Footnote to ‘War In My Lifetime”

Footnote to ‘War In My Lifetime”

On Friday the 13th of March I wrote a piece ‘War In My Lifetime’ – I used this quote from George Washington;

“My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.” 

And at the time, I had a niggle. I even found myself after a search on Google typing in desperation – was George Washington was a good guy? We don’t study American slave history in school in Ireland. I’m not sure you do anywhere else either? Maybe this is why I couldn’t find that George Washington was not a good guy. Like all my writing, there were multiple meaning for me in the idea of banishing “this plague of mankind.” I was thinking about all our dysfunction we need to lose from society. Now perhaps I just have an even bigger statement of that intent. 

Naoisé 7th July 2020