Happy Generic Presidents' Day
CROSBY, GREG
Happy Generic Presidents' Day George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Chester Arthur—what's the difference? BY GREG CROSBY What happened to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln's birthdays? Oh sure,...
...The one-cent sales on Lincoln's birthday (Lincoln head pennies, get it...
...Remember how "Honest Abe" would walk for miles in his bare feet just to keep his promise to return a book he'd borrowed...
...We could change Martin Luther King's birthday to Civil Rights Leaders' Day...
...As a kid, I remember seeing cherry pie recipes in every magazine and newspaper just prior to February 22...
...Hallelujah...
...But we as a nation have been giving these two historical dates short shrift of late...
...Sometimes one of the days would fall on a Monday or Friday and it was like a little bonus...
...Where do ya wanna go...
...Frankly, I miss the cultural and even the commercial aspects of Washington and Lincoln's birthdays...
...But in the process we've lost one of the birthdays...
...These legends helped define our Founding Fathers as ethical heroes worth emulating...
...Their birthdays should be remembered and celebrated—separately— just as their talents, deeds, and accomplishments were separate and unique...
...We could make it Religion Founder's Day...
...It reminds me of Secretaries' Day— except we don't run out and buy cards and flowers to send to President Clinton . . . well, not all of us at least...
...honored...
...There was something excitingly wicked about getting a day off from school in the middle of the week, say on a Wednesday or Thursday, then 10 days later getting another day off...
...Another thing I miss is the fun of having two separate days off—and on different days of the week each year...
...More important, we don't hear the old stories anymore...
...We can take heart in that while we have lost the birthday celebrations for George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, we have at least gained a three-day weekend...
...What happened to all the cherry pies...
...Presidents all, but with no distinction made for individual accomplishments...
...For one thing, the cherry pies...
...Some calendars note Presidents' Day as "Washington's birthday (observed)"—which means poor ol' Abe's day has gotten bumped...
...Even though it's been a bona fide national holiday since 1971, I am still uneasy with Presidents' Day...
...We cannot exclude anyone, you see, because we live in a time when being fair to all is much more valued than rewarding individual achievement...
...They demonstrated solid moral lessons, a sense of right Why stop with presidents...
...So it is that William Henry Harrison, Franklin Pierce, and Chester Arthur are thrown into the same celebratory soup as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln...
...Shouldn't we alter Christmas, too...
...It wouldn't be fair...
...We might as well have an Attorneys General's Day, or a Senators' Day...
...Actually, Washington and Lincoln were good and ethical men...
...But we mustn't leave a single president out—oh, no...
...And why on February 2 do we honor groundhogs when we could be celebrating Rodents' Day...
...Setting aside a day to honor all American presidents bothers me for a couple of reasons...
...The problem is, when we honor all, we honor none...
...And there were Washington dollar sales and white sales in all the department stores...
...We still have the sales, but now they're called Presidents' Day Weekend Blowout Sales...
...First, I don't believe that every single one of our presidents necessarily deserves to be Greg Crosby writes a weekly column for Jewish World Review...
...But if we must be fair to all, then why stop with presidents...
...And it's all because of Presidents' Day...
...Some may argue, however, that it is not the individuals we celebrate, it is the office, which brings me to my second objection...
...Now, in our revisionist enlightened culture, we are told that our leaders were really flawed rogues, self-serving slave-owners, womanizers, adulterers, and maybe worse...
...Sounds charming, doesn't it...
...Presidents' Day, sandwiched as it is between Lincoln and Washington's birthdays, effectively shifts the focus from these two extraordinary presidents who truly do deserve to be honored, to a nebulous, generic, "All Presidents' Day...
...We could make it Religion Founders' Day...
...Or we might just wrap it all into one and call it Politicians' Day...
...Oh sure, they're still noted on the calendar, February 22 and February 12, respectively...
...The supermarkets and bakeries were well stocked with cherry pies, and Mom made one every year...
...Which is nice, sure...
...And, to be all inclusively fair, shouldn't we alter Christmas, too...
...and wrong, the importance of being honest, playing fair, and telling the truth...
...Two genuine heroes, besides, who helped create what has become the greatest country on earth...
...Another excuse to get out of town for a couple of days...
...Presidents' Day is always on the third Monday of February, which means a three-day weekend every year...
...Or how little George took complete responsibility for chopping down the cherry tree...
...People respecting other people's property and trying to do the good and right thing...
...were a big deal, too, in my state, where Lincoln's birthday was a holiday...
...Why celebrate an office...
...Things aren't all bad, though...
Vol. 5 • February 2000 • No. 22
