by Patrick J. Buchanan – December 15, 1997

“First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen” was the tribute of “Light-Horse Harry” Lee on the death of his old chief, the greatest American of his age, George Washington.

Two centuries later, the father of his country has become an embarrassment to some of his countrymen and his name an epithet. In New Orleans, the name George Washington has been stripped from an elementary school under a school board policy that prohibits the honoring of “former slave owners or others who did not respect equal opportunity for all.” Twenty-two schools have undergone name changes to erase the memory of slaveholding governors, segregationists and Confederate icons like Robert E. Lee.