peachy keen

When I was in third or fourth grade, everyone in my class had to do a report on a figure from American history. Somehow I ended up doing my report on our seventeenth president, Andrew Johnson.

I did fastidious research on President A. Johnson, learning that he had become president when Lincoln was assassinated and was generally not very popular then, nor now (among historians). And through my research I learned that Andrew Johnson was the first (and, at the time, only) president to have charges pressed against him by the legislature - that is, he was impeached.

On the day of our presentations I was walking through the halls of Fisher Elementary dressed in a suit made up to look 1800's-ish. A teacher stopped me and a friend and asked who we were dressed up as. I proudly answered, "I'm President Andrew Johnson!"

"Oh really?" the teacher asked, smiling. "Well, tell me one thing about Johnson."

I thought hard for a moment. This was my moment to show an adult that I really knew my stuff. "Um... He was impeached!" I announced, beaming, thinking, "I am just so smart."

The teacher paused and smiled thinkingly. "Well," he began condescendingly, "He was almost impeached. Not quite."

I was crushed. I had done the research, I had read books, I had talked about it with my mom and my dad. What could I have missed? I couldn't believe it! I had made a fool of myself in front of a teacher. I sadly sulked to my classroom and gave my report with a heavy heart. I think I corrected myself and said that Johnson was almost impeached, and my teacher nodded.

A few years later Bill Clinton was impeached, and the confusion returned. It seemed like no media station or person I heard in conversation was clear on whether or not he was impeached or was about to be impeached or what. The words of that teacher in the Fisher school hall rang in my ear. I wondered if maybe I had been right all along.

Finally, I found myself in an American History class my junior year of high school. Mrs. Shuman was covering the years following the Civil War, and she got to President Johnson's administration. She then told us about Johnson's impeachment and trial.

"There's something that a lot of people get mixed up on and don't understand," Mrs. Shuman told us. "The impeachment happens when the elected official is brought to trial; it's not when the person is removed from office. Johnson and Clinton were not almost impeached, they actually were impeached."

It was a vindication I never knew I needed. Suddenly, in my mind, I found myself back in that hallway, dressed in my suit, looking up at some teacher while he told me I didn't know what I was talking about. In my mind I yelled, "HA! I KNEW IT! YOU'RE WRONG!"

And that's why I still feel a hint of resentment toward some random teacher from my elementary school years.