Do You Get Off On President’s Day? I Don’t...

Next Monday, employees of the federal government will be enjoying the last day of their three day weekend, school children will search for “CHERRY TREE” in a George Washington word search and watch a film about how young Honest Abe ruined a neighbor’s book about the first president by leaving it between the cracks of his log cabin over night while it rained, and the rest of America will go about their business as usual.

Presidents’ Day was originally intended to be a day to honor those we elected to lead our country, but it has now become as meaningless as Columbus Day. Most people no longer get the day off of work or school and they certainly don’t take any time to celebrate the most important people in our political system. If this is not true, I am most unaware—I don’t recall ever having the day off and I certainly have never been invited to a Presidents’ Day party. The only excitement surrounding the holiday is a new crop of Victoria’s Secret commercials and a plethora of other sales. The reason for this lack of recognition is not entirely clear, but is likely due to confusion surrounding the origins of the holiday, ignorance of the men who have held the office, public opinions of the President’s role, and possibly the close proximity of other holidays.

Originally, the holiday was known and celebrated as Washington’s Birthday. It began during Washington’s term as a day of patriotism, national pride, and celebration of the man who was practically offered a crown because of his enormous contributions to the founding of our great nation. Festivities rivaled, if not exceeded, those held on July Fourth. To 19th century Americans, Washington’s Birthday deserved a great deal of recognition and was finally declared a federal holiday in 1885 by President Chester Arthur. After Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, many states recognized his birthday as a holiday, though it has never been a federal holiday.

In 1968, the House of Representatives proposed bill HR 15951 that changed the dates of several holidays, including Washington’s Birthday, so as to give federal employees more three day weekends. Many also suggested that it be renamed as Presidents’ Day, in honor of Washington, Lincoln, and all other chief executives. The name was not officially changed, but many people decided to adopt the name Presidents’ Day nevertheless. The date was changed to the third Monday of February which, strangely enough, never falls on either Washington or Lincoln’s birthdays (Feb 12 and Feb 22, respectively). These changes greatly added confusion to the holiday and broadened its meaning, which likely decreased its significance.

Not only are many people ignorant of the purpose of Presidents’ Day, they are also somewhat ignorant of the men for whom the holiday was established. It is astonishing how many people that I have met who were unsure who served as our first president—that would be George Washington, for those of you who never paid attention or didn’t care. It is hard to imagine how someone could have missed out on this bit of historical information.

Presidential Ignorance

I was once having a political discussion with an education major, and I decided I would reference the words of the first Republican president in order to support my argument. I can no longer recall what I was trying to explain to this person, but I do remember how surprised she was to learn that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, let alone the first president of that party.

After a test in my high school American history class one day, the teacher told us that we would receive extra credit for correctly identifying which man—George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, James Garfield and Millard Filmore—had not served as president of the United States. It seemed like the easiest American history question that I had ever been asked. Apparently the rest of the class didn’t share this opinion: I was one of three in a class of thirty something that received the extra credit (I believe the other two might have sat next to me). I can understand people being unsure about the last two on the list. Garfield reminds one of a fat orange cat, and I don’t believe that I have ever run across a copy of Millard Fillmore: the Role of a Lifetime, but surely people should know that Benjamin Franklin was never president. I’m reminded of all those who have very matter-of-factly stated that only presidents can be on US notes, clearly forgetting or were unaware that Benjamin Franklin ($100) and Alexander Hamilton ($10) were never commander- in-chiefs.

The public’s ignorance of our Presidents is undoubtedly due to poor education of American History. For instance, I can recall learning all about John F. Kennedy of Camelot and the evils of Richard Nixon. It’s not that I dislike JFK (though I’ve never gone weak at the knees at the mention of his name, unlike many seem to have) and I certainly won’t deny that what Nixon did was wrong, but the immense focus on these two was slightly superfluous. Washington and Lincoln were certainly covered, but I remember learning more about their childhoods than their role in our nations’ incredible history. The textbooks also reinforced this educational fl aw. Most of them had more information about the last 50 years of our country than the first 150. I had textbooks with full chapters on Bill Clinton (though the Reagan era was barely more than a footnote).

It is sometimes said that Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month detract from Presidents ’ Day. This is, perhaps, a stretch. Regardless what you think about these two events (I’m certainly not against them), it is hard to argue that they detract from President’s Day. An event that takes place over a whole month (i.e. Black History Month) is quite unlikely to take the spotlight off of a holiday that only takes one day (i.e Presidents’ Day). As far as I can remember, people have still always celebrated Valentine’s Day, which happens to take place in the middle of Black History Month. I might have missed the memo this year though.

It is true that Martin Luther King Jr. Day is the only holiday that celebrates a single man in American history, yet once again, it is doubtful that it steals all the glory from Presidents’ Day. (There is no reason to have harsh feelings toward this holiday. If you don’t believe that what Dr. King did was noble, worthwhile or helped our society to move forward, then shame on you! There is no doubt in my mind that he deserved his position on the “Greatest American” series that ran on the Discovery Channel last year.)

Impact on Presidents’ Day

Some have suggested that because the two holidays are so close that we forget about the second. I have never seen someone forget about New Years, and it only takes place seven days after Christmas. The only thing that can be concluded about celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and not Presidents’ Day, is that is sad that we take a day to recognize one great man, but not the 42 men who served as President of the United States (Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms as the 22nd and 24th president)., many of whom were also great.

It should be also noted that Punxsutawney Phil (the “weather predicting” groundhog) seems to be a bigger deal in February than George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. How a fat rodent that is afraid of his own shadow can attract more media attention than Washington and Lincoln is simply beyond me. This is just sad. If Groundhog Day ever becomes a federal holiday, I might just cry.

Perhaps, the main reason we do not celebrate Presidents’ Day is due to how we regard current and recent presidents. Presidents are, to put it lightly, rather controversial. Many of us have strong opinions on the job performances of the presidents that have held office during our lifetime. It is likely that half of them are not high on our lists of favorite people and we therefore do not care to spend a whole day honoring them. Many of the presidents that many of us now consider to be great were scrutinized heavily during their terms. Both Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt were criticized about their handling of the Civil War and World War II, respectively, much like how George W. Bush is being criticized for the handling of the war on terrorism (I’m not suggesting the GWB is great—I’m just noting a similarity). They certainly deserve our respect regardless of their policies and the choices they make. Our Presidents have a very difficult role in our government, and a role that is fairly unique to our country. A U.S. President not only serves as the head of government, he serves also as the head of state; he is our chief policy maker in addition the figure head of our country. Many countries divide this role amongst two persons such as Great Britain with their prime minister (Head of Government) and their queen (Head of State). This unique role places an incredible emphasis by the public on our presidents that subject them to the utmost scrutiny.

It is only fitting then that we take time to honor our presidents. Again, it is highly unlikely that anyone is fond of every man to have held the nation’s top office, but several presidents—most notably George Washington and Abraham Lincoln—stand out as leaders with whom most of us can agree have helped this nation move forward in a positive direction. The efforts and contributions that they have made are more than deserving of our recognition. Perhaps the best way to do so is for every American to study them. It is probably not necessary to be able to recite all 43 in sequential order as I can, but take the time to research the most influential ones, learn what they did that helped shape our great nation, try to understand why they made the decisions that they did, and learn something from it! Or, you could just set off a lot of fireworks. That would be very fitting and patriotic as well.