I recently had the great opportunity to visit Everglades National Park in South Florida on the tail end of the dry season.

Gazing out across the national park as we drove south from the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center towards Flamingo, my eyes swept across sawgrass prairie that was broken only occasionally by tree islands. Ivory-white egrets and great blue herons were the most obvious birds on this soggy landscape, though a few ospreys cruised overhead.

Those who have ascended to the presidency of the United States are products of the environments in which they were born, raised, and educated. Their early experiences usually have a significant effect on how they manage their presidency and the subsequent policy and programs developed under their watch. 

Lyndon Baines Johnson is a fitting example of that.  His presidency was guided in full measure by his upbringing, his personal experiences with poverty and shame and his observation of racism and hate. 

For much of the 20th century, there were efforts to drain the Everglades, the world famous "river of grass" in Florida, to make way for agriculture, industry, and communities. More recently, more effort has been focused on restoring the Everglades, to let the sheet of water that heads south from Lake Okeechobee down to Florida Bay flow more naturally, as naturally as possible.