Banks and Uncle Sam

Working my way through The Christian Almanac, today's accounts included a tidbit from 1788:

At an interest rate of 6 percent from the Bank of New York and the Bank of North America, the United States took out its first loan. The money went to pay the salaries of the president and members of Congress (p. 540).

It didn't take long did it?

228 Years Before 9.11.01

On September 11, 1773, Benjamin Franklin penned, "There was never a good war or a bad peace." (Source: The Christian Almanac by George Grant & Gregory Wilbur)

Guess Who?

You might want to take a look at George Grant's September 9 blog posting at Grantian Florilegium.

Of course, time will tell if there will be any other similarities.

Booker T. Washington

As I get older, I'm gaining a greater appreciation for and interest in history, particularly that bit that took place during the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. Some of the appreciation centers around three legendary figures--Eric Liddell, about whom the movie Chariots of Fire is largely centered, Teddy Roosevelt, the president, scholar and adventurer, and Booker T. Washington, who founded Tuskegee Institute and was a great civil rights leader for all Americans.

Bookert T. Washington was born on this day in 1856 and died in 1915. So far, I've read three biographical-related books about him and recommend all of them highly: Up from Slavery, his autobiography, Booker T. Washington and the Adult Education Movement by Virginia Lantz Denton, and Then Darkness Fled: The Liberating Wisdom of Booker T. Washington by Stephen Mansfield.

Recently, I discovered two interesting but different websites that include his namesake: Booker T. Washington Society and Booker T. Washington Inspirational Network. I also keep a link to both of these under the "News, Interests, & More" section of this blog site.

Our education systems could learn a lot from his whole-person (head, hands and heart) approach to learning.