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As I noted in July, the support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.

 

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A thumbnail bio of George Washington

An evening pause: This day, February 22nd and the birthday of George Washington, was once celebrated yearly by Americans to honor the leader of the American army in the Revolutionary War, the leader in the effort to write the Constitution, and the country’s first president who had the humbleness to step down after two terms in office.

Congress in 1971 turned that celebration into the empty “Presidents Day” holiday, that means nothing and devalues the profound importance of Washington, especially when compared to the generally mediocre individuals — with the except possibly of Lincoln alone — who followed him in that office.

I choose to celebrate Washington instead, on this the actual anniversary of this birth. The video below is a short but succinct and accurate outline of his life. It only touches the surface of the man’s unfathomable importance to American history, but it is start.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

6 comments

  • Cotour

    Excellent choice and point.

    Really the first and only iconic choice, he got what America was uniquely all about. And in the second spot its certainly Lincoln, another man of consequence.

    And the debate can go on as to who might populate the rest of the list and what position they might fill. If you understand the man and his challenges and accomplishments and where he came from then you understand what America is about.

    And that is why that rich and weighty consequential history must be disgraced and erased by a political faction in today’s world.

    Time has passed but human nature and the battle for what George Washington lived and fought for has not.

  • Andi

    Interesting bit of trivia: when George Washington was born, the calendar read “February 11, 1731”, because at that time England and its colonies were still using the Julian calendar. In the early 1750s, they (1) adopted the Gregorian calendar, and (2) moved the New Year from March to January.

    I got mad at Congress when they “Mondayified” George Washingon’s birthday, particularly since “Presidents’ Day” can never occur on February 22!

  • Cotour

    More validation of the concepts contained in Strategy Over Morality:

    https://townhall.com/columnists/wayneallynroot/2021/09/05/the-government-and-cdc-are-lying-about-covid19-vaccine-and-ivermectin-the-question-is-why-n2595312

    From S.O.M: “ALL forms of governance and government, whether it be a King or a Congress, no matter where on the planet or in what ever particular time in history it exists accomplishes one thing, the abuse of power. Its just a matter of to what degree. “Government” serves as a necessary organizational and management structure in order that human beings live in a somewhat stable and successful society model.

    Government is necessary, it serves an essential purpose, BUT, it is a necessary evil. And this fundamental expression of human nature and its potential, the abuse of power, very well understood by the Founders, lies at the core of the American Constitution in an attempt to counter balance that nature.” jgl 3/11/21

    “CONCLUSION: The public lives and operates under a subjective moral code or within a “Pedestrian Realm” perspective which they assume their leadership which exists within the “Political Realm” is constrained by. This is a subjective false perspective conclusion on the part of the public. Leadership at its existential core is not about morality, truth and honesty. Leadership is about the fundamental exercise of power and “its” survival. ”

    George this understood well.

  • Dubious

    I’m old, but at the time I remember reading the idea was to combine Washington’s and Lincoln’s Days and move the result to Monday because it’s what the government employees’ union wanted (thank you, JFK). It was to be the February federal holiday. Federal employees for some reason deserve a federal holiday every month.

  • pzatchok

    Washington was the perfect military leader we needed and the perfect first president.

    At the time Europe expected him to declare himself King. And he could have,the colonies would have accepted that to get rid of English rule.
    But he was elected president and when he felt it was the right time he stepped down. He could have been elected President until he died. But he set the president for a peaceful change of leadership.

    One of the odd things about him was that he never fathered a child. Europe expected him to have a child and declare a monarchy. If he did have a son he could have been elected also. But Washington could not father children.

    He was the perfect first President for the new government.

  • James Street

    Full 90 minute movie “The Crossing”, a dramatization of George Washington’s Christmas 1776 crossing of the Delaware River and attacking the Hessian forces at Trenton. Starring Jeff Daniels as George Washington.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jgEMrK1lcM

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