Located next to the train tracks crossing Highway 32 just west of the Hwy 32/Hwy 301 intersection is the nondescript Hortense, Georgia United States Post Office. It has a plaque stating,:
THIS BUILDING
DEDICATED TO
PUBLIC SERVICE
1968
LYNDON B JOHNSON
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
W. MARVIN WATSON
POSTMASTER GENERALOne of my earliest memories is going into the post office with my mom when I was a very young child–about 12 or 13 years after the building was dedicated. There wasn’t grass and weeds growing in the cracks of the concrete, and the parking lot wasn’t as sandy as it is now.
While reading about W. Marvin Watson, I learned that he eulogized Lyndon B. Johnson at his state funeral, which you can watch here. This is a poignant passage considering today’s state of affairs where politics are winner-take-all, zero-sum game, and without the hope of compromise:
"He was ours and we loved him. Beyond any telling of it he shared his victories and he shared his defeats. In victory, he taught us to be magnanimous. In defeat, he taught us to be without hate, to learn, to rally, to accept the challenge, and to try again. He believed that good men together could accomplish anything even the most impossible of dreams. No matter who his opponent, he constantly sought to find that touchstone within the soul of every man which if discovered would release the impulse for honest and fair solution. Hate was never in this man's heart."
