NEW STRIP :: PORTRAITS OF GREATNESS: George Washington
In a new series (which will likely run 3 or 4 installments and then fizzle out, like all my other series) entitled "Portraits of Greatness," I am focusing the laser-like beams of my gorgeous blue eyes on historical figures of yore. In this case, this yore goes all the way back to the humble-but-dramatic beginnings of the United States. Check it out.
George Washington was the very first president of America, and by all accounts quite a good one. Who can say though--it's hard to imagine a war steeped more in legend than the American Revolution. Nor a figure more legendary than Washington himself--in this day of instant information, I wonder how different these first years of the nation would appear.
I must say that I robbed the Wikipedia article on Washington pretty liberally, so thank you to the entire Internet for helping with this one. I also learned from this article that a) Washington did NOT have wooden teeth, which was personally disappointing to me; b) the famous I-cannot-tell-a-lie story is also bogus, which I don't care so much about; and c) he freed all his slaves upon his death.
This last is interesting for two reasons: one is that Washington was one of the wealthiest persons in the entire country when the Revolution started, and owned at least 100 slaves. It may just be my own predilection for hating rich people, but it's more impressive to me that a rich person put his personal wealth on the line to fight in a revolution, AND that this same person freed his slaves at the end of his life, which on the surface seems very altruistic. Washington was apparently edging toward being an abolitionist toward the end of his life.
On the other hand, it was also a somewhat political decision--due to slavery laws in Pennsylvania and other mid-Atlantic states, owning slaves was problematic from a purely profit-based standpoint for a figure in Washington's position, and his own slaves were getting older and thus more expensive to maintain. Ah, the problems of wealth!
Okay, I've smeared the guy enough already. He has a lot of favorable things, too--to me the best being his bravery and tenacity in the face of occasional shocking failures. To be so wealthy and to risk it all for your ideals is admirable. But to then do so again and again despite privations and misery is more heroic.
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