The last words of George Washington:
"...the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another...It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another."
"Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice?"
"...cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible; avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace...avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt....it is essential that you...bear in mind, that towards the payments of debts there must be Revenue, that to have Revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised, which are not...inconvenient and unpleasant..."
"It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world..."
"...avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty."
looks like we've done nothing that he would have wanted. I find hope in the wise words of Michelle MacKay (Kathryn Erbe) who said in D2: The Mighty Ducks, "that compared to other countries, America is still young, still forming its own identity. America is a teenager just like you... A little awkward at times, but always right there on the verge of greatness."So maybe we'll grow out of it. Mature a little bit, realize that our parents were actually right.
