The Fruits of Procrastination
We all have our talents in this world, one of mine is procrastinating. I’m in the black-belt league. It was already an hour past my scheduled time to start a twelve page paper which is due on Monday, when I found myself feverishly typing an email to a friend of the top 10 "Most Influential Americans in History" according to this month’s Atlantic Monthly. It seemed very important at the time.
Several historians including Doris Kerns Goodwin, Walter McDougal, & D. Kennedy came up with their own list of the top 100, and The Atlantic meshed them together. Enjoy. I need to get back to sharpening all my pencils. I wonder if any of these guys ever procrastinated?
1. Abraham Lincoln: He saved the Union, freed the slaves, and presided over America’s second founding.
2. George Washington: He made the United States possible — not only by defeating a king, but by declining to become one himself.
3. Thomas Jefferson: The author of the five most important wordds in American history: "All men are created equal."
4. Franklin Delano Rooselvelt: He said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," and then he proved it.
5. Alexander Hamilton: Soldier, banker, and political scientist, he set in motion an agrarian nation’s’ transformation into an industrial power.
6. Benjamin Franklin: The Founder-of-all-trades — scientist, printer, writer, diplomat, inventor, and more; like his country, he contained multitudes.
7. John Marshall: The defining chief justice, he established the Supreme Court as the equal of teh other two federal branches.
8. Martin Luther King: His dream of racial equality is still elusive, but no one did more to make it real.
9. Thomas Edison: It wasn’t just the lightbulb; the Wizard of Menlo Park was the most prolific inventor in American history.
10. Woodrow Wilson: He made the world safe for U.S. interventionism, if not for democracy.
the list goes on with JD Rockefeller, Ulysses S. Grant, James Madison, Henry Ford, Theodore Roosevelt, MArk Twain, Ronald Reagan, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Paine, Andrew Carnegie…
Before Hunter got involved in Lisl Auman’s fight, an amazing public defender named Kathleen Lord was fighting the battle alone. 5 years after Hunter got involved, Lisl’s conviction was finally overturned by the Supreme Court, and the D.A. worked out a deal so that they wouldn’t have to face the wrath of the 2 million readers that Hunter made aware of Lisl Auman.
That’s the short version. More later. Soon, Lisl will be ready to tell the story from her perspective. I can’t wait.
I’ll find the note that somebody read on my behalf and try to post it later tonight or tomorrow with the appropriate websites including the Pendulum Foudnation.
Until next time, your friend, getting back to work,
Anita Thompson
