I missed it ... Washington's Birthday (among so many other things). Somehow, after the lumped-together holiday convenience of Presidents' Day and the weeklong flurry of Winter Fest — Newport's answer to school vacation week — Monday was just another Monday. But not at Rogers High School; they remembered Washington's Birthday, especially as Mayor Napolitano showed up for an assembly on the first-day-back-to-school-after-vacation to read aloud the letter Washington wrote to the congregation of Touro Synagogue way back in the unimaginable days of 1790. ("By George" was the headline of yesterday's Newport Daily News and the source of this/that info, to give credit where it's due.)
Frustrated that I'd missed it — it feels lousy to miss someone's birthday — I scurried down to Patriots' Park on the beautifully restored/enhanced campus of Touro Synagogue yesterday afternoon, just after I saw the headline, just as this crummy cold rain began, just as one of those cute Newport trolleys (rescued from the budget axe last summer) stopped at the adjacent stoplight. I found the bronze version of Washington's letter atop a granite dais, beside a vaguely historic-looking trash can ... lest someone wants to spit out his/her chewing gum before reading aloud??
Kidding (and all fond remembrance of high school) aside, it does something to see/read Washington's letter, to mouth the words, even to oneself, even if you/I feel like a nut showing up a day late, standing by a trash can, all alone, in the rain (in 2010!!). Really, the letter — and the oft-missed notion of Newport, at the outset, on top of everything else including all manner of fortuitous geography and agricultural richness and general loveliness, as a critical seat/site of religious freedom and tolerance — speaks volumes. If you don't believe me, click to enlarge (below, if the type is too small) and take in each and every word, especially the last bit about the vine and fig tree ...
Isn't that what it's all about?? And, yes, of course, "Washington slept here" — as he did every night, somewhere. In Newport's case, it was at Vernon House (a.k.a. Rochambeau's Headquarters) on Clarke Street ... or so we're told ... so I hear ...
