Monday, February 18, 2013

Is It Washington's Birthday Or President's Day?

OK, I am somewhat confused about what a lot of the United States is celebrating today.
Is it Washington's Birthday?
Or is it President's Day?
Or is it three in one as Lincoln's Birthday, Washington's Birthday and wrapped up under the generic President's Day?
Or are we celebrating, regrettably, all who have served as president?
See the confusion?
Well, according to Wikipedia, we are actually celebrating Washington's Birthday today, the third Monday in February. And yet it states that it is concurrent with President's Day.
OK, then does this mean we celebrate all the people that have served as president?
Well, oddly enough, not really.
The reason that we even celebrate it on a Monday in the first place is due to this peachy act of our federal overlords, the Uniform Monday Holiday act.
What it did was make four national holidays celebrated on Monday's forever. And they are
Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Columbus Day and Veteran's Day. Yet not long after the act was passed, Veteran's Day went back to being on an actual date, November 11.
But here is the thing.
There is actually no such federal holiday as President's Day.
Going back to the original link, again there is nothing in federal law that this is President's Day. In fact, blame corporate America if you will.
It was advertisers in the mid 1980s that started using the term "President's Day". And it started to stick since.
So no wonder many people believe that the holiday we celebrate today is President's Day. And that it is a celebration of all presidents. Yet it is not at the core.
At the core we can only use this day to celebrate the accomplishments of one man.
George Washington.
Without him, there is no United States of America.
Without the sheer determination to see through his command of the Continental Army during the American Revolution, the mostly rag-tag assemblage of troops, many ill equipped and worse trained, there is no doubt the war and the cause would be lost.
Without then Gen. Washington leaving his command when the war ended, we would not see humility.
Without a civilian Mr. Washington answering his new, free nation's call to be the president not once but twice, who else might have been able to deal with the Whiskey Rebellion? Now, forget the causes and what the issue was, but President Washington dealt with it decisively and that saved the fledgling nation.
Without President Washington to walk away with a certain third presidential term, we would not know that a leader can say enough is enough and let new people govern.
Thus do not let the companies try to generic this great day.
It is not President's Day at all. It is and shall always be WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY!

No comments: