Rough Ride
Their dream of a massive paperless Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Library has run into trouble, and plucky North Dakota may beat them in the race to debut a presidential library with no actual documents. Now the Theodore Roosevelt Association is having trouble keeping what papers it owns.
The former acting Executive Director of the Association has been charged with stealing a Roosevelt letter, and with forging a document saying it was his. Edward Renehan’s attorney appears to be leaning towards an insanity defense.
Renehan is doing his part to get off. His blog links to his TR book, but his bio has no mention of working for the TR Association. It does share that
“I was diagnosed as bipolar (aka, manic depressive) during the summer of 2007. This is a progressive biochemical disorder from which I’ve evidently suffered for a very long time, perhaps even since childhood, and which had reached a grave critical mass in recent years. I am currently under treatment, on meds that my doctors and I are fine-tuning, and I am slowly learning how to cope more efficiently and constructively than I have in the past. This, too, is a part of my journey.”
A March 27th blog entry intriguingly titled “My Only Answer” shares memories of his childhood:
” I lay on the cot masturbating while reading a thick paperback containing the complete editions of a bawdy Victorian magazine: The Pearl.”
and plaintively asks “Medicating Away Creativity?