TO: Randolph County Schools
~~~ Terry George - Superintendent
~~~ Terry George - Superintendent
~~~ Pam Hewitt - Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum/Technology/Instruction (CTI)
~~~ George Will
~~~ Sgt. Ron McCarthy, LAPD (Ret.)
Greetings:
As
a resident and taxpayer of Randolph County, I am concerned as to
whether or not the presidential farewell address of His Excellency: The
Most Honorable George Washington is being taught to our students. If
not, don't feel bad, it's not being taught to students in the affluent Montgomery County, Maryland --adjacent
to our national capital and supposedly the finest in the state where I
was enrolled prior to changing to private school-- either.
I will spare you the long story regarding the founding of my George Washington Farewell Address Revivification & Preservation Project but, if you click
here you will see that, not long after, I discovered and facilitated
the correction of the U.S. Senate's long-standing errors in its official
version of President Washington's final words the the American people
--and posterity-- on how best to govern our republic.
Now please, if I may, allow me to direct you to the U.S. Senate historian's page regarding that body's traditional reading of said address.
There you will see that, in 1962, The Honorable Jennings Randolph of
Elkins set a record for having taken his ever-loving time to verbalize
those immortal words left by our National Father because of His
Excellency's "solicitude for our welfare." I don't know who that hack,
Paula Hawkins, was but my hunch is, is that she must've been in a hurry
to get to some 5-star restaurant to meet with some corporate lobbyists over a $2500 lunch to discuss contributions for her upcoming campaign -- I don't know, only conjecture but, one thing's for sure, she obviously had no
reverence for it since the historian says that she "tore through the
text" in almost HALF the time Sen. Randolph took.
I am a D & E College alumnus and spent many, MANY hours in Jennings Randolph Hall
when it was the library and its namesake was still in office. If ONLY I
had known then what I know now. I would have been able to embark upon
my George Washington Farewell Address Revivification and Preservation
Project with his assistance and oversight and, chances are, our country
would a a LOT better off than
it is now.
The online, interactive exhibit of the Gilbert Stuart's masterpiece Lansdowne
portrait reveals it was intended to represent his delivering his
farewell address to the American people which, tragically, has been all
but forgotten by the vast majority of those who pose before the U.S. flag inside ornate buildings in the District of Columbia
and elsewhere [**that is, if was ever taught to them to begin with**]
Now,
I have no idea as to his state of mind at the time but, I am CERTAIN
that Sen. Randolph would have been HORRIFIED by the fact that on
19th September 1996, there was absolutely no recognition whatsoever on
the bicentennial anniversary of President Washington's immortal address
by either the U.S. Government or media. The Washington Post,
however, did have an article in their Home section about a replica barn then-recenly built at Mount Vernon. I later received a letter of apology from the chairman of the board.
This is especially tragic because, as The New York Times reported on its centenary commemoration, ``Dr. Thompson said that the farewell address had the moral force
of an amendment to the Constitution and it should constantly be read in our public schools."
The article also reported that, ``Dr.
White said that all good citizens are bound to recognize anew the debt
the country owes to its founder. A thousand years will not dim the
luster of the memory of George Washington."
Sadly it took less than a hundred.
In the course of writing this message, I found Sen. Randolph's obituary in The New York Times. Hence, I am compelled to share his
words; ''I
believe that our young people possess a great social conscience, are
perplexed by the injustices which exist in the world and are anxious to
rectify these ills."
With
that, is my most humble request that you bring before the board at the
next meeting not only the subject incorporating President Washington's
Farewell Address in the general curriculum of all grades but also
propose that a Jennings Randolph Memorial George Washington Farewell
Address Public Speaking Contest {to see if his record can be approached,
let alone broken} be initiated to promote civics and public speaking.
Such would be more than appropriate since he headed the Department of
Public Speaking and Journalism at D & E until his election to
Congress. I can think of no better way to honor the memory of both Sen.
Randolph and our National Father, can you? Of course, if any students,
faculty, and/or parents want to help me with my project I could use all
the help I can get because, at the moment, it is a one-man operation but
SOMEONE has to stand up and honor that great man and there is no way I
can back down from this effort.
Some years ago I hand-delivered to the local office of our state senator, Clark Barnes, this resolution I drafted
along with extensive supporting documentation. To my astonishment and
extreme disappointment, I received no response whatsoever for, as is
clearly evident, much of my time and effort was expended on researching
and preparing. In addition to our members of Congress, I am sharing this
with some media as well as law-enforcement veterans with whom I've
established contact and who are actively
involved in improving our social conditions and public policy.
I will leave you with these closing remarks; when I was a child, right around the same time I learned "ABC..." and "1+1=2," I was taught about a man who was:
What
about now? I'll tell you what about now; Nobody could be more relegated
to the Ash-Dump of history than His Excellency has been. The Shame
and Embarrassment from which I have been suffering as a U.S. Citizen since 19th September 1996 is up past my eyebrows and it has become unbearable. You know it is bad when Mount Vernon doesn't even recognize and celebrate the single most document to have come from his hand!
Thanking you in advance for your time and attention, I am
Sincere in commitment to this matter.
Wm. P. Perry
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