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It's midterm election year, so politicians from Daytona to Dubuque will be posing for photographs.

One time-honored tradition is for office-seekers and office-holders to pose with suitcoat off (thrown over shoulder if possible), tie loosened at neck, and sleeves rolled up 1/2 way.  That's for male politicians; females are far too wise to pose in silly pictures.  But for the males, this photo is supposed to convey that "Candidate Harrigan has his sleeves rolled up and is ready to go to work for YOU! He will fight higher taxes and roll over bumbling bureaucrats, improve your schools and make you safe in your home and in the streets! So Vote Harrigan! A name that shame has never been connected with!" 

And then the disappointment begins.  Look back at any politico whose next "sleeve picture" shows him being fitted for handcuffs, and you can always find that picture in his past.

And another popular political photograph shows the candidate or incumbent posing with a giant check to be given to charity (always accompanied by a "grip-and-grin" photo, showing the guy shaking hands with the charity's representative), or a huge pair of golden scissors, officiating at the opening of a new bridge or hamburger carryout.

And the king of them all is the "shovel shot," showing Harrigan holding a shovel in his hand for the first time in his life, at the "groundbreaking" for a new children's hospital or hamburger carryout.  The assembled dignitaries, once they figured out which end of the shovel to grasp, would then toss a cup or so of soil each, as the real groundbreakers, guys sitting on idling bulldozers, waited to get to work.


And so it was that French President Emmanuel Macron and the current president of the United States "planted" a European sessile oak sapling, brought over from France, on the White House lawn. Macron tweeted that the tree “will be a reminder at the White House of these ties that bind us.”

The history of the sapling is brief: someone remembered that imported trees cannot be planted in this country until authorities make absolutely sure it is not carrying diseases, it must remain in quarantine.  If the oak is indeed free of cooties, it will be replanted by October. For now, only a yellow patch of grass remains.

 U.S. Customs and Border Protection rules state that, when someone brings plants into the country with the intention of planting them, special restrictions may include “post-entry quarantine.” This measure is generally intended to mitigate the risk of spreading pests.

These days, many sessile oak trees from northern France are being ravaged by a pest called the oak processionary moth. The little bug has been chewing its way north from Southern Europe, and while it has not found a home in this country, it's certainly better to keep this tree on ice, as it were, until arborists are sure of its health.

The history of the area from which the trees came to us is more important. It sprouted at the site of the World War I Battle of Belleau Wood (June 1-26, 1918). This battle was part of the German Spring Offensive near the Marne River, pitting Americans along with French and British forces against German units. The Germans were defeated at last, although some 2,000 U.S. soldiers lost their lives. 

So the tree comes to us from hallowed ground overseas, and the hope is that we can plant it for real next time.