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February 13, 2012
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Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
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Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
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Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
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Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
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Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
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Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
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January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
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January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
Feb. 22, 2007
/ 4 Adar, 5767
The sound of distant music
By
Paul Greenberg
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
On this his actual birthday, George Washington remains the most admired but remote of American presidents, more portrait than person. Maybe because he intended it that way. Nobody would ever have described the country's first president as chummy.
Throughout his life and career, Washington was set on independence. Independence first for himself as a young man, and then, as a general and statesman, for his country.
To him, independence never meant indulgence. Quite the opposite. It meant certain qualities a struggling new republic in an age of monarchies would need in its leader: dignity, decorum and, yes, a proper distance.
The father of his country understood both the promise and the dangers all republics faced, and that most had succumbed to. But this republic would usher in a New Order of the Ages, just as it still says on the dollar bill.
Washington did not propose to fulfill so audacious an agenda by appearing audacious. He would be neither courtier nor demagogue. Rather, he would be the first citizen of the first republic to endure. No small ambition, for himself or for his country.
George Washington dared not forget what he represented. He represented America, and the American Idea that liberty and authority, freedom and order, could be one.
At the end of the 18th century, such a notion was sufficient to inspire snickers from tories of every nationality: Even if this colonial rabble managed to win a brief independence, they told one another, just imagine it trying to govern itself! Republics, they knew, never last.
There was reason, even necessity, for Washington's reserve for his insistence on the formalities and courtesies, on the powdered wig and dress sword, on the proper ceremonies and correct form of address. He had his and the republic's dignity to consider, and at the time they were much the same thing.
Washington set out to prove that a republic could do more than prevail in war that it could prosper in peace. How did he manage it? How did he carry off this bold experiment as if it were a formal ritual?
The clearest and most eloquent explanation may lie not in scholarly analyses, or in Washington's own weighty prose, but in the music of his time:
Listen to Haydn and hear the contest between theme and counter-theme, the folk melodies that are given free play but not enough to overpower the final triumph of decorum.
Listen to Mozart and hear the stately minuet transformed into a free, lively rondo, then brought back again to balance and moderation after some of the most unlikely yet, once heard, most predictable of steps. Mystery is turned into symmetry. So with Washington's leadership.
George Washington would lead a revolution and, once in authority, put down a mutiny.
He would prosecute a war for independence, and later declare neutrality for the same purpose.
He would preside over the creation of a new, highly complex and most uncertain constitutional scheme full of verbal artifice without saying a word.
He would put down a serious insurrection the Whisky Rebellion of 1794 without offering a single conciliatory gesture, and then pardon all the guilty.
As president he would listen to equal but opposite counsel, each presented forcefully and articulately, and make his decision. Then he would sincerely implore the adviser whose advice he regularly rejected, Mr. Jefferson, to remain in his cabinet.
Washington's now distant music is really a familiar 18th-century medley, a working out of old and new into a blend that is balanced, stable, temperate, yet ever new. Washington's policies may have changed from time to time, but never his vision of what a republic could be.
If this is a young country, it is among the oldest of living republics. The French are now on their fifth republic, but who counts? Meanwhile, the first and only American republic marches along toward its tricentennial.
What is the key to the remarkable longevity of this American experiment? The answer to that question may lie in its spirit, the well-modulated spirit of Washington. His is still a standard to which, in his phrase, the wise and honest may repair.
In this mass democracy that the republic has become, dignity and decorum now have only an antique appeal. They are scarcely recognized as what they are: guarantees of freedom's permanence.
In a perceptive essay, the historian Edmund S. Morgan pointed out the two guiding themes in Washington's politics: interest and honor. The old general understood that republics must appeal to both if they are to endure.
It is clear enough that politicians still know how to appeal to our interests; there are times when they appeal to nothing else. Let us encourage our leaders to appeal to our honor, too.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Paul Greenberg, editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, has won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Send your comments by clicking here.
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© 2006 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
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