Monday, February 21, 2005
MNR
There is no better way to celebrate Washington's birthday than by visiting his breathtaking estate in Mount Vernon. It is easy to understand why the greatest of our Founding Fathers simply wished to retire to his farm after the war rather than attend to politics, but unfortunately for our Nation's Cincinnatus, his country called him to guide it in its transition into a constitutional republic. And so he answered the call.
We honor him because without him we would not exist as a Nation. Imagine a man whose brilliance as a general guides a ragtag group of rebels to victory against arguably the greatest military force on the planet, garnering independence for a Nation which is to prove to the world that a people can be trusted with self-governance.
Now picture a second man, charged with the task of running a republic in its formative years. Every action that the man undertakes will be a precedent that will set the tone of what the Nation is to be. He had to avoid all the trappings of monarchy while also working to ensure that the office of Chief Magistrate has enough dignity and respect to ensure its own strength, and in doing so guarantee the vitaility of the republic. And on top of that, he had to manage an administration stacked with enormously talented and yet vain and headstrong individuals, all the while overseeing the development of the new Nation, quashing the occasional uprising, and keeping a jealous eye upon the European Nations.
Of course we know that George Washington is both men, and indeed the father of this great Nation has rightly earned the respect he so richly deserves. The towering monument in the middle of the Nation's capital is a fitting tribute. And today we honor the man that allowed the republic to come into being with his own special day. That's right, today we honor George Washington with
. . .President's Day?
Huh? Come again? President's day? The man just about singlehandedly is responsible for the birth of the greatest Nation in the history of the world and we honor with some generic holiday that essentially incorparates such titans as James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Jimmy Carter. Excuse me, but WHAT THE FUCK?
Have we become so historically distorted as a country that we cannot honor the greatest American, the father of this Nation, with a holiday all his own? Is it too much to ask that we can the silly euphamisms and memorialize a giant among men? Martin Luther King - a truly wonderful human being, to be sure, and certainly worthy of much praise and adoration for all of his accomplishements, but certainly someone not in the arena of George Washington - gets his own holiday, and yet we disrespect the man who gave us our freedom by honoring him along with all the other clods who occupied his office?
And I haven't even gotten to Lincoln. Oh yeah, he may have kept the Nation in tact and guided it through its most tumultuous time ever, and sure he may have liberated a few million slaves, and yeah his steady persistence and ability to carefully and brilliantly deal with the egos within his administration and the military provided steady leadership in trying times, but other than that what did he do to earn his own day of recognition?
It's easy to get caught up in the pettiness of what is really not that big a deal. And I'm going to do what's easy. It is a national disgrace that these two men do not merit special holidays all their own. And don't give me some bullshit about how "President's day" really is a commemoration of Washington and Lincoln, because then the holiday should be called "Washington and Lincoln Day." Oh no, we would not want to draw special attention in these politically correct days to truly meritorious individuals, because then we might offend the sacred memory of Benjamin Harrison, and Lord knows we wouldn't to leave him out the fun after all he accomplished. After all, who are we to say which President was truly great and who was a dud. Surely Jimmy Carter accomplished as much in office as Lincoln and Washington, after all he was the guy who almost brought us world peace. If by almost you mean destroying the country and therefore ensuring we didn't have to worry about world peace because there wouldn't be a world requiring peace.
Maybe it would be inappropriate to draw comparisons between this and the wonders of outcome-based education and other wonders of our blessed educational establishment. "Johnny is just as smart as Billy, even if Billy can split an atom and Johnny thinks 2=2=y5u24wy5. Johnny is a special kid, and he's trying, and it's the effort that counts." And just because Abraham Lincoln fulfilled the work begun by George Washington doesn't mean he's any better than the lousy peanut farmer from Georgia who gave us malaise. After all Jimmy Carter was a nice guy who smiled a lot, and that's got to count for something.
Oy. Well, for what it's worth, happy WashingtonAdamsJeffersonMadisonMonroeAdamsJacksonVanBurenHarrisonTylerPolkTaylorFillmoreBuchananPierceLincolnJohnsonGrantHayesGarfieldArthurClevelandHarrisonClevelandMcKinleyRooseveltTaftWilsonHardingCoolidgeHooverRooseveltTrumanEisenhowerKennedyJohnsonNixonFordCarterReaganBushClintonBush day everyone (with a shot out to George Will on that one).
We honor him because without him we would not exist as a Nation. Imagine a man whose brilliance as a general guides a ragtag group of rebels to victory against arguably the greatest military force on the planet, garnering independence for a Nation which is to prove to the world that a people can be trusted with self-governance.
Now picture a second man, charged with the task of running a republic in its formative years. Every action that the man undertakes will be a precedent that will set the tone of what the Nation is to be. He had to avoid all the trappings of monarchy while also working to ensure that the office of Chief Magistrate has enough dignity and respect to ensure its own strength, and in doing so guarantee the vitaility of the republic. And on top of that, he had to manage an administration stacked with enormously talented and yet vain and headstrong individuals, all the while overseeing the development of the new Nation, quashing the occasional uprising, and keeping a jealous eye upon the European Nations.
Of course we know that George Washington is both men, and indeed the father of this great Nation has rightly earned the respect he so richly deserves. The towering monument in the middle of the Nation's capital is a fitting tribute. And today we honor the man that allowed the republic to come into being with his own special day. That's right, today we honor George Washington with
. . .President's Day?
Huh? Come again? President's day? The man just about singlehandedly is responsible for the birth of the greatest Nation in the history of the world and we honor with some generic holiday that essentially incorparates such titans as James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Jimmy Carter. Excuse me, but WHAT THE FUCK?
Have we become so historically distorted as a country that we cannot honor the greatest American, the father of this Nation, with a holiday all his own? Is it too much to ask that we can the silly euphamisms and memorialize a giant among men? Martin Luther King - a truly wonderful human being, to be sure, and certainly worthy of much praise and adoration for all of his accomplishements, but certainly someone not in the arena of George Washington - gets his own holiday, and yet we disrespect the man who gave us our freedom by honoring him along with all the other clods who occupied his office?
And I haven't even gotten to Lincoln. Oh yeah, he may have kept the Nation in tact and guided it through its most tumultuous time ever, and sure he may have liberated a few million slaves, and yeah his steady persistence and ability to carefully and brilliantly deal with the egos within his administration and the military provided steady leadership in trying times, but other than that what did he do to earn his own day of recognition?
It's easy to get caught up in the pettiness of what is really not that big a deal. And I'm going to do what's easy. It is a national disgrace that these two men do not merit special holidays all their own. And don't give me some bullshit about how "President's day" really is a commemoration of Washington and Lincoln, because then the holiday should be called "Washington and Lincoln Day." Oh no, we would not want to draw special attention in these politically correct days to truly meritorious individuals, because then we might offend the sacred memory of Benjamin Harrison, and Lord knows we wouldn't to leave him out the fun after all he accomplished. After all, who are we to say which President was truly great and who was a dud. Surely Jimmy Carter accomplished as much in office as Lincoln and Washington, after all he was the guy who almost brought us world peace. If by almost you mean destroying the country and therefore ensuring we didn't have to worry about world peace because there wouldn't be a world requiring peace.
Maybe it would be inappropriate to draw comparisons between this and the wonders of outcome-based education and other wonders of our blessed educational establishment. "Johnny is just as smart as Billy, even if Billy can split an atom and Johnny thinks 2=2=y5u24wy5. Johnny is a special kid, and he's trying, and it's the effort that counts." And just because Abraham Lincoln fulfilled the work begun by George Washington doesn't mean he's any better than the lousy peanut farmer from Georgia who gave us malaise. After all Jimmy Carter was a nice guy who smiled a lot, and that's got to count for something.
Oy. Well, for what it's worth, happy WashingtonAdamsJeffersonMadisonMonroeAdamsJacksonVanBurenHarrisonTylerPolkTaylorFillmoreBuchananPierceLincolnJohnsonGrantHayesGarfieldArthurClevelandHarrisonClevelandMcKinleyRooseveltTaftWilsonHardingCoolidgeHooverRooseveltTrumanEisenhowerKennedyJohnsonNixonFordCarterReaganBushClintonBush day everyone (with a shot out to George Will on that one).
# posted by Paul Zummo : 11:32 PM
