Next Monday is Presidents Day. Bureaucrats, bankers and school
kids get the day off while the rest of us go to work.
It used to be George Washington’s birthday that was celebrated
on February 22, with Lincoln’s birthday celebrated in some states
as well.
Next Monday is Presidents Day. Bureaucrats, bankers and school kids get the day off while the rest of us go to work.
It used to be George Washington’s birthday that was celebrated on February 22, with Lincoln’s birthday celebrated in some states as well.
Washington’s birthday was accompanied by cherry pie, to commemorate the (apocryphal) story that he cut down a cherry tree but was honest enough to admit it. In 1968 a Federal law was passed combining Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays and calling the day “Presidents’ Day.”
Doing so obscures the exceptional nature of Washington and the role he played in the founding of our country.
George Washington was 50 years old and already a hero, although the Revolutionary War was still being fought, when his birthday was first publicly celebrated in 1782. According to the Virginia Gazette of the time, “Tuesday last being the birthday of his Excellency, General Washington, our illustrious commander-in-chief, that same was commemorated here with the utmost demonstrations of joy.”
Reading about George Washington, I feel fed up with today’s politicians. Recent and not-so-recent events, from Watergate through Iran-Contra, Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky up through the recent resignation of California’s attorney general Kevin Shelley.
Then there are our local political imbroglios. When you look at local politics through the lens of an example like George Washington, it’s not a pretty sight.
Born a member of the landed class, Washington was not born perfect. Always intrepid and adventurous, he was hired at age sixteen to survey the areas around his home fore a doubloon a day. He managed to live among Indians and backwoodsmen with no trouble.
However, he was also hot-headed and difficult, ambitious and self-serving. Once he joined the colonial service, he harangued his commanding officer for a pay raise and used his position as surveyor to accumulate land for himself.
At age 21, as a major in the French and Indian War, he engaged the French against orders and was forced to surrender to the French. Even then, there was media involvement: the press in London scornfully labeled him a failure. A young officer today would be ruined by such a debacle.
He did possess the ability to learn from his mistakes. He developed self-restraint and become a galvanizing leader not only of his troops (despite a losing record in battles) and a vital catalyst when the Constitutional Convention was on the brink of dissolving in failure. His experience managing his estate and businesses gave him skill with people that would add to his ability to lead.
He did not seek the presidency, but his peers sought him, bringing him back from semi-retirement as a gentleman farmer at Mt. Vernon.
True, he had charisma, but he also had dignity and the authority that comes from a history of honorable accomplishment.
Around the country and locally, where is the dignity? Where is the honorable accomplishment? Lacking true authority, we fall back on lawsuits.
Let’s have a slice of cherry pie this Presidents’ Day and do our local politicians the honor of holding them to the standard set by our first President.
Elizabeth Gage’s column runs weekly in the Free Lance.
