The New Founders

by Joseph F. Connor

  Jenson then moved onto more personal issues as he described the relationship he had with his father and how devastated Tim was by his death in 1975. Tim lightened the mood in the room by turning the conversation back to politics and his admiration for Ronald Reagan. President Reagan instilled confidence in the government and country and inspired Tim to write about conservative values and follow a career path in politics and public service. He ran for, and won, a seat in the Virginia Statehouse with the help of his wife, who unfortunately was killed shortly thereafter in a car accident. Dottie Murray, sitting to his right, put her hand on his shoulder and told him she was so sorry.

  Mr. Washington leaned back in his chair as the waiter delivered the beverages. He reached out for his beer and thanked Tim.

  “You have a lot of the same qualities as my friend and associate, Mr. Jefferson, especially the writing and the big ideas. Jefferson was a dreamer too, but he made his dreams come true. Thank you.”

  “Mr. Murray, what say you?”

  Jack Murray was less than excited to spill his guts in front of strangers, living or dead, but in the spirit of the day, he explained that he had a normal upbringing growing up in a large family, with nothing unusual to report and no life altering events. He was always a student of history, fashioning himself as a self-proclaimed expert on the Constitution. Contrary to his often dour appearance, he developed a reputation at Princeton as a practical joker. This defense mechanism helped him deal with the barbs directed his way because of his short stature.

  It was partly this unusual sense of humor that won over Dottie and helped him land the teaching position at the local high school. Not wanting to speak in front of his son, Jack also skipped over the fact that he adopted Todd as a stepchild. Mr. Washington showed interest in Murray’s life story, but wanted to go back to the subject of the Constitution.

  “My fine man, have you ever read the workings of John Locke or Edmund Burke?”

  Murray responded that he was a big fan of both and that they had influenced Madison.

  “They certainly did influence both Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison. Please continue.”

  Murray was also a political junkie who felt a need a need to serve his country in some fashion but was physically unable to join the military and didn’t see himself as the political type. For the time being, his job was to try to mold young minds in his high school classroom as well as on campus at James Madison University.

  Mr. Washington looked at him wide-eyed.

  “James Madison University? How appropriate. Tell me, how did you and Mr. Jenson become friends?”

  Tim and Jack looked at each other and shared a laugh. They explained that they had just met the day before through Jenson’s radio show essay contest. Mr. Washington could not believe it.

  “You are two peas in a pod. I find it hard to believe that you two gentlemen are not lifelong compatriots. Fascinating as I believe that each of you, one at a time, continue to fortify my belief that Providence brought us all together at this time for a reason. There is no doubt left in my mind of this fact.”

  As Mr. Washington spoke, the waiters entered the room with the main courses. The General stopped speaking as a waiter placed his coq au vin entrée in front of him. Mr. Washington took a deep breath, his olfactory senses enlightened by the pleasant aroma of the chef’s creation. He surveyed the table to make sure everybody had their dinner before digging in to his own.

  The next fifteen minutes were filled with small talk, most of it describing the gourmet dinners around the table. As George cut another piece of chicken, he looked up at Josh and asked him to tell the group a little bit about himself. Josh Anders relayed the fact that most of the group probably knew everything about him already, through his radio shows, his books, or the liberal media that loved to focus on him. Mr. Washington would not accept the answer.

  “Then Mr. Anders, tell us something that we do not know about you, something that we would not find in the daily gazette.”

  Anders told everybody that at age nine he and his older cousin, Steve, campaigned door-to-door for Nixon in the 1960 presidential election, a fact that was not well received in Kennedy’s home state. He also admitted that he wanted to drop out of Harvard to go to Vietnam, as he felt it was his duty as a citizen of the United States. He painfully explained that a lot of boys who worked at his father’s produce market in south Boston had their number called and served, many of which never returned. Anders noted that this was the origin of his steadfast support of the military and why, while working at a prestigious law firm in Boston after Harvard Law School, he joined the Army Reserves.

  He then told the story of being coaxed into stealing pieces of Bazooka bubble gum from a local delicatessen in Quincy by his deviant cousin. This evoked a roar of laughter from the audience, including Mr. Washington who added that Josh should beware as Steve was not there to defend himself and would most likely tell a different story. As the wait-staff reentered the room to begin clearing the dishes, Mr. Washington turned his attention to the youngest of the new founders.

  “Last, but certainly not least, I ask that Mr. Hahn tell us a little bit about himself. Mr. Hahn, you have the floor.”

  Anthony Hahn enjoyed his moments in the spotlight and jumped right into it by telling Mr. Washington that he was not born in this country. He explained that even though he was born in Christiansted, St. Croix, it was considered an American territory and that he was an American citizen.

  “No need to be defensive, Anthony, you are among your brothers. Continue, please.”

  Mr. Washington reassured Hahn that he could tell the group anything and that he would not judge what was already stated.

  Hahn loosened up and talked about his hometown, his job as an office clerk at the age of twelve at an import-export company, his mother’s untimely death that same year, and how the local townspeople took an interest in his education, pooling their money to send him to the United States for college. He spoke of his days at Columbia and his love of New York City, especially Manhattan.

  He described his internship and subsequent employment with The Bank of New York, initially in hedge fund finance, then in currency trading, where he currently worked. He talked fondly of his mentor at the bank, the former Marine who always looked out for him and once talked him out of joining the military. He then took on a serious tone when describing the effect that 9/11 had on his life, that with all of his financial success, he felt he needed to do something more with his life, maybe a higher calling that he had yet to find.

  “Tell us something about yourself that your friends may not know,” Mr. Washington asked Hahn. Anthony quickly responded that he hated Princeton University because they would not give him a full scholarship.

  Again, the room erupted into laughter, as Murray smiled and told the room that Princeton was his alma mater.

  Hahn’s smile turned serious as he addressed the table. “I thought I was going to die on September 11th, 2001. To this day, I still believe I should have died. I was not in the towers but I was in the shadow of the World Trade Center south tower when it collapsed. I had left my office and walked up Broadway to see what was going on after the second plane hit. I was standing there just like everybody else, hypnotized by the whole scene when the building started to fall. I turned and ran with the rest of the crowd. I ran back down Broadway, looking back as I did. I saw the dust cloud growing closer. As I got to Trinity Church, about five people were on the sidewalk taking pictures of the damn thing. So I ran into the courtyard of the church. When the cloud was on top of us, I dove on the grass and covered my head. I heard and felt debris falling around me.”

  Hahn’s account froze the room. Todd Murray looked scared while his mother’s eyes welled up with tears. Jenson and Murray were transfixed on him while Josh was rendered speechless. He had everybody’s full attention at that moment. Hahn swallowed and went on.

  “Everything went black, then grey. The roar of the building collapsing was followed by total silence.
I felt alone and thought I must have died. After a few minutes, I heard some people crying and shuffling around, and the air around me started to lighten. It was then I knew I was still alive. It was also when I realized I was among the tombstones in the church cemetery and the smell of death was in the air. Those guys with the cameras were on the ground too. It was hell on earth. Only I was living it.”

  Anders reminded Hahn that he and thousands of New Yorkers experienced something similar that morning. Hahn’s eyes were watery while he shared his experience. He asked the folks at the table if they knew anybody that died in the attack. Most shook their heads, while Anders mentioned that he was friends with Barbara Olsen, the political commentator, who was a passenger on one of the planes.

  “Well, one of my best friends was a bond trader at Cantor Fitzgerald. His name was Steve Schlag and he worked on the 101st floor of World Trade Center One. He never got out, left a wife and three beautiful kids.”

  Hahn’s voice tailed off as he was overcome with emotion. Mr. Washington decided to interrupt the 9/11 talk before it became the focus of the rest of the evening.

  “Gentlemen, and lady, I sit here before you, and for the last sixty minutes I have had the pleasure of learning a little bit about each of you, specific stories that open up a window on your souls and describe the kind of individual each one of you was, is, and will be in the future. And my confidence in each and every one of you has been rewarded in the fact that we found each other at this moment in history. I must reiterate, our fates are now intertwined and we must go forward, working toward the good of this great nation.”

  George now stood at the head of the table and again surveyed the room. He addressed the new founders.

  “I know I have your undivided attention. We do not know what fate has in store for us, but we do know that something extraordinary is occurring here. We can only imagine what grand plan Divine Providence will unveil to us. We each need to know that we are devoted to one another; that you are willing to give of yourself for the good of your country.”

  Murray looked around the table. Anders and Hahn nodded in agreement while Jenson looked unsure. Murray felt more like Jenson. He looked at Dottie, who seemed a bit horrified by George’s demand of personal devotion. Perhaps, Murray thought, this kind of talk was the norm in the eighteenth century. But in the twenty-first century it made him uneasy.

  “Mr. President, and I do believe I am speaking for everyone in the room. You are our leader and we will follow you to the ends of the earth. Tell us what you have in mind,” Anders predictably announced as he stood to make his point. The statement received mixed reviews from his new colleagues, something that was not lost on the father of the country as he looked for feedback.

  Mr. Washington gave one quick nod and sat down in his chair as the waiters commenced serving dessert and coffee. Anders followed his leader and sat down himself. George reached for his cup of black coffee and asked a question to anyone who could and would provide an answer.

  “Tomorrow is Sunday. I would like to attend church services first thing in the morning. Is there a church nearby where we can honor the Almighty Lord? I would be extremely grateful if you could join me.”

  Jack and Dottie paused and looked at each other. They had spoken before dinner and agreed that she and Todd needed to get an early start back to Virginia since Todd was starting baseball camp on Monday.

  She told the General that she had arranged a ride home with Skip Keaton before he went out to visit some friends in Georgetown. Keaton would be ready to leave with her and Todd at seven-thirty the following morning, but Jack would accompany him to church.

  Jack agreed it was the right thing for Dottie and Todd to head home. He figured he would be in DC a few more days before returning home to spend the rest of the summer vacation at the beach and watch Todd play shortstop. Before he knew it, school would be starting and it would be back to the grind.

  The General responded by saying that she and Todd would be missed, then shot a look in Jenson and Murray’s direction to check if they were planning on leaving too.

  With this settled, Jack responded, “Tim and I are in. We’ll find a way home eventually, but for now, you’ve got us, Mr. President.”

  Mr. Washington’s stern nod in agreement let everybody know that he would not have expected anything less.

  “How about the National Cathedral?”

  The belated answer came from Tim Jenson who had visited this house of worship on a previous occasion.

  Mr. Washington nodded in thanks as he tried his cheesecake. He had rejuvenated a regiment once again and he looked forward to a busy Sunday with his new cabinet.

  Chapter 13

  The sun, rising in the east over the US Capitol Building and the Washington Monument, shone its golden rays around the great obelisk and across the reflection pool as if to awaken the sixteenth president residing in his memorial.

  The white limo’s back driver side door swung open and out stepped an energized and purposeful General George Washington, followed one at a time by his new founders.

  Each looked around and enjoyed the warm sunshine of this July 5th morning. Always mindful of the weather, Jenson thought to himself that it would be a hot one again today. But the sun felt just right.

  Murray‘s exaltation was tempered by the fact that Dottie and Todd were on their way home. He knew they had to leave but was still saddened. Todd’s camp began the next day. As an incoming high school freshman, he had to be at camp if he had any chance to make the team. And Murray had planned to hang around the ball fields during summer practices.

  Now he felt selfish. He knew that Dottie would have liked to stay in the middle of all the excitement, but she also knew this was Jack’s calling. Plus, someone still needed to tend to the responsibilities at home. So Mrs. Murray, as was her way, put on a brave face, smiled, and headed home to do what was best for her son and her husband.

  Always effervescent, she still maintained a practical view of the world and an inner strength that came from life experiences. It was shortly after Todd’s birth when Dot found the small jagged looking mole on her first husband’s back. He was diagnosed with an aggressive melanoma and died only months later. She was devastated, but knew she had to be there to raise her son.

  Only a year later she met a man who she knew would take care of Todd and her. Jack Murray was a contradiction of a man in a lot of ways. Though he suffered from asthma, she met him while he jogged in the local park. She liked to relay the story that he was not actually jogging but more like frantically sucking on his inhaler when she stopped her walk with baby Todd. She had to make sure this man didn’t die right there in the park.

  Dottie instantly loved Jack. What first attracted her to him was his affection for Todd and her feeling that he could be a wonderful husband and terrific father to her toddler son. She fell deeply in love with the smallish, somewhat quirky, brilliant man. Dottie wanted to spend the rest of her life with Jack Murray. But his insecurities, especially the unfounded feelings that she was too good for him, continued to perplex her.

  She pondered these thoughts as she neared home. She had been away from her husband for less than an hour and missed him already. She wondered what he was doing at that precise moment.

  The new founders had just experienced simultaneous epiphanies during the 7:15am services at the National Cathedral. George had asked to begin his Sunday in church and the men could not think of a more appropriate place for George to worship than in the exquisite house of worship. Using the minister’s words as a vehicle, Providence found the men sitting quietly in the back of the old Cathedral.

  The nation’s recent birthday was the topic of the day’s sermon and, accordingly, the minister discussed how our country was founded on Judeo-Christian values, documented in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and Bill of Rights and reflected in the laws, customs, and mores of our everyday lives.

  She preached that the founders knew that our civil society would onl
y stand as long as the citizenry maintained such values. Without those values, our republican system would fail.

  The minister seemed to be looking directly at the five men as she began quoting the founders themselves.

  “John Adams wrote in the Massachusetts Bill of Rights that, ‘The happiness of a people and the good order and preservation of civil government essentially depend upon piety, religion, and morality.’”

  Josh Anders sat focused on the minister as she went on.

  “Adams believed, ‘One great advantage of the Christian religion is that it brings the great principle of the law of nature and nations; Love your neighbor as yourself, and do to others as you would that others should do to you, to the knowledge, belief and veneration of the whole people.’”

  Mr. Washington looked fondly at Anders and the rest of the men as the minister continued stressing that America had lost its way; the United States of America was accelerating down a slope away from the values that made it what it was.

  “We have allowed government to push itself into our lives and take responsibility for raising our children.”

  The minister continued, pointing to the recent examples of unwanted government intervention. She described agents, without parental consent, who confiscated school children’s brown bag lunches they deemed not in accordance with federal guidelines. She touched on the healthcare mandates, laws passed without being read by the lawmakers. She was in a controlled rant, railing how society had marginalized religious groups, language and icons in favor of secular symbols.

  The minister forcefully proclaimed that all of these godless policies must stop and be turned around immediately; that the country was in desperate need of a new leader, one who understood our country’s founding, one who was one with our people, one who would lead us back to the principles that brought us greatness.

  The four new founders were thunderstruck in their pews as the scattered congregation applauded. Each looked at the other, knowing that the minister addressed them and them alone. Each achieved inspiration as they focused on General Washington, his back straight, head slightly bowed, but eyes aimed forward in determination.