NAVA's Ted Kaye Participates in President Clinton's Last Official Act

Ted Kaye, NAVA member and managing editor of Raven, attended President Clinton's last official act in the East Room at the White House, three days before Inauguration Day. The president honored history, culture, and the environment in a ceremony promoting William Clark to the rank of Captain and declaring Pompey's Pillar in Montana a national monument. (Meriwether Lewis had promised Clark a captain's commission, but the War Department only awarded him a second lieutenancy due to issues of budget and bureaucracy. As Clinton put it, "some things never change.") Pompey's Pillar, which Clark named for Sacagawea's infant son, is a sandstone rock outcrop on which Clark carved his name---the only remaining physical evidence of the Lewis & Clark Expedition.

Ted is the executive director of Lewis & Clark Bicentennial in Oregon, the statewide coalition coordinating planning activities for 2003-2006. He enjoyed the opportunity to see the White House first-hand, especially relishing the original presidential portraits on all the walls. He noted that Clinton was flanked by the U.S. and Presidential flags, and the podium bore the seal of the President of the United States.