On George Washington

"It is now no more
that toleration is spoken of,
as if was by the indulgence of one class of people,
that another enjoyed the exercise
of their inherent natural rights."

-- George Washington, letter to the Hebrew congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, USA.

Where do people find these gems? Eve Sugar, a syndicated columnist, reported this one. I had to read it over several times before I could comprehend, through the archaic syntax, what he meant.

In the young nation of which he spoke, Washington was confident that a new day had dawned, that people now recognized that others had a natural, irrevocable right to think, worship or simply be different. Not by the whims or sufferance of one group did another hope for tolerance, ever fearing a revocation of some Edict of Nantes-like situation.

There have been great statesmen and states-Women in world history -- Churchill, Bolivar, Gandhi, Nagy Imre, Lech Walesa, etc. -- but I have yet to find any who rivaled this man Washington in their absolute indifference to power and their greatness of soul.

And this is all I can blog until tonight, for I have a huge project at work today.