In honor of a conversation that I had with Richard V. Battle in the most recent broadcast of Tapp into the Truth, please enjoy.
A Nation’s Debt: For Washington Alone
He did not chase a crown, though victory
Lay open as a door no man could bar.
When power knelt and begged to call him king,
He turned away and refused to be an American Czar.
A farmer first, who knew the weight of earth,
Who measured time by seasons, not by reigns,
He bore the long disgust of endless winters,
The mutinies, the bankrupt empty trains.
Yet never once did grievance twist his tongue
To curse the Congress or the shivering men.
He held the fragile dream between his palms
And would not let it break, though none knew when
The sun would rise on liberty again.
He crossed the Delaware through ice and night,
Not for his glory, but because no other
Would lead when every candle lost its light.
He forged a republic from a rabble host,
Then laid the sword aside and began a better day—
The first man in all history to prove
That power can be given, not just taken away.
We bundle him with Lincoln, blend the two,
Presidents’ Day, a single polite nod.
But Washington was origin, the root,
The first refusal of the tyrant’s rod.
Let Presidents’ Day honor every name
Who wore the burden of the highest chair.
But give him back his morning, cold and bright—
February twenty-second, standing there
Alone, as he stood once at Valley Forge,
Alone, as he stood when the British sailed,
A solitary figure on the hill
Who chose the harder path and never failed.
One day, one man, one debt we have not paid.
Let the birthday of the man who made us free
Rise separate and solemn once again—
George Washington deserves his own decree.
A nation that forgets its first true father
Forgets the very reason it began.
Give him his day, and let the children learn:
Here stood the citizen who showed us how to be a great man.
