic event that does not need to be taken lightly. If you could only see the pages in the book, you’d suddenly realize that a great deal has happened since the end of the Civil War. If and when President Obama’s signature is placed in the book, it will span a more-than-a-century era from the Emancipation Proclamation to the election of the first African American president! Again, I don’t care which way you lean, just think about that. This book contains a majority of America’s history, a majority that includes some of the greatest moments in not only our history, but the world’s!

I wish everyone a good day, and for those of you reading within the 50 United States and those citizens abroad, I was proud to be an American yesterday after looking at this book of autographs, I always have been, and I always will! My Dad taught me that.