Where are all the Statesmen? How to save America by "Finding Washington".

We keep coming back to this question. Where have all the great Statesmen gone? (Think George Washington) What does America need to rediscover the principles that made us great?

Richard Raines, a former elected County Board member during the Tea Party movement is here to share some wisdom, thoughts, and inspiration from his experience in politics, training in theology, and through the writing of his new book: Finding Washington: Why America Needs to Rediscover the Virtues of Her Most Essential Founding Father.

Guest Bio:
With all the social, moral, and ethical turmoil in this country, what can Americans learn from George Washington that will help restore the values we hold so dear? In Finding Washington: Why America Needs to Rediscover the Virtues of Her Most Essential Founding Father, Richard Raines masterfully examines George Washington's life by retelling familiar stories and introducing stories most have never heard. Richard uses these historical accounts to identify virtues displayed by the first president and, through the use of humor, personal anecdotes, and social commentary, walks the reader through ways to revive these virtues in contemporary society.

In Finding Washington you will discover

• how Washington's biggest failure can help modern Americans,

• how Washington's choice of clothing said more than words could ever say,

• why Native Americans issued a prophecy about Washington,

• why Washington's choice to race toward the British alone reveals the type of character needed in modern culture, and

• how Washington stared down a would-be assassin and how his example of courage can inspire us.

Finding Washington: Why America Needs to Rediscover the Virtues of Her Most Essential Founding Father is essential reading for those desiring to turn the rising tide of immorality in America and revive the virtues exhibited by George Washington. Readers will laugh, think, and be inspired as Richard invites you to join him and a growing chorus of like-minded people on this journey towards cultural change.

Save your kids from the government run indoctrination camps called public schools and get your kids into a good private Christian school or homeschool. To help out with making sure your kids know the truth about issues and ideas, check out the Tuttle Twins children's books and magazines!

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Transcript

Intro: 1:12

fighting back against the left's non stop attacks on liberty, freedom. And America, America. This is don't tread on liberty. Jason Davis is on the air. Hey, welcome back

Richard Raines: 1:30

to don't turn on liberty. Thanks for being here. Jason Davis back. And you may have seen one of my recent broadcasts was all about statesman and my latest blog as well. We're trying to find people that actually want to do the right thing and the right type of character to actually be in government. It's kind of hard to come by these days. So my guest today is kind of on the same wavelength. He actually went so far as to write a book about this. He's the author of the book finding Washington, why America needs to rediscover the virtues of her most essential founding father, Richard Reigns is here. Thank you for being here. How are you? Yeah. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. Of course, thanks for being had. That's what I always say. So it's pretty interesting. I can't wait to get to the book. George Washington is my favorite founder. I think by far the most courageous of all. But before we get to that you are a former loudness county board member. Back in the Tea Party days in 2011. That's right. Yeah. That is fascinating to me, for a couple of reasons. But first, tell me about that. Like what made you decide to run for the board? Yeah, so that's a great question. So it's, it's Loudoun County, Georgia, which is the sixth largest county in Georgia. It's in southern Georgia. If, if you've ever traveled through Georgia to Florida, you went right through Lowndes County, it's Valdosta, Georgia. So if you follow high school football, that's where the Valdosta wildcats are if you saw the Netflix show on the Valdosta Wildcats that's in Lowndes County, Georgia. So, but yeah, so this was in 2011. I was working as a pharmaceutical rep worked for a great company, a small Japanese company that gave us a lot of freedom to do a lot of things. And, you know, it's part of part of my faith is really a, you know, to be service oriented. And my wife and I discussed some ways that I could get involved and, you know, tell my wife, I said, you know, I think I'd like to run for office, which is, I don't mind telling you, and that is a scary thing to think about. Because there's one thing to talk about it with all your friends like, yeah, man, I should run but then to like, actually put your name out there, you're like, oh, my gosh, this is this is the most, this is the worst kind of popularity contest, right? Because it's, it's, you know, it's full contact. But so, um, I lived in district two, which is the northern end of the county, and we had a longtime Commissioner there, his name was Richard as well. And my wife called me one day I was in the car. I was traveling in South Georgia somewhere. And she called me and she said, Eric Dickey said, Vicki's not running for reelection for county commissioner. And so let's talk about when I get home, I didn't really need to talk about it, because we both are on the same page. And so in just a couple of days, I announced my candidacy to the newspaper. And the race was on it was an open seat, traditionally a Republican seat. And so there were five other Republicans that are four other Republicans that put their name in the hat. And really, I was really the only one that was affiliated with the Tea Party. Now 2011 Tea Party was a, you know, it was a concept, right? You had people that were going to rallies and things like that. And we had a very organized Tea Party, and allowance County. A couple the last name is Cox, co X, very, very active in the Republican Party, but really, we're heading up the Tea Party, there allowance County, and they really embraced me and allowed me to come in and there was so much Jason, there was so much. There's so many misconceptions about what the Tea Party was, it was so interested in me interesting to me when I was running all these people that were Republicans, you know, when it kind of became clear that I was the guy really wanted to meet one on one like, Okay, tell me about this, or are you crazy? I'm like, oh, man, it's just it's really a return to, you know, to the more essential Liberty values that that of course I still think defined the conservative movement. So you know, as I get older, I'm 51. Now as I get older, I less and less identify as a Republican and I'm more and more identify as a conservative because I do think there's a there's a difference in some places. There's not a big difference being away. So we all started running and I came in first place and in the Primary but didn't get 50% of the vote so had go to a run off one that and then ran against a very nice Democrat, she very popular. One of the nicest, kindest people I've ever met, she and I got along very well in the, in the campaign and but it was really, you just knew that it was going to be a Republican to win and I won pretty handily and, and served for four years, I made a promise when I was running not to serve more than one term. And so when my term was up, I said, you know, I'm not going to do this anymore. But I'll be honest with you, I wrote about it in the book a little bit, it was probably one of the it was for the most fulfilling years of my life, I've really enjoyed it having an opportunity to serve. I love serving with my other commissioners, not really wasn't really as political as you know, national politics are, you know, county commissioner is really a, you know, where the rubber meets the road, sort of. It's the essential government in almost every state like in Georgia, for instance. Every county has to have a commissioner state of cities can or cannot exist. There's no constitutional imperative for a city to exist, but there has to be a county. So the county government is really the central government. And in the state of Georgia, it's a state really is a state office. So as a county commissioner, it really the only elected official that supersedes a county commissioner would be the governor. But anyway, so a lot of zoning, a lot of planning a lot of roads and bridges, a lot of people calling us saying, hey, you know, my ditches need to be re dug or my dirt road, I can get down a dirt road. And you know, a lot of really digging into the local economy. I'll tell you one of the things I learned. And I, you know, I suspected this, but once you get into county government, you really realize that, you know, when I was growing up, if you want to be successful, you go to college, right? You graduate from high school, you go to college, you get a good job, and you become successful. And then I become a county commissioner, and I start getting involved with what it means to run a local economy. And if you gave me a choice of building a four year liberal arts university versus building a two year Technical College, I would vote for the technical college 100 out of 100 times, because people are making more money a lot sooner with a lot less debt. And that's what fuels the economy. So you know, things like that, that I was able to get involved with, is really a is a great experience for me. That's excellent. And so here's the question for you. What happened to the tea party? So I think the Tea Party was really a response to sort of the radical. So if you so let's just back up, right, let's back up to the 70s. You had Carter, who was a liberal, but a social liberal, sort of a social conservative, right. Just had horrible economic policy, tried it just just a bad president. Right. Followed by Reagan. Great President Bush, great president and then Clinton, who was socially very liberal, but the economy really boomed under Clinton, Clinton adopted, you know, what did what did he Indic mores call that? Well, Newt Gingrich was the Speaker of the House and they basically and they basically coerce Clinton into balancing the budget. Rochus something that has not been done since. Right. So then, so the next liberal, you know, the next liberal don't go into the White House was, was President Obama, who was in by every measurement radicalized when he was younger, you know, Saul Alinsky, they just II represented the most radical form of leftism. And it just I think it it just struck a chord with people that realize that not only were we seeing this radicalism on the left now in the White House, but you had this ineffectual Republican Party that seemed to be content to just be the party of opposition and not really get things done. And so I think the Tea Party was his way of resetting the narrative and saying that there is a there is another approach. Yeah, I totally agree with that assessment. I'm just wondering what happened to him. I mean, the situations that you described have not changed. In fact, they're way worse now than they were when Obama was in the White House. So that's a good question. And I don't I don't, I was, you know, I didn't really answer your question. I think what I was trying to say was, the Tea Party formed out of necessity or perceived necessity. And then when President Trump was elected, I think that the necessity appeared to maybe wane a little bit. But I think what happened instead was you know, President Trump's a pretty strong personality and there's a You know, there, there was a, you know, a cult like attachment to President Trump that that really drowned out any other voices. I think and that's not a criticism of President Trump. That's more of a criticism of how we respond to elected leaders. But I really think it was born out of necessity. And there was this, this feeling that okay, because listen, I mean, in the book, I say the reason I wrote the book had a lot to do with 2016 primary, and we can talk about that if you want. But, and I wasn't, you know, I wasn't during the primary. I wasn't. I didn't, I didn't support Donald Trump in the primaries, I supported other candidates. And so I wasn't excited when when candidate Trump was campaigning is a much better president than I thought he would be. That's for sure. But I wasn't very excited about him. But the excitement and the fervor about him, I think, really replaced the Tea Party forever. Am I? Yeah, I mean, that's definitely possible. It's funny, though, there was a big wave of these of these guys that were elected right into into US Congress. And today, there's only a handful of them that remain Rampaul, Mike Lee, maybe a couple others, and the rest of them are gone. So yeah, I just think it's very interesting that the whole movement just kind of fizzled out. So I think it's, if I just say this, one more thing about that. I don't think the ideology has fizzled out. I think that the the fervor for the protest arm of it, potentially has an essay protest in terms of going to rallies and having meetings and things like that. Because there's a lot of education that went along with the tea parties. Well, I learned a ton, about government going to these tea party meetings in Lowndes County. But so I don't think the ideology has waned. I think that there are some folks that are elected, you know, just listen, I've kind of checked out a little bit on politics. But there are some Republicans, newer Republicans that I think appear to, to model that ideology. Maybe Lauren bover. I don't know a lot about her. Maybe her maybe this isn't Myra Flores, the Mexican Americans was just elected, you know, fates, very important liberties, very important. So. So I think that there will always be a remnant of that ideology. But I don't think we'll see the fervor again until something bad happens, unfortunately. I don't know how it could get any worse than what it is right now. Even though I think they're planning much worse. Let's get to the book, finding, finding Washington. And as I mentioned, at the top of my programming here recently, it was all about finding statesmen. And I would say George Washington is the epitome of a statesman. Would you agree? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. So what caused you then to write this book? And how did you come to pick George Washington for the topic? Sure. So Well, first of all, that I've been a writer for several years, and my training is in theology. So I have a couple of master's degrees in theology, one in the history of Christianity and one in Christian theology and pursuing a PhD in theology. So So I've always done theological writing, I wrote a newspaper column for years, I've, you know, done some stuff for magazines, and I've always wanted to write a book, but I didn't want to just write a book. I wanted to have something to say. And so that was really interested in Washington. And a couple of things happened that really drove my interest a little higher. But as a as an evangelical Christian in the 220 16 election. You know, when the primaries ended, the Democrat and the Republican primaries ended. I looked at the candidates, and I was like, Okay, I feel like this is the worst presidential candidate of my lifetime and the second worst presidential candidate in my lifetime. Like, I've got a trader who, you know, who deleted emails and destroyed phones with a hammer, and then got a guy that I couldn't leave in the room alone. My daughter's right. So this was all the feelings I felt in 2016. And again, I think Trump was a better president than I thought he would be. But this is how I felt in 2016. I'm like, okay, here I am, and Evan Jellicle. Christian with nobody that really reflects my values. And I think we have a value problem. In this country, we have a virtue problem in this country, a lot of problems. But, you know, my two cents worth is that a lot of problems we have are related to our lack of virtue. So I started researching George Washington found out that there are 900 books in print today about George Washington. So for 24 hours, I was like, nope, not going to do that. But then I thought, You know what, I really don't see. I don't see people that address his virtue. So let's explore that. So I started reading it I gotta tell you, man, if I was a fan of George Washington when I started, like, I've been reading through the book a little bit getting ready for all these podcasts now that we've launched the book, and like today, I didn't, I had lunch by myself today, and I was reading through some of the parts of the book. And man almost started crying and grown man sitting in, you know, a hospital cafeteria, like, you know, about to start crying because of the things that he did and what he represented. And so. So as we go along in the book, what I do is I tell stories from George Washington's life, a lot of stories, even someone like me, that's a, even though I'm a Christian historian. There's a lot of inner, you know, intersection with American and world history. So I kind of get it right. And so even as someone who's, who's a historian, a lot of stories that I was not aware of that really highlighted things about him that man, you just don't, you just don't get in eighth grade civics. Right? And so, so I'll tell the stories, and then identify the virtues that he displayed in those moments. And then I'll make an argument for why we need to revive those virtues and how we can revive those virtues in our culture. So that's the book. Yeah, I totally agree. We have a big virtue problem. There's no doubt. Is that is that in essence, why you think there are so few statesmen today? Or is there some other reason why we don't have any statesmen? So it's, I think it is a multi symptomatic disease. But I think if we could focus on the big picture, let's take Bernie Sanders as an example. Like a self event. So I mean, so Bernie Sanders believes what he believes, right? I don't believe what he plays. Right? And, and here's a guy that the only thing he's ever done is, is his government. Right? That's really the only job he's ever had the Vinny substance. And this guy is a multimillionaire with huge houses. So I think that part of the problem is, man go into Congress's great work, if you can get it. That's why it's, you know, that's why it's such a such a contact sport to get there. Because these people go there. They're paid $175,000, plus some other expenses, housing expenses, and stuff like that, whether they're probably ends up being what to 25 to 50. That's a lot of money by any standards, when the median income is what 30 or 40, in this country, and then you serve for 16 years, and you come out and you're a millionaire. Like that. I think that's part of the problem. I think that there's the celebrity aspect takes away from it. But I think that the other aspect is it's, we are a vulgar, narcissistic society. And we are a society that, that if the, the, the most pressing concern is whatever my personal concern is, and there's very few people who, and I addressed servant leadership in this book, Washington was a servant leader. And he proved at Time and again, and so. So I think the lack of statesman has a lot to do with number one, the diminished importance of faith as a foundational aspect of our country, whether you are a Christian or not, this country was formed with a with a Christian virtue and a Christian world view. And so when you try to separate faith, so we're just a fake, right to make it simple for people that may not believe in Christianity. So if you try to remove faith from the American experiment, then you have separated in my opinion, one of the most important elements from that experience. And now what you're trying to do is you're trying to have America without maybe perhaps its most essential elements. So in the book, what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to say here are the elements that needs to be replaced. And the elements are integrity and character, which are two different things. conviction, servant leadership, courage, we talked about courage a lot. So I think that the absence of all of those things, is what has put us in a place where you and I have to think hard about who the state Smar t really quickly. As part of the book when I was writing it, I was writing about who influences us. I was trying to think about the kind of influence that that George Washington had. And so I'm like, I wonder who's influencing us? So I have five kids ask all my kids, broadly speaking, who influences you? So the answer came back, either nobody or you and mom. And then I think he's 18. Now my 18 year old son said, Dwayne Johnson, inspires me not inspires, because his work ethic, some like, Well, those are some sucky answers. So I texted 23 of my friends who inspires you Got one answer? My parents. So I hit the other 22 up and said, Hey, thanks for not answering me, who inspires you? And I got these texts back that said, Well, I don't really think about it. Nobody really inspires me. So I went to Twitter. And I paid $50 for a Twitter ad to say, text me back with who inspires you guess how many responses I got? If you guessed zero, you're absolutely right. So unlike we have a, we have a deficit of people that inspire us, except for celebrities. And God help us if if celebrities are the primary influences. And so we've lost that. I think some in our culture, where where we are. We're not inspired by anything. We're not inspired by others. My dad had no, like, my dad didn't care about politics at all. But he remembers when John F. Kennedy said, Let's go to the moon. He remembers that and my dad's been dead for several years. This is a story he told when I was growing up. My dad was like, man, when he said that, at school, the next day, we were all going to be astronauts, all of us, like we were ready. And I think about my life. I grew up in the 80s. And I'm telling you, man, when I think about it, now, I get to moms. I was sitting in my living room. I was 18 years old, watching MTV when MTV played music videos, and I watched the Berlin Wall, come down on MTV. And I remember Reagan even though that didn't happen under Reagan. You know, just what a year before that two years before that, he said, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. Like Reagan inspired me. You know, JFK inspired my dad, but now, who inspires you? I don't know. The guy that used to do fake wrestling. Yeah, that's, that's very interesting point. I'm, I'm very close to your age. And I can tell you when I was a kid, you know, my dad and some other people that were kind of father figures to me really did inspire me, but today. I don't think I could name one either. Yeah. And I'm there with you. I mean, I'm, I'm in that same boat. And I think part of the problem is, our lives are digitalized. Now we, you know, less interaction with people and more interaction with, you know, you know, people's highlight reel on social media, and I'm not a dog in social media. I'm not that guy. I'm not, you know, the old guy. You know, the new version of Get off my lawn is put your phone down. Right, but not that guy. But I do think that, that there's a personal element that we've lost. And we have to regain that and I discussing the book ways, I think we we can do that. Yeah, that's a good point, for sure. Now, you mentioned something a few minutes ago, and I want to go back to it. You were a professor of theology and church history. And you mentioned faith specifically. So I'll ask you, Professor. What role do you think the church is having all this? I mean, when I look back over the last two years I, I'm almost speechless. As to the response from churches. They allowed themselves to be shuttered. None of them. I mean, barring very few, I mean, there's Pastor John MacArthur and a few others actually fought back. But most of them did what they were told didn't say a word and are preaching fear instead of faith, what are your thoughts about that? So the church that I go to I live in Northeast Florida and a church I go to is in in Jacksonville, all the flux to Jacksonville during COVID. Our our response as a church during the quarantine was as long as as long as the laws of men don't, don't contradict what we perceive to be the the direct commandments of God will work around anything, which is what our church did, we beefed up our, you know, our online presence and things like that. And so in Florida, it was a little different in Florida. We didn't generally speaking, we didn't feel in Florida, like the government was trying to shut us down. Because you have a government with a brain there you have a governor that and you guys yeah, you haven't had the Santas yet. DeSantis is ours leave DeSantis alone. We get four more years with a guy. You can have him after that, but don't take our governor, you know, he's gonna run for president. Oh, yeah, you know he is oh, man, I hope so I think the guy has the Reagan potential but but then you have the People's Republic of California over there that already don't they don't want people meeting in churches anyway. So I think that it's the old boiling the frog analogy, right that you boil it a little bit of time, it doesn't know it's being boiled. And so I think that I think that what you have and again, this is multifaceted, just to make sure I answer your question. So I think there comes a time when the church has to push back against the government, but not push back in a way that it's not about pushing back for pushing back sake, it's not about saying, we're going to do whatever we're going to do. But it is about saying that religious liberty is a foundational concept. In our country. It is foundational. It's, it's, you know, the first amendment right First Amendment, the United States Constitution, right, like when we're thinking of amendments to the Constitution is the first right is not down at the bottom. And so I think that, that what churches do, they just, you know, it was part of hoping that this is just going to end soon, and we can avoid the conflict. Partly that and partly it's it's Christian leaders that that aren't strong enough to lead. And I think that the other part of it is, it just all happened. You know, if you remember, the joke was two weeks to slow the spread. Remember that sir, by thought was going to be over sooner. But I do think that there were two years into two weeks to slow the spread, right. Professor Van COVID, has been over in Florida since November of 2020. And that is the truth, man. Like, I interact with doctors all day long. And I wear a mask sometimes, you know, in the offices in the hospitals. I'm telling you, COVID has been over down here since November 2020. I went back to work in November 2020. But anyway, so I do think that the Christian church, in a couple of ways, has has some introspection that it has to do. So number one, I think that churches are really struggling to decide whether or not they want to pursue the kingdom of God, or whether they want to pursue the kingdom of men, meaning our church is going to be about politics, or our church is going to be about the gospel. And churches are really struggling to figure that out. And obviously, I hope that you can tell by, you know, the things I've said so far that the church is about the Kingdom of God, not politics. And so there's, in my opinion, there's really, there's, there's there's no way forward, but for churches to push back, especially against governments that are that are just out now. hostile towards Christianity, because listen, you know what they're not doing. They're not telling. They're not telling, you know, mosques that you have to close down, right? They're not saying to the Buddhists you can't meet in your temples, right? They're not saying they're just basically if you're a Jew or a Christian, you better not violate the law or wait your door down? Well, you might remember. Yeah, you might remember back in the presidential campaign. The George Floyd protests where they burned down a bunch of buildings and stuff and like police cars on fire. That was okay. But when you had a Trump rally, then that was a super spreader event. You remember that? Right? I do. And like it, I still struggle a little bit because I'm like, I just I don't. And I'm being genuine when I say this. I don't know. If it's just the worst kind of stupidity. Right, I'm serious. Is it? No, it's, is it the worst kind of stupidity or is it? Is it a strategy that they are employing within bingo? It's a strategy. It's all of this is completely intentional and out of bricks. All of this is completely intentional, everything, everything that's going on, it's all related. And it's all intentional. And I can prove it. I mean, look, I'm a trained investigator. I'm not an idiot. I know what's going on. But last, last question, because that's another topic for another day. But one, one question on Washington. Before we go. You talk in the book about Washington's biggest failure. What is that? So there's so we'll set slavery aside because I think that Washington failed himself, he felt his slaves and he felt the country as a slave owner and I can have a really extended conversation about slavery and I address it really. I address it really aggressively in the book because it's the title. I'll just give you a hint. The title of that chapter is baby and bathwater, right? Like he was, he was a slave owner, but you don't throw the baby out the bathwater. That's not how you're looking at history. Right? But But Washington's Washington's first, military engagement was a monumental failure. He started the French and Indian War he did. He's the one that that started that war. So he's put out into the, to the western frontier, which is basically Ohio at that point. And put over a fort Fort Necessity gets there, the forts run down the the managing Imran. And so, you know, he's trying to get the fort back into shape, trying to get supply goes out looking for the French and the Indians, and then can't get any of the Indians to help him. So he's like, look, we'll just fortify the fort. We'll wait here, and, and we'll crush the French and the Indians when they attack. So they attack, the guys not ready for it, he can believe that the French aren't marching out into open fields, like good civilized Europeans are supposed to do their shooting from behind the trees, it's raining, his powder is wet, and a third of his men are killed. So it's raining, the guns, the gunfire stops. And the French send a wet note that is is not well interpreted by Washington's interpreter. But it says basically, if you agree to leave, we'll let you leave, but don't come back. So Washington's like, Roger that. Right? And he takes off. So. So that failure, you had men that didn't go home to their wives, you had fathers and didn't go home their kid. It was a monumental failure. It was his first big assignment. But what that washed everything that happened to Washington and that failure he took with him to the Revolutionary War. And that surrender at Fort Necessity was the only time he surrendered in his entire military career. That was it. And for instance, he learned how to escape, like, into the rest of his time as a military official. When he engaged the enemy, he had an escape plan. And if you look at the history of the Revolutionary War, George Washington spent way more time running than he did fighting by basically he just ran around, you know, New England, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, running away from the British and then turn around fighting and running again. And so it was a huge failure. But what Washington did was he learned from that failure. And it wasn't too long after that, that Washington had an opportunity to redeem himself and the British come over to engage the French and the Indians. General Braddock is not happy with Washington basically stripped him of his authority and, and installed him as an aide de camp, which is a really fancy way of saying, Assistant. General Braddock doesn't take any Washington's advice. Washington says Braddock they're not don't you march these Redcoats through the woods because they're just gonna get picked off and brightest slide. Thanks for that. But I'm the you know, you're a columnist and I'm the British. I got it. Just stay back here with me. Well, Washington was correct. They start firing from the trees at Monongahela. The British start retreating. Braddock is shot almost immediately. He's dying. Washington is taking care of Braddock. Braddock looks around and doesn't see any other officer except Washington, who's technically in the militia, the Virginia militia, and says to Washington, I need you to order I need you to gather the troops and attack. And I'm telling you, the guy that almost died at Fort Necessity is not the guy that left Braddock side, and Monongahela which is where that battle was. So Washington, six foot two, the average person is five a Washington gets on a horse and fights from a horse for 12 hours. At the end of the battle. He's he's had three horses shot out from under him. He's on the fourth horse. And when he takes his coat off, he's got four bullet holes in his coat, eight foot off the ground, the tallest guy out there, everybody's shooting at him. And Washington leads a lead to a battle from the back of a horse where they drive the French back. Now the interesting thing about this is years later, after that battle after the French and Indian War is over, he's in Ohio with a friend of his looking at land that he's been granted as a part of that war. He was a military officer, so he had a land grant. He's checking it out. And an Iroquois Indian tribe, invites him to come to a meeting. We want to meet you. So he goes he sits down with them and all of these Iroquois chiefs said they were there at Monongahela. And all of them said they remember him because they all fired their weapons at him. And none of their weapons hit him and this is Liz To know what happened, this is fascinating to me. So they go back. And they tell their people about this white man, that was, that was head and shoulders above everyone else on a horse leading the enemy. And the religious leaders in the Iroquois tribe, issue a prophecy about George Washington. And they say in their prophecy that this man will be the father of a great nation, and will lead people. Now Washington never told anyone about that. But his friend that was with him, wrote it in his diary. And after Washington died, it became part of a play that was written about George Washington. But this guy went from almost getting all of his people killed, barely escaping to taking that lesson to Monongahela and becoming this superhuman hero. That sounds like is a fake story made up. But as far as I can tell, every source I checked, it's a true story about Washington. So yeah, totally fascinating in his life, and his story is really incredible. Oh, yeah. But yes, the book, Why America needs to rediscover the virtues of our most essential founding father finding Washington. It's available on Amazon, right? Right, Amazon, Barnes and Noble. If you like, iTunes, you can get the you can get the audiobook off of iTunes or Amazon so ebook. Paperback hardback? I would get the hardback, though, just FYI, to to your to your audience. I don't think it's a great value. I think it's overpriced. They don't let authors price it the publisher does. But um, but yeah, check it out. And my email, Richard at finding washington.com is all throughout the book, I want the readers to engage with me. Because what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to create a conversation, and I'm trying to affect change the best way I know how, and I know how to write books. So I'm writing a book. Well, we need some statements. So I think everybody everybody needs to read this book and learn about a good one. Richard reigns finding Washington everybody check it out. Thank you for being here. We appreciate your time. Yeah. Thanks for having me.

Intro: 38:28

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