As we get into this Presidents' Day edition of America’s Third Watch, I want to go on record as saying I was never a fan of homogenizing Washington’s Birthday and Lincoln’s Birthday together and then enjoining all of the presidents into that memorialization.
Washington and Lincoln are monumental presidents, literally. The historical events that occurred under their leadership and tenures are rivaled by few, if any.
Washington commanded a force that vanquished the most powerful military of its day and then oversaw the chaotic and sometimes belligerent beginning of the Great American Experiment. How many people throughout history would turn down an offer to be made king? How many people throughout history would walk away from the seat of power voluntarily?
And Lincoln? A lawyer who rose to that station as an autodidact was thrust into a thankless position of impossible magnitude only to navigate not only the caustic halls of Congress in mitigating a divided nation but also insolent generals on the battlefield and a breakaway confederacy. His ultimate reward was three-fold. He succeeded in saving the Republic, he facilitated the end of slavery in the United States lighting the fuse for that practice to fall around the free world and, for it all received a bullet to the head.
How is it that these two unique men, who gave their lives in their entirety for our country, must be celebrated with the likes of Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt (both racists and sympathetic to fascism), or Lyndon Johnson and Barack Obama (both racists from opposite ends of the racism spectrum). And don’t even mention the disgrace that is our current president.
Honestly, Washington and Lincoln deserve their own days of memorialization. And rather than lionizing the many political hacks that followed in the office by lumping it all together as “Presidents' Day” we should establish a Founders & Framers Day and leave the other chief executives to earn memorialization.
That would be more meaningful and it would also give honest and true educators an opportunity to extoll the greatness of these men, rather than only portraying them as slave owners and White supremacists.
Then, (sigh), it’s Presidents' Day…yippie.
Then, my current segment on America’s Third Watch, broadcast on the Salem and Genesis broadcasting networks.
Take Back Your Mind
Think For Yourself
Yeah, I Have A Problem With Presidents' Day