During the recent presidential campaign, I frequently wore a button that said “George Washington for President”. I picked it up when I visited Mount Vernon last summer with the Teaching American History group. I thought it would be a fun conversation piece with my students, especially since I couldn’t (and wouldn’t want to, really) share my own political views with my class.
As the campaign continued, though, I came to the conclusion that we really DID need George Washington to step in and run. Now I think so more than ever. I am certainly not any kind of knowledgeable about all things political. I certainly don’t think I know how to fix the problems that are facing our country as 2013 begins. I don’t know how to fix the economy or the job market. I don’t know how to stop crazies from killing babies at school. Honestly, it isn’t my intent to make this blog political.
But this I do know:
When Washington and the rest of the Framers of our Constitution got together in 1787 to create a new country, they did a lot of arguing and dealing. They did it in secret, though, with the understanding that once they presented the Constitution to the people, they wanted to be a united and decisive front. They were wise enough to know that what they said at the Constitutional Convention while creating a solution would be better left out of the debate over the Constitution’s ratification. Perhaps our current lawmakers should take a lesson from this, lock themselves in a room and become honorable persons of action as opposed to whatever it is they are right now.
The cliff we are standing on (or have just sort of slipped over, kinda) as a country has as much to do with honor and decency as it does fiscal responsibility and economics. In all my American History geek studies, I have had a hard time liking George Washington as a person. He seems aloof, arogant and cold to me when I read about him. Even so, he led this country to victory over the most powerful army and navy in the world at the time – to stand up for freedom and liberty from the oppression of the selfishness that was England. He is the only president ever elected unanimously, and he did it twice. He served his country as president reluctantly. He really wanted to retire and go home to Mount Vernon, but agreed to be the first president because he knew it was the right thing to do for America.
I’d love to see the sound bites and insults between opposing factions become secrets not devulged. I’d like to see men and women of integrity choosing to do the right thing for our country, not for themselves.
Ben Franklin said,”We must hang together, gentlemen…else, we shall most assurely hang separately.” He was talking about being united in the cause against England, because if they failed, they could be hung as traitors to the King. I’m thinking we are all standing together at the edge. I can’t help but think Franklin and Washington would be encouraging us to bridge the chasm instead of jumping into it.
