PORTERVILLE POST | The Right News at the Right Time

| The Road to Rediscovering America’s Identity ~ XXXII
BORN RIGHT^© - Nov 07, 2025
with Josh Allen Flowers : josh@portervillepost.com

The Man Who Walked Away ~ George Washington and the Thanksgiving We Forgot ~
Imagine a man so powerful, so revered, that entire armies stood still when he spoke. A man who had every opportunity—every excuse, really—to crown himself king and rule for life.
Now imagine that same man... walking away. No throne. No endless rule.
No tyrannical decree scribbled under the guise of "public good." Just a silent, resolute step back—into the quiet of history.
That Man Was George Washington ⋆ ^{And if America still has a soul left, it’s because of him} ⋆
But let’s be honest. We barely remember what he stood for anymore. Not really. We’ve diluted him into powdered wigs and cherry tree fables. We quote his words on coffee mugs, then ignore their meaning in city council meetings.
So let’s fix that this November. Let's remember him the way he deserves to be remembered: not as a relic, but as a roadmap. Because this wasn’t just a man who helped win a war. He was the first man in world history to lead a revolution and not make himself a god.
And in doing so, he gave birth to something the world had never seen before: a nation founded not on bloodline, but on belief. A republic. Under God. And before he handed it over, he knelt and gave thanks.

The Thanksgiving We Forgot

It’s ironic, isn’t it? That the first official Thanksgiving Proclamation in the United States didn’t come from a pilgrim or a preacher—but from a battle-hardened general who knew that without Providence, all the musket fire in the world would’ve been meaningless.
Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving address wasn’t performative. It wasn’t scripted by a staffer or dumped in an email newsletter next to a pumpkin pie recipe. It was reverent. Sincere. And bold.
He called on Americans to acknowledge God. Publicly. To unite in gratitude. To ask forgiveness. To live with moral clarity.
That’s a far cry from today’s November rituals—Black Friday riots, virtue-signaling mayors issuing “inclusive holiday” decrees, and schools teaching kids that Thanksgiving was a colonizer’s crime.
Washington didn’t see it that way. He saw a miracle. A new nation, born out of rebellion but anchored in humility. A nation that understood liberty without God quickly becomes license—and license without restraint always leads back to tyranny.
He knew what he was doing. Because Washington’s faith wasn’t just personal—it was structural. He didn’t just attend church for optics. He believed, deeply, that Providence had preserved him —through bullets, frostbite, and betrayal—not for his sake, but for the nation’s.
He was the living proof that a man of faith could lead without forcing, govern without grasping, and win without worshiping himself.
And in 1789, as president, he told America to stop. To bow. To Thank ...

The Power of Restraint

Here’s a truth our modern elites can’t stomach: Restraint is more powerful than control. Washington knew this. After two terms, with the entire world watching, he voluntarily stepped down. No coup. No martial law. No lifetime appointment. Just a simple farewell. In doing so, he shattered the old world’s script.
Power no longer had to corrupt. Authority didn’t have to be absolute. Liberty didn’t have to be temporary. And he wasn’t naive.
He knew what could happen if future leaders forgot God, forgot humility, forgot thanksgiving. He warned of factionalism. Of godlessness. Of trading virtue for vice, and principle for party. He warned us. And we ignored him.
Today, we’ve got elected officials who behave more like Pharaohs than servants. Bureaucrats who kneel before their own image. Academics who teach kids to hate the very soil they stand on. Gratitude? Outdated. Restraint? Weakness.
Faith? Oppression. Tradition? White supremacy. That’s not progress. That’s a repeat of every failed empire from Babylon to Brussels.

The Republic Was A Miracle ~ So Was The Man

George Washington was a flawed man, yes. But he was a man formed by trial, tempered by faith, and driven by something higher than self. He refused the crown. He revered the Creator. And he reminded a new country to do the same.

So this Thanksgiving, don’t let it be about turkey and football alone.
Let it be about thanks. True, earnest, trembling thanks—for a country that still, despite everything, holds the spark of that original miracle.
Remember that power restrained is power redeemed. And remember the man who walked away. Not because he had to. But because he knew what we had been given. And it was never his to keep.

What you are not changing, you are choosing.