A True Leader
Rockefellers, Williamsburg, Douglas McArthur, and Hulk Hogan
Last month our family vacationed in the Williamsburg, Virginia area. We took the kids to the Williamsburg park where the people adopt the personae of people from Revolutionary times. We had hot chocolate with Martha Washington, heard a speech from John Hancock, and were able to ask lively questions of the jail attendant charged with hanging miscreants.
Williamsburg exists today because John Rockefeller, Jr. decided to spend his life giving away the fortune his father had amassed. He was unsuccessful because the investment value of a large fortune eclipsed his ability to give it away philanthropically, but he succeeded in transforming the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. How?
In the 1930s, Junior saw that the Depression was on the move and wasn’t getting better. He saw that the situation was dire for people who wanted to work, who didn’t want to live on a handout. He knew that work gives dignity, and so he didn’t give away mass sums of money for direct assistance. Rather, he declared war on the Depression by creating massive public works projects. Construction on Rockefeller Center in Manhattan began in 1931, revitalizing 22 acres of land in the heart of Manhattan, employing 10s of thousands, and creating a national landmark.
The reservation and preservation of Williamsburg started soon thereafter and opened to the public in 1935. Without this project, many of the physical remains of colonial life in the capital of colonial Virginia would have been lost to the ravages of time.
The visit occasioned a wide-ranging discussion among the kids, and the adults, as to what positions we might have held at the time of the Revolution. Would we have been Tories, siding with the British establishment to keep the Colonies in the Empire? Would we have fought for Independence with the peril that implied? The kids were sure that we would have joined the Continental Army and helped throw the yoke of colonial government off to be a free people.
We also toured the Yorktown battlefield where we imagined Alexander Hamilton crawling, belly to the earth, without a load musket, to overrun a redoubt and claim victory over Cornwallis the next day. Yorktown is an embarrassment … the house where Cornwallis negotiated the surrender is in severe decay. Private foundations can revitalize and reconcile Williamsburg on an impressive scale but the Department of the Interior can’t plug a hole and treat for termites. But we have $140b for other countries’ war efforts.
“He who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.”
— Seneca
We also drove up the coast to Norfolk to visit the tomb of Douglas McArthur, one of the greatest Americans ever to draw breath. At the height of his power, McArthur ruled over more than 70 million souls as he served as the Supreme Command for the Allied Powers in the Pacific. He had overseen the largest surrender in American history, and plotted a brilliant reclamation campaign that is still studied at West Point today as a model of military strategic mastery.
Speaking of West Point, McArthur was invited to be buried on the campus, his Alma Mater where he received the highest marks ever recorded by a cadet. He enthusiastically set about designing his memorial but then discovered that his former Aide-de-Camp, Eisenhower would be given a more prestigious site with more honors on campus for his own tomb. McArthur couldn’t handle that and so withdrew his plans and relocated his tomb to Norfolk, Virginia … a place he had never lived but where his mother had been born.
The site sits in the middle of the downtown area, occupying the site for a former courthouse. It’s hard to find, off the beaten path, thinly attended and poorly supplied with artifacts and narrative. But its an important place. McArthur lived a singular life, hewed out of the mountain of life by sheer will, intelligence and hard work … and an increasing number of Americans have never heard of him. His insistence of not being upstaged by Eisenhower ultimately ensured that he’d be upstaged by Eisenhower forever. The irony of ego.
One of our faithful readers sent over a wonderful gift last month as a thank-you for the information in the newsletter. While not a requirement, I want to encourage my readers to shower me with gifts at every opportunity! Ha!
I look forward to leading the fictionalized account of the Civil Rights Movement in the Deep South. Thanks Alisdair Roe for the gift!
Last year I was supposed to share a stage with Hulk Hogan at the only Mastermind I attend. Hurricane Michael had other plans for that week, though, and we’ve had to reschedule the event. It’s rescheduled and I’m looking forward to meeting the Hulkster and sharing a message with the attendees.