What is integrity? What does it take to become a President? Does being a President require military experience? Well I can answer those questions with the model of Abraham Lincoln.

What is integrity?

Integrity is adherence to moral and ethical principles, or soundness of moral character; in other words honesty. Abraham Lincoln was said to have never told a lie, while this may be true it’s hard to believe that he lived his whole life without lying. But everyone thought that he was a humble and trust worthy guy like some people should be.

What does it take to become a president?

To be President you need to be at least 35 years of age, and a born citizen of the United States of America, US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, or Guam. You also need to have lived in the US for at least 14 years. Having a law degree helps out because you could get better votes/ratings from the people the smarter you are.

Something else important to being a President is money. It requires lots of money for campaigns. Campaigns help out your reputation to be more well-known and to actually have a lot more fans to vote for you.

Staff is also important, because who you pick to be Vice President should be liked and possess the same qualities that the President would have because if the President were to pass away then the Vice President would have to be just like the President to be President or else people would dislike you a little.

I think one of the most important things to being President is persistence.
Abraham Lincoln showed this by trying and failing several times only to succeed in becoming the most powerful man in the country. For example, here is a list of things that happened to him on the way to the White House:
In 1816: Abraham Lincoln’s family was forced to move out of their home and Abraham Lincoln was forced to work early to support his family.
In 1818: Abraham Lincoln’s mom sadly passed away.
In 1831: Abraham Lincoln tried to start a business but then the business failed tragically.
In 1832 Abraham Lincoln lost his job then wanted to go to law school but he got rejected.
In 1833: Abraham Lincoln borrowed some money from a friend to begin a business and by the end of the year Abraham Lincoln was bankrupt and spent the next 17 years of his life trying to pay the debt off to his friend.
In 1834: Abraham Lincoln ran for state legislature and lost.
In 1836: Abraham Lincoln had a big nervous breakdown and was in bed for six months
In 1838: Abraham Lincoln sought out to become speaker of the state legislature but then was defeated.
In 1840: Abraham Lincoln sought out to be elected for president but was defeated.
In 1843: Abraham Lincoln ran for Congress but he lost to the person he was running against.
In 1846: Abraham Lincoln ran for Congress this time he had won and went to Washington DC and did a pretty good job.
In 1848: Abraham Lincoln ran for re-election to Congress but he lost.
In 1849: Abraham Lincoln sought the job of a land officer in his home state – he got rejected.
In 1854: Abraham Lincoln ran for Senate of the United States but lost.
In 1856: Abraham Lincoln sought out the Vice Presidential nomination at his party’s national convention – he got less than 100 votes.
In 1858: Abraham Lincoln ran again – he lost again.
In 1860: Abraham Lincoln tried out for President of the United States and he was finally President of the United States.

Does being President require military experience?
Does the President have to have military experience? No, it is not required to have military experience but I think it helps a lot by if there was a terrorist attack then a president with a military experience might know how to handle the situation much better than a president that doesn’t.

The president also is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. This is the person in charge of all the militaries: Army, Navy, Air Force and the Marines. To be president you don’t have to have military experience but you could have military experience to actually move around the US Forces and to understand the sort of things that they are going through.

There have been several presidents that didn’t serve in the military so far. The most popular ones are Barrack Obama and Bill Clinton. Abraham Lincoln served in the Illinois State Militia and obtained the rank of Captain.

Wow, I had no clue being president would be as hard as I learned today. I guess it is no easy process because you have to raise so much money, and also be as smart as some of our presidents were. I might aim to be president maybe someday.

Hunter Hart is a student at Jewett School of the Arts. Hunter is majoring in the Theatre Department. After Hunter is done with Jewett, he will be moving on to Harrison Arts Center. Later, Hunter plans to go to Greece and try to develop a good reputation as an actor. Hunter likes to play football and is really good. His most recent acting was playing one of the leading roles in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Note from the Veterans Editor: The opinions of this guest author may or may not be shared by the editor, but the ability to freely express them are respectfully championed!