 Please join me in welcoming Mr. Ben Barnes. Good morning, everyone. First of all, I want to thank you for that very kind introduction. I appreciate very much. General, it's an honor to be on the program with you and thank you for your service to our country. To all the employees of the National Park and the State Park here, you're part of a very important team that does a yeoman job and I welcome this opportunity to thank you. To Lucy and Ian and Pat, representatives of the Johnson family, I not only say thank you for being here today, but I think one of the greatest legacies that Lyndon Johnson had is the fact that he raised a family that was not going to come to this cemetery and mourn his death, as Dr. Graham delivered the eulogy here, and go back and live their lives and raise their children and their grandchildren and have a good life, a life as a result of the labors and the love of President Johnson. They didn't go back home and do that. They didn't get a rocking chair. They didn't get a bed that goes up and down and has all the comforts of home. They went back and went to work with the same spirit, the same drive and the same enthusiasm that President Johnson had. And Lady Bird, who was blessed to be here for two decades after President Johnson left this world, what asset she has been, not only to Lyndon Johnson, not only to Lucy and Linda and Ian and Pat and the entire Johnson family, but she was America's workmate and helpmate. And she was a person that set an example for us in every way that she lived her life. If someone asked me who the woman that I admired most in the United States, my answer would be my mother, who worked so hard to help me get out of those sand fields of Comanche County and off that peanut farm and in the gold places like the Johnson Ranch and the University of Texas and Texas State University, Mr. President, thank you for being here. And to get to work with the two marks who have been introduced to you or who are such talented young leaders and do such a great job for the foundation, for the women that were serving the food and the ice water and the coffee this morning, everyone turns out to do their part. And I believe that, and in my heart, that we're all here on this warm August Sunday because we want to do more because President Johnson wanted us to do more. He taught us that we should do more. He taught us that we had a responsibility. And Pat, you're a little younger than your mother, not very much younger. You're looking a little older like me, but you've got a real responsibility. You represent the third generation and there's already the fourth generation and the fifth generation of the family. And the family has to continue to provide the leadership that we all need to remind us of Johnson's many contributions. I'm honored to be here for so many reasons. The anniversary of, first of all, it's something that's dear to my heart and the people that work for the State Park here. It's the 53rd anniversary of LBJ State Park. And I was in office when that was created and I was so happy that the legislature voted for it and appropriated the money. We were in session. The legislature meets in odd number of years in 1969 and we were in session in the closing hours of the legislative session. And my secretary sent someone out on the Senate floor and said, the President of the United States is on the phone for you, Ben. Of course, that pleased me a great deal. Anytime the President called me. But it really pleased me this time because I said, well, you know why what a thoughtful person he is. He's calling me to tell me thank you for getting to State Park. Well, I left the podium and went into the Lieutenant Governor's office and there was the President. And I waited for the word, Ben, thank you so much for what you're doing. And obviously, I was so hungry for that praise and that blessing that was gonna come through that AT&T line. Well, that wasn't a blessing. It wasn't a praise. I said, Ben, I've got a question for you. I said, yes, sir, Mr. President. He said, you know how hot it gets in August? July in Texas? And I said, well, yes, sir, I do. I grew up on the peanut farm here, remember? He said, well, I tell you, I don't know what the school kids are gonna think about you and me. He said, they're not gonna think a lot about you but they're gonna think more about me. But he said, they're gonna come down there to see our State Park. It's gonna be dry, it's gonna be hot. And you've only got three water wells in that appropriation bill. You understand how little water we're gonna get out of those three wells? Those children are gonna get off those school buses after riding. Some of them may come from the Panhandler where Joe Batson lives. They may come from deep east Texas. But they're gonna get off that school bus and the first thing, what are they gonna want, Ben? They're gonna want a cool drink of water. And I tell you, if it's in the summer, there's a lot of not to be any water there. And he said, you know, they're not gonna blame you. They'll probably forget about you. That really made me feel good. He said, but they're gonna blame me. And he said, I guess we'll put a sign out there by the State Park that you can't have a drink of water because of Ben Barnes, some town called De Leon and the President of the United States. We are not thinking about them. And I said, oh, Mr. President, I didn't even realize how many water wells were there. I didn't know anything about this. He said, oh, no, nothing happens in the Senate that you don't know about. He said, I know full well, but he said, what are we gonna do? And I said, well, Mr. President, but we gotta get some water. I didn't know what we're gonna do either. The appropriation bill had already passed and it was at the governor's office, Senator Johnson. And this is Senator Nathan Johnson sitting on the front row here. And his name is Johnson, spelled the same way the President spells his. And he's got the same fiery spirit for public service that Lyndon Johnson had. And I've watched politics now for 55 years from afar and I've not met a state senator or a state representative or a state congressman that's got the raw talent and the ability to provide leadership as Nathan Johnson and Senator. We're glad you're here today. And I want y'all to remember, you won't have trouble remembering his last name, but you'll remember his first name is Nathan Johnson. But anyway, Senator Johnson knows that when a bill goes to the governor, well, that's it, the session's ready to be over. So to put those water wells in there, we had to call the bill back from the governor by concurrent resolution. You had to pass the house and send it both. Well, it was gonna be pretty difficult to stand up and explain that I'd screwed up or the legislature screwed up and we'd not drilled enough water wells for President Johnson's Park. And I didn't think the president wanted that published and I didn't either, but so what we did, we just made a motion to recall the bill. We'd made some clerical errors. It's the first time I guess politicians have ever told even a little white line in this country. But we said we'd made clerical errors. We called the bill back and put the money in there to drill those wells. And today, if you go to the state park and you get off a school bus, you can get a cold drink of water at that state park. And if those wells ever get low, I'll try to get some money someplace else to drill some more wells. Because I don't want Johnson calling me from heaven and telling me, Ben, you screwed it up again. So anyway, it was a great day. And I came and made a speech in August to dedicate that part. And I had an opportunity. Some of the papers read, wrote stories about it. And so this being the anniversary that they were published and they come up on my computer and I looked at them and I finally got a tape of the ceremony to watch it, just to bring back the pleasant memories. And what I saw in that tape was so interesting because it kind of hurt my feelings at first because I would have thought the tape would be all about my speech. Now I'm just sure they couldn't keep the cameras off me. Well, they did keep them off me. It was a great day of the time because I put them on President Johnson. But what the great thing was, watching he and Lady Bird sitting down the front row, what was the great thing was Lyndon Johnson was smiling during that 20 or 30 minute ceremony. Smiling like I had not seen him smile since he had come back to Texas from the presidency. Not seen him smile since he had to go through the angry and agony of Vietnam. But it was so wonderful to see him smile and it was a great day. And there were between six and 8,000 people there that day and they were there in appreciation and respect of what Lyndon Johnson had done for this state and this country and it was certainly a happy day and it pleased me so much. And I want to say this, I've bragged on everybody that's in leadership roles, but I want to say something to you, the people from Johnson City and people from Stonewall and the people from this area out here on this Sunday morning. You're all part of the Johnson family too. You're all part of the people that love Johnson and respected him and you have carried the torch. You've done your share of the pushing and pulling and lifting. And it does my heart so good. I've seen a couple of people I went to law school with, I've seen some people I rode in the parade with in Stonewall, I've seen, saw one guy that saw me get stung because they put me in a red ant bed and I didn't realize that I stand in a red ant bed and I made a little speech in Stonewall and I got bitten by red ants and I'll always remember that. But you are part of the Johnson family and you're part of Texans who appreciate the leadership that we received and I'm so proud. President Johnson was, he was the education president. He was the civil rights president. He was the consumer president. He was the president of the poor and the oppressed. He was the president of conservation. I could go stand here all morning long and talk about the different areas that Lyndon Johnson passed very important legislation in and it's too hot and I appreciate your time being here. I'm not gonna do that. But I'll tell you that the real story of the Johnson administration is not told with statistics. I believe that Lyndon Johnson's achievements can be measured in the terms of human lives, in the terms of hopes fulfilled, in the terms of bodies healed, of spirits lifted and of eager young minds educated and all of our lives enriched. President Johnson left us with two critical messages that we've really failed to live up to and in this day of praise and appreciation I wanna mention those two requests that Johnson made of each and every one of us. One, it relates to the temperature. 53 years ago in August, about the same time it was here today, the high that day was 90 degrees. The high today is predicted to be 105 or six degrees. And it's been in Austin, those of you that live there near here and I'm sure it's been that same way in Johnson City and Stonewall for 30 to 40 days it's been over 100 degrees. Matter of fact, maybe over 105 and 160 degrees. And it was President Johnson that said to us over 60 years ago that global warming is an incredible threat and that if we don't do something about it that we could, because of global warming lose our world as we have it today. Unfortunately, we're just now beginning to realize that. We didn't realize that 60 years ago when President Johnson said that to us. And we're gonna have to take the political action and build a coalition that Johnson asked us to build 60 years ago to do something about global warming is a challenge for each and every one of us. And the second thing is bipartisanship. Johnson used to say, we can't have division, division, division. That was a dirty word in his vocabulary. He wanted people to work together. And he set an example of Democrats and Republicans and independence working together. And it was Lyndon Johnson that took the minority leader of the United States Senate and forged a relationship with him and with the Republicans in the Senate and wrote the first civil rights and voting rights act. Unbelievable. You think about going to the United States Senate and the United States House today and passing that legislation. It would be absolutely impossible. But President Johnson did something for me that I remember all my life. And I wanna share it very briefly with you that I was on a committee. We were meeting in the afternoon in the old executive office building. That's the building right next to the White House. And one of the members of that committee was Everett Dirksen. And I don't know whether any of you have met Senator Dirksen or not, but you at least heard his voice on television. And I always thought if I would close my eyes and hear Senator Dirksen speak, that it was maybe the voice of God because he spoke in a rather crisp, hoarse voice. Ben came back in the room, called me young Ben. He said, young Ben, the president of the United States of America. This is from a lot of elected officials. And I was embarrassed, but about kind of secretly, I was enjoying the heck out of Berkson, saying this to all the people. He said, young Ben, the president of the United States wants you and me to come to the Oval Office and have a drink with him. And I don't know about you, but I plan to go. And he said, unfortunately for all of you, other leaders here, the president said to say hello, but he wants to speak to me and young Ben. Well, I don't know why I even got invited. In a few minutes, maybe I was gonna learn, but I jumped up and hit my knee on the table because I was so excited. But I jumped up and Senator Dirksen and I walked over to the Oval Office. There was President Johnson, the young man that was the steward of the office there. And he said, what do y'all want to drink? Well, I wasn't really experienced with the beverages at that time. I would drink some, but I more had a beer budget than I had a Scotch budget. But Dirksen said, I'll have Scotch. And the president said he'd have Scotch. And of course, I wasn't gonna be left out. I said, I'll have Scotch. Well, the steward brought Dirksen, Scotch, Johnson, Scotch, and me a Scotch. And I'll always believe, and I'm not being accusatory, but the statutes run, so the president couldn't be indicted for this or getting a minor and an older man. We beat him too much Scotch. But anyway, I always felt like he gave Senator Dirksen a double Scotch and me a double Scotch. And he had about a third of a Scotch, but I don't know that and I can't prove it. But anyway, we drank our Scotch. And Dirksen in the middle of that first Scotch said, now, Mr. President, I want to tell you something. I've got an idea. One of you invited me over here is because you want votes for that tax bill. Well, Johnson's, well, that's not true. Yeah, I want to talk to you about those three votes, but I invited you over here because you're my partner. You're the second man to Abraham Lincoln, whose name's gonna be inscribed in history because what Johnson did in the Emancipation Act for the slaves and what you did but joining me in passing the Civil Rights Act, there'll be two great heroes of America, Abraham Lincoln and Everett Dirksen. Well, that made the Center pretty good. But anyway, but he said, well, we're talking about that. I need those three votes every now. I've got to pass this tax bill. We've got to pay for this war. We've got to get this war over with. We've got to pay for it. And Dirksen said, well, I'm sorry, Mr. President. We had a Republican caucus this morning and we voted unanimously to not, any of us vote for the war. Well, Johnson changed the subject. He said, let's have another one. Well, we had another drink. And near the conclusion of completing that drink, Johnson said, let's have an honest have and then y'all can go. And I leaned over to Senator Dirksen, said, Senator, can I ride with you? That was two reasons. I'd gotten there in a cab. I didn't know where to go call a cab. I wasn't familiar with the White House. And the second reason I didn't know was that I was gonna be capable of walking and go up and get me a car. So anyway, Dirksen said, yes, I'll take you. Well, we were finished in that drink and Johnson said to Senator Dirksen, Senator, I'm so glad I thought of this. He said, we better have another half drink. Let's have a half drink and then I'll tell you and then y'all can go. He said, Senator, the commander of the Corb engineers was here in my office this morning in general. And he said that, unfortunately, there's not enough money for that dam in Southern Illinois from the Corb engineers. And I know, Senator, how important that dam is to you. And I know how it's important to those farmers in Southern Illinois that their crops were washing away. And I had an argument with him. I said, that dummy is Senator Dirksen's most able man in America and he deserves that and his constituents deserve it. And he said there still wasn't any money in there. Well, they handed us our third drink. I would see Dirksen, he was just seething. He'd be drinking it slowly. And he said now, if you want me to get him on the phone, Senator, I'll get him on the phone and you and I can talk to him together. Dirksen just waved his hand like that, took another sip of that scotch. And he said, Mr. President, you know how much I respect you. You know how much I love you even. But, and I never had heard anybody say this to the President of the United States, but I was later to learn it was out of love and affection and you ladies, you pardon me when I say this, but Dirksen said to the President of the United States, my hero, you know, Mr. President, you are a SOB, but I love you. Well, we finished the drink. We got up, Dirksen walked around, walked around the desk in the Oval Office and kissed Johnson on the cheek and said, Mr. President, you know I love you and respect you so much. And I think about now somebody in another party even going over and shaking hands and doing a responsible thing. But we completed our meeting. Johnson had his three votes from the Republicans for the tax bill. Dirksen had his dam for Southern Illinois and I'd had way too much scotch. But it was a wonderful experience that I saw the Johnson treatment in person and saw him with the majority leader, the minority leader of the United States Senate. But that was Lyndon Johnson. Lyndon Johnson put his country ahead of his party. He put his values always to the individual and to the person that needed help and that needed his government. That person was in President Johnson's mind and not the person that had the advantages of what our society was giving each of us and that Johnson was largely responsible for. Last night, Sam and I, I've been out of town for some time and if I'm addicted to anything, it's Mexican food, it's Tex-Mexi. Anybody, I've talked to my doctors about how I get rid of this addiction but I love Mexican food. So I said, Sam, let's go have Mexican food early because there's a huge crowd bills at the entrance to El Rancho on South Lamar and if I have to show my hands, I bet nearly everybody has eaten there. General UN, I'd have, but it's really worth the drive from Santa Tony. But anyway, we go out and have my tamale and tequila and taco and it was a great experience and we were leaving the restaurant. Even though we went at 5.30, we were leaving at about 6.30 and it was packed. It was just jammed and we were fighting to get our way out and I got out of the restaurant and was getting in the car and I could hear someone saying, Ben Barnes. And I turned around and the guy walked up and stuck his hand into my hand and said, I just wanted to shake your hand. This man was about probably about 55 years old and he shook my hand and when he put his palm in my palm, he said, Ben Barnes and LBJ, back when politics was done right. And I couldn't think about how fate played a role and that man working his way through that crowd and not that he said anything about me and my name didn't even be mentioned in the same breath with Johnson. But he said something that really sums up President Johnson as we stand here in this family cemetery and stand here laying this reef on President Johnson's grave, that Lyndon Johnson was there when politics was done right. What he did in my story about Dirksen, what he did about the story about the state park, what he did with all the stories that you as your friends and neighbors could tell where you individually had the experience. You know what Lyndon Johnson was and what made him tick. You know why he hurried through the presidency. You know why he hurried through life is that he wanted to do more and he went to his grave disappointed that he didn't have more time. He left Washington disappointed that he didn't have more time. But I think that history is gonna become kinder and kinder to President Johnson and I think he's gonna rise to the top or near the top of the presidency. But I do know this, that when the history books are written of the past 300 years, there's not gonna be any public leader, any president of the United States who was in a bigger hurry and who used every single second of his time to do good for other people and do good for this country. Lucy and Patrick and Ian and the extended members of the Johnson family. We have an example every day and you can walk into the library that Mark presides over and see that those reams of statute holders of the thousands of bills he passed. He did so much in such a short period of time and we've been blessed by giving more time by our Lord and I want to remind you that we have that responsibility. Dr. Graham stood in this cemetery and gave the eulogy and I remember this quote that is very appropriate today on this anniversary. Billy Graham said and I quote, LBJ was a powerful, gigantic personality whose charisma dominated a room the many he entered it. The focus of the attention and even the balance of power automatically shifted to him. He could be coarse and charming at the same time and certainly profane. Almost every time he swore in my presence, he'd quickly look over his shoulder and say, excuse me, preacher, that was LBJ and Dr. Graham summed him up as the general has summed him up as the person that not only has inspired us that we can look to, but his record in his life, I think will be an inspiration for people throughout America for the next century and the next century. And I hope there's someone else that there's a young politician or a former politician that's eating at L Rancho in another 50 years and somebody walks up and says, Tom Smith and LBJ, y'all did politics right. Johnson did do it right. Thank you all for being him here in God bless America and God bless President and Mrs. Johnson for what they've done for all of us. Thank you very much. That may be a sound from God that I wasn't invited to take this podium. But invited, excuse me, invited or not, I just had to let everybody who is sitting in this hot sun know that there was a reason why Ben Barnes was asked to speak here today. And that was because Shirley James who was referred to earlier as my mother's executive secretary and had been my own as well, lovingly look back through her memory and said, you know, there's somebody that your mother always said she wanted to speak at this service because as a young man, he had embraced the values that mattered so much to Lyndon Johnson. And he never, ever, ever forgot. Well, Ben Barnes, mother never forgot you and we've never forgotten you. And we are so grateful that you have not forgotten us but far more importantly than that, we're glad you never forgot those values that daddy and you shared of wanting to do as you so ably alluded to, politics right in wanting to put the people first, their hopes, their dreams, regardless of whether they came from the homes of mighty mansions or the humble hill country that he had. We were all fellow Americans and we needed to look at each other with respect and dignity and try to give everybody the best chance they could have to be the best that they could be. Ben, thank you for continuing daddy's work. Thank you for coming here today. Thank you for never forgetting and thank you most especially for never forgetting that all of the people who've come here today have remembered what Lyndon Johnson used to say. The hill country was a part of the world when they knew when you were sick and they cared when you died and it was a place he wanted to come home to. Thank you for coming home to the hill country, to the values that mattered to Lyndon Johnson on his 115th birthday just as he did on the day that he discovered America. The work is not done. The needs are still there. We had yet another mass shooting yesterday in Jacksonville, Florida. The need for healing continues. Let us all hope to be a part of that healing and do the best we can as God gives us the energy and the insight to serve our fellow man. Lyndon Johnson only had 64 years to do so but he did the best he could and we thank you for not forgetting that that best as Lyndon Johnson would say was not good enough. The work continues. The answer is in each of us. Thank you, Ben.