Billy Lee is former machine design engineer, career Navy kid, anti-war activist, Francophile, amateur Egyptologist, math/physics hobbyist, and university grad.
When possible, fights the good fight to avoid mass consumption of powdered donuts & Bonne Maman cherry preserves glop-spread inside giant tortillas.
Married to Bevy Mae, Billy Lee fathers six adult children—three bio and three in-grafted. He’s grandpa to thirteen grandkids, two Ethiopia born.
Billy Lee is Christian but no longer attends church.
Billy Lee was young once.
Billy Lee is a lifelong pontificator who believes civilization’s biggest problem is lack of caps on income. Limits—removed in the 1980s by tax codes passed by and for our elites—prevented money-lovers from looting corporations & public institutions. The prospect of unlimited wealth lures business owners to squeegee wages, which they sequester for themselves.
Billy Lee believes possession of excessive wealth by individuals should be a universal felony enforced by international courts.
Note to Readers: Billy Lee shares his name with the much-admired manservant (slave) of first USA president, George Washington.
Billy Lee was the only slave of 277 owned by George and wife Martha who were freed in the president’s Will when he passed in 1799.
Slave Billy Lee was a renown equestrian and foxhunter who, during Washington’s military campaigns, rode beside the General on a magnificent jumper named Chinkling—according to memoirs of the president’s step-grandson, Custis.
Asource has claimed that Custis’s memory was in error; Billy Lee in fact called his horse Clacker—after the sound it made when prancing on GW’s paving-stone carriageway before a hunt.
In any event, the revolutionary officers and enlisted men who served General Washington treated the Negro freedom fighter & his horse with affection and respect. The father of our country would be proud.
Some say that Confederate General Robert E. Lee was a relative—descendant, prolly—of Billy Lee. Maybe an ancestor of the South’s beloved General actually owned Billy Lee back in the day when George Washington purchased the 16-year-old to serve as houseboy at his Mount Vernon estate. Slaves sometimes took last names of their original masters.
At retirement age before the Civil War, slaves were set free in acts of kindness called manumission. Before they dropped dead from starvation, a few changed their last names to better hide from owners who had traumatized them. Sometimes they took the name of a favorite horse or pet. Billy Lee may have done the same.
Today, Billy Lee’s progeny are thought to live in Detroit. At least two are believed by one researcher to have played pro football.
Our own Pontificator’s father, US Navy Captain Bryce Lee, (see poem, Warrior) was himself an accomplished equestrian and foxhunter, like the first president’s houseboy, though no evidence of genetic links to the president’s battlefield confidante and most loved hunting companion has yet been established. Research by family genealogist continues.
In 1780, portrait artist John Trumbull painted Billy Lee straddling his horse while the first president stands absent-mindedly in the foreground. Find painting and links to articles about the two men elsewhere on this page.
Whatever the truth about any familial-connection, Billy Lee the Pontificator admires Billy Lee the slave and bears his name with affection. Billy Lee knows in his heart of hearts that Billy Lee is an early hero of the USA’s ongoing wars against tyranny.
Due to the posthumous generosity of President George Washington, Billy Lee enjoyed his last years on Earth a free man, reunited in marriage with the woman he first loved and living large on one of America’s grandest estates—located at 3200 Mount Vernon Hwy, Mt Vernon, VA 22121. Click the link above and enter Billy Lee in the site’s search box to learn more.
The Editorial Board
Billy Lee sailed the Pacific Ocean twice before his 7th birthday. He crossed the world’s largest ocean with mother & brother on USA troop carrier General Mann, which delivered thousands of American soldiers to Korea and Japan. Down deep, he’s an old salt who’s traveled some and learnt more than a few stories along the way.
Click links below to understand more about the Billy Lee Pontificator Philosophy.
“…the smartest thinkers seem to agree that nothing can exist apart from a conscious observer. People like Erwin Schrodinger and John Von Neumann have written that consciousness is fundamental and exists outside the brain.” Remember writing this on Quora? You hit on one of the most profound facts of the world — mind precedes matter. Isn’t it amazing that intelligent scientists can believe the world as we know it is the result of a contingent, mysterious explosion billions of years ago, resulting in a fortuitous combining of hydrogen atoms — and now, here we all are.
Great to discover you, a brother, a kindred. I just got back from my 5th trip to Cuba and found you after googling “origin of the statue of Jesus Christ in Havana harbor.” I’m a follower of Jesus, but I hesitate identifying as a Christian because of the horrible religious baggage. Acts 4 is about sharing, a lovely and godly socialist idea and practice, rather than about capitalism, on which the US likes to put a Christian badge. Nice to know you are out there, sharing truth. Your overview of Cuban history is excellent. I forwarded it. It will save me a lot of time when doing my Cuba Talks.
geri
Bill,
I’m interested in how your Dad reacted towards your anti-war activism. I totally went along with concept of the Domino Theory at the time, mostly because I admired my dad and was very pro-military. When I went off to college and was introduced to liberal viewpoints of our national foreign policy, I would come home on a visit and make my dad apoplectic when I spouted off some of the stuff I had heard or read in government and history classes. It took me years to realize all the mistakes we made in Vietnam and how devisive that war was. I never did ask my dad whether he thought Vietnam was a mistake. He was subjected to much protest because he was Professor of Naval Science at ISU from 1968 through 1971.
One other question: How are you going to decide what is excessive salary? And how in the world could you make your restrictions world-wide? Just wondering.
Look for an upcoming blog on income inequality. In the meantime, I can say that I think the maximum income from all sources should be a multiple of the minimum wage. It would be set by law.
Let’s say the multiple is set to 1,000. Then, if the minimum wage is $20,000 per year, the maximum income from all sources would be 1,000 times that or $20 million.
In the same way, the maximum size of an estate would be set at some multiple of the maximum income. Let’s say the multiple is set by law at 20. Then the maximum size of an estate would be $400 million.
Of course, concentrations of wealth are necessary for economic development. This is where public corporations come into play. Corporations would be made truly public and be regulated like public utilities.
A problem with this idea is it should be international in scope to be effective, so it would involve a body like the United Nations and a world court. Another problem is that although it puts limits on only a few tens of thousands of people in the world, these are the people who actually run the world. So it might be hard to get them to go along. But we should try for reasons that will be explained in a future blog post.
As for my Dad, I don’t remember him ever mentioning my activism to me. My anti-war activity never came up in conversation as far as I can remember. Maybe he thought if he ignored it, it would go away!
Your idea reminds me of the Beatles song “Imagine a World without Religion.”–it is not practical because it goes against human nature. The 1% Super Rich who run the world are not going to allow anybody to take their money from them. Just isn’t going to happen. Now, perhaps if you could coerce a majority of the super rich to share their wealth out of a sense of right and wrong, you could manage a more equitable distribution.
The way to do it is through income and estate taxes. We did it after the Great Depression. The International part is important to protect our population from the overseas cartels. If we can get an international statute, then we can get a handle on things. Difficult, not necessarily impossible.
“…the smartest thinkers seem to agree that nothing can exist apart from a conscious observer. People like Erwin Schrodinger and John Von Neumann have written that consciousness is fundamental and exists outside the brain.” Remember writing this on Quora? You hit on one of the most profound facts of the world — mind precedes matter. Isn’t it amazing that intelligent scientists can believe the world as we know it is the result of a contingent, mysterious explosion billions of years ago, resulting in a fortuitous combining of hydrogen atoms — and now, here we all are.
Great to discover you, a brother, a kindred. I just got back from my 5th trip to Cuba and found you after googling “origin of the statue of Jesus Christ in Havana harbor.” I’m a follower of Jesus, but I hesitate identifying as a Christian because of the horrible religious baggage. Acts 4 is about sharing, a lovely and godly socialist idea and practice, rather than about capitalism, on which the US likes to put a Christian badge. Nice to know you are out there, sharing truth. Your overview of Cuban history is excellent. I forwarded it. It will save me a lot of time when doing my Cuba Talks.
geri
It is a pleasure to meet you, Geri. Thank you for your kind comment. May you have success in all you do. My apologies for the delayed reply.
Bill,
I’m interested in how your Dad reacted towards your anti-war activism. I totally went along with concept of the Domino Theory at the time, mostly because I admired my dad and was very pro-military. When I went off to college and was introduced to liberal viewpoints of our national foreign policy, I would come home on a visit and make my dad apoplectic when I spouted off some of the stuff I had heard or read in government and history classes. It took me years to realize all the mistakes we made in Vietnam and how devisive that war was. I never did ask my dad whether he thought Vietnam was a mistake. He was subjected to much protest because he was Professor of Naval Science at ISU from 1968 through 1971.
One other question: How are you going to decide what is excessive salary? And how in the world could you make your restrictions world-wide? Just wondering.
Molly
Look for an upcoming blog on income inequality. In the meantime, I can say that I think the maximum income from all sources should be a multiple of the minimum wage. It would be set by law.
Let’s say the multiple is set to 1,000. Then, if the minimum wage is $20,000 per year, the maximum income from all sources would be 1,000 times that or $20 million.
In the same way, the maximum size of an estate would be set at some multiple of the maximum income. Let’s say the multiple is set by law at 20. Then the maximum size of an estate would be $400 million.
Of course, concentrations of wealth are necessary for economic development. This is where public corporations come into play. Corporations would be made truly public and be regulated like public utilities.
A problem with this idea is it should be international in scope to be effective, so it would involve a body like the United Nations and a world court. Another problem is that although it puts limits on only a few tens of thousands of people in the world, these are the people who actually run the world. So it might be hard to get them to go along. But we should try for reasons that will be explained in a future blog post.
As for my Dad, I don’t remember him ever mentioning my activism to me. My anti-war activity never came up in conversation as far as I can remember. Maybe he thought if he ignored it, it would go away!
Your idea reminds me of the Beatles song “Imagine a World without Religion.”–it is not practical because it goes against human nature. The 1% Super Rich who run the world are not going to allow anybody to take their money from them. Just isn’t going to happen. Now, perhaps if you could coerce a majority of the super rich to share their wealth out of a sense of right and wrong, you could manage a more equitable distribution.
The way to do it is through income and estate taxes. We did it after the Great Depression. The International part is important to protect our population from the overseas cartels. If we can get an international statute, then we can get a handle on things. Difficult, not necessarily impossible.
–so now you have 3 followers on your site—keep it lively, ok?!!
Lee… A name to live up to. One of the best men I have ever known who passed his high sense of honor to all his children.
Semper Fi. Kind words indeed.
Oh, Bill!