George Washington's Birthday


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THIS IS A READ-ONLY ARCHIVE FROM THE SORABJI.COM MESSAGE BOARDS (1995-2016).

By Martha on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 12:19 pm:


By Osiris on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 12:19 pm:

    what has happened


By semillama on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 12:32 pm:

    "By March 1797, when Washington left office, the country's financial system was well established; the Indian threat east of the Mississippi had been largely eliminated;"

    I guess that's ONE way to put it. It might be more truthful and less racist to pluralize "Indian" and remove the word "threat" however.


By Indignant Buffalo on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 01:09 pm:

    Yeah you right.
    Putting a bounty on the buffalo (a noble animal) to starve the Indians out. Dammit dammit dammit.

    If I were in the Indians position I wouldn't have settled for a treaty, I would have moved West where the land was still free and unfenced.
    Probably didn't have much of a choice.


By Rantings on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 02:33 pm:

    Certain people offered George Washington presidency for life and the same set-up that King George in England had.
    However since he had no heirs and Martha Washington was beyond the age of child bearing, there was no possibility of dynasty building.
    Nor was there any "Prince of Wales" or heir apparent who was chomping at the bit to take over.
    Since our founding father had no children of his own he was not distracted by family matters in his roll of Father of Our Country.
    Therefore he is father to all of us so to speak. That is the only reason we don't have a heredetary monarchy.

    (you can't read his mind but if George Washington had had a son then he would've been tempted and his son would have probably been harping him. . . there was no political resistance to have set up this country as a constitutional/heredetary/monarchy modeled on the English political system at at time.

    But the U. S. wanted to be independent at the time. They had just fought a war to expel the English colonizers.


    If he had had a son waiting to live in his father's reflected glory then that person most likely would have had an entourage, a cult of personality and everything warped that comes from such a situation. (i.e. having been taken into custody for d.w.i. he had the gall to tell the American people 2 days before the election that he had never been arrested. He was just detained and taken to the police headquartes. What do you call it when that happens? was he free to go? i believe the term that most people would use is "arrested." But dubbya, his daddy was Vice-President, he, George the second, was not subject to arrest like the rest of us everyday people, in dubbyas's mind i'm sure he believed he had never been arrested)


    George Washington wanted to to turn things over to a constitutional convention, the fruits of which we are now living in spite of the continuing oppression of our country by the Bush Dynasty. Where is our non-heredetary executive leadership?


By semillama on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 03:27 pm:

    What are you talking about, buffalo? There hardly any bison east of the Mississippi even before 1492, the bounty on bison occurred in the late 19th century, and the West was hardly free and open - it was the location of numerous other Native American tribes. Who would have resented and probably resisited any newcoming indian tribes themselves.


By jack on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 04:59 pm:

    hey! hey!
    why let facts get in the way of a lively discussion?

    that would be positively undemocratic.


By semillama on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 05:34 pm:

    Gimp, don't come in here babbling like you had a mouth full of depends and a clue in your head.








    that's a joke, son.


By Indignant Buffalo on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 06:07 pm:

    I didn't say that to defend the imperialist position.

    The elimination of the Native Americans has been a long term continual process. They were the lowest people on the totem pole, lower than slaves.

    If anybody had _any_ doubts about my position regarding the holocaustic ethnic cleansing that has been continuing in America up until this very day to cheat the natives, offer them treaties that were worthless and basically reduce them to shuck and jive characters in Wild Bill's Travelling Show . . . now casino owners then re-read this sentence then try to connect the dots in this stream of rantiousness.

    Their way of life was in no way respected.
    Their burial mounds were not relocated and could not be (according to their beliefs.) Their position is unfortunately so very analagous to that of the Palestinians in "Greater Israel" that it's no wonder that the Vatican Secretary of State frequently quotes an Arab diplomat's warning about the destabilizing effect of the removal of Mr. Hussein: "If this attack takes place it will cause the gates of hell to open."

    Please pardon my lack of exact details regarding the displacement of Native Americans. Someday I'll get my very own copy of Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present"


By I. B. on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 06:10 pm:

    Sorry Foghorn, I was just getting rantbunctious.

    brrfrhrr


By semillama on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 07:07 pm:

    "Their burial mounds were not relocated and could not be (according to their beliefs.)"

    Not all indians used burial mounds. Not all indians believed that you could not relocate them. And as far as relocating them go, there's a little piece of legislation called the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. Get your facts straight. Native Americans aren't a monolithic group of victims to wring out the soggy rag of liberal guilt over.


By eri on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 11:18 pm:

    I really don't know much about indians. Not much outside of what they teach in school or show in movies, which is all crap, I am sure.

    I am still trying to find out about my roots as one, though my blood line is too thin to probably be accepted by them. It goes back 5 generations I think. They were from the Blackfoot tribe in Canada somewhere but that is all I know.

    I do know that the Americans did try to get rid of them, and they taught that they were hostile (which I doubt to a point).

    I also know that they were here before we were and deserve some more rights than what they have got.

    I know that my best friend from high school is enough of a native indian to qualify for all of the things we have "given" to them, but can't receive them because her birth mother was forced to sign away her (my best friends) rights to them when she gave her up for adoption.

    The whole system is fucked up. That's what I really know. I also know that I don't have the answers.

    I am going to shut up now


By EL on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 10:56 am:

    I asked why yesterday was called "Presidents Day"

    he answered:

    If this webpage is correct, George Washington's birthday was Feb. 22, 1732. President's day is on Feb. 17. Lincoln's birthday was on Feb. 12.
    http://sc94.ameslab.gov/TOUR/gwash.html

    It is my understanding that historically, United States americans used to celebrate both birthdays, but after many hangovers, decided to group them all into a single day.

    "Washington refused to run for a third term and, after a masterly Farewell Address in which he warned the United States against permanent alliances abroad..."

    If George Washington was alive today, he would not at all recognize the government that he struggled to forge.

    Politicians often adulate such men in public to gain popular favor, meanwhile conspiring and legislating against such men's philosophies behind closed doors.

    The true nature of a politician has not at all changed in over 2300 years, they are the most shallow of all professions and simply will never learn.

    Tyranny:
    . the office, authority, government, or jurisdiction of a tyrant or absolute ruler.
    . an oppressive and unjust government; despotism.
    . very cruel and unjust use of power or authority.

    Despotism:
    . in philosophy, a government, political system, or state dominated by a despot; autocracy.

    Autocracy:
    . supreme, uncontrolled, unlimited authority or right of governing, held by one or a few persons; dictatorship; despotism.

    Autocrat:
    . one who is invested with or assumes absolute independent power or unlimited authority in any relation.

    "Such is the despotism of the imagination over uncultivated minds." - Mascaulay


By patrick on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 11:57 am:

    fuck your roots.


    you are as good as yesterday.


By patrick on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 02:55 pm:

    see, right about now id want that delete option.


By wisper on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 05:59 pm:

    it's better this way, baby.

    lol


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