Barbarians at the Gate
A recent poll conducted for Washington College by the public affairs research firm of Schulman, Ronca & Bucuvalas, Inc. found that of 800 American adults surveyed, less than half even had an inkling that George Washington was the General who led the rag-tag Continental Army to victory over the British in the American Revolution.
The following is a story from the Associated Press. Do you suppose that these perps had a clue whose grave they were desecrating? Not a chance.
March 21, 2005
TROY, N.Y. — Vandals who struck a cemetery last week targeted the grave site of Uncle Sam, police said.
Five monuments at Oakwood Cemetery were overturned, two urns smashed and a flag pole knocked down between Thursday night and Friday morning. The flagpole and one of the urns adorned the grave of Samuel Wilson, a 19th century businessman who helped give the federal government the nickname "Uncle Sam."
A flag was also burned at the cemetery.
"For these vandals to trash the grave site of such an internationally important symbol of America is unthinkable," said Oakwood Cemetery Board of Trustees President Terry Page.
Wilson (1766-1854) was a prominent upstate New York businessman who supplied beef to American troops during the War of 1812. His crates were stamped with the letters "U.S." and soldiers joked the letters stood for Uncle Sam - a name they eventually hung on the government.
Political cartoonist Thomas Nast later created the lanky, bearded Uncle Sam who would adorn recruiting posters and come to symbolize the United States.
Police in Troy, across the Hudson River from Albany, said the vandals could be charged with felonies including desecration of a cemetery and second-degree criminal mischief.
Officials are offering a reward of $1,500 for information about who damaged the cemetery.