It would be impossible to do justice to George Washington in 300 words, but today is his 277th birthday and it would be worse to let the day pass without note. It's an understatement to say he was a remarkable man, and yet he has always seemed to me to be seriously under-appreciated in the country he, more than anyone, founded.He was reduced early on to a stereotype -- the little boy who cut down the cherry tree and could not tell a lie; then the adult who stood in row boats and wore wooden teeth. Even the spectacularly unglamorous Adams has had his day in the sun in recent years, while this physically impressive, morally righteous, courageous, charismatic leader remains the least dimensionalized of our founders. There should be a great movie made about him.
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I'll be traveling for a few days. Play nice everyone.
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4 comments:
True enough Dennis. Part of the reason for the lack of knowledge about GW is that his letters to his wife were destroyed by her while the correspondence between Adams and his wife were saved for posterity. Not alot of Youtube footage back then. There's a good book by Joseph Ellis on Washington called His Excellency. One thing you can say about GW is that he married well. Hooking up with Martha Custis made him argueably the wealthiest man in the colonies.
David Morse was impressive as Washington in the HBO mini-series, John Adams. The performance left me wanting more.
Coincidentally, he was involved in the first, or one of the first skirmishes of what is commonly referred to as the French and Indian War. I do believe it was near the Ohio River.
Ambitious, capable and patient, are what I think of when considering Washington. Wealth was not enough. He served and sacrificed.
Although there is an agreement that Washington was a great leader, he was not considered one of the great thinkers behind our Republic. Jefferson, Madison and Adams were considered some of the great thinkers who created the basis of our Republic. In hindsight, it the ideas of the founding fathers that have captured peoples imaginations not the person who lead.
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