Wondering 'bout Washington

Abraham Lincoln's birthday is still on my calendar for 12 February but it has had less meaning for decades, since Congress passed the Monday Holidays Act and we rolled it into the birthday celebrating the Father of Our Country, George Washington (listed on my calendar for today, 22 February). I'm still trying to figure out why this year, that holiday is not observed today, the 22nd, which happens to be a Monday, but I'm afraid there may be math involved and I haven't had my booster shot. 

That George spent more than half of his farewell address warning his countrymen about the dangers of political partisanship, I find, in light of where we are today, astounding. That Honest Abe used his Second Inaugural Address to offer "(w)ith malice toward none, with charity for all..." at a moment in our history where we most fervently hated one another (with a ferocity that would cost him his very life a little more than thirteen months later) causes me to wonder why we, you and me and all the lunatic loudmouths and bombastic blowhards on either side of the political fence, can't pipe down long enough to work together to get this cart we're all in out of the ditch we've maneuvered it into. 

To put it into perspective when Washington and Lincoln were presidents, remember that people disagreed with one another so strongly to the point they fired weapons at one another--and you've seen those weapons. It took a LOT of work to successfully shoot somebody with one of them. None of this cap bustin' stuff-serious mayhem was on the agenda then. 

All this pouting and posturing we are up tothese days on Sunday morning talk shows, the endless primaries and in the Halls of Congress makes my brain hurt and when we get all through sorting out who's to blame for all the wrongs and shortcomings, real and/or imagined, maybe we can devote a scintilla of that energy to fixing things. We certainly have a target-rich environment to choose from, don't we? 

Today is NOT a holiday but it is most certainly still George Washinton's birthday and as good a reason as any either of us can think of to use as a reason and a fulcrum to move ourselves and one another closer together in order to form a more perfect union. And stop being so damn cranky with each other while we're doing it.
-bill kenny