Happy Anniversary Potus Geeks

[kensmind]

On March 26, 2010, twelve years ago today, potus_geeks was created when the first entry in this community was posted, informing those on Livejournal about the creation of this community, and welcoming their participation. The first entries in the community are very primitive and elementary, but since then over 5400 journal entries have covered a variety of

Comments

[seaivy]

sometimes i wonder if there is anybody here but you and me
and our "secret member" my son who comes in and reads it
he is a BIG POTUS Geek!
thank you for your fidelity in keeping this community
it is a constant bright light

[kensmind]

It doesn't matter if it's just the two (or three of us) or the whole world. I like to do this to educate myself, which in turn opens my mind, something that I see as a good thing, especially in these times of echo chambers.

A neurosurgeon once said in a lecture, that there are two things that a person can do to keep their mind active: (1) find an interest unrelated to one's occupation that one can have "a loving obsession" with (box checked here) and (2) take up an activity involving finger dexterity (typing these entries every day.) If he is correct, I should be good for about another 100 years of Potus Geekery.

[coercedbynutmeg]

[kensmind]

Too cool! I want to see Monticello someday. I'm told that the staff address the issue of Jefferson's contradiction in preaching freedom while being a slaveholder, without being apologists for the star of their show. According to Lillian Cunningham of the Washington Post, they do it in a very intellectually honest way.

Great picture by the way. I would have never thought of doing that!

[coercedbynutmeg]

When I went, there were different exhibits, like the tour of the house itself, and an exhibit about Sally Hemings and her family. I didn't see the Hemings exhibit but I understand that they don't outright say that Jefferson fathered a bunch of her children, though that's pretty well understood at this point, and almost every slave he freed was part of the Hemings family was likely not a coincidence. Sally Hemings was Martha Jefferson's half-sister, they both were sired by John Wayles.

Mount Vernon also has an exhibit about George Washington and slavery. Apparently the legalities of freeing his slaves were more complicated because many of them were owned by Martha and her children by her deceased first husband.

[gm_1787]

Monticello and Mount Vernon are both exquisite sites - truly a World Class.

Congratulations on twelve years. Beware the teen years. :)