Reflecting on the First Forty-Five

Abraham Lincoln's birthday is listed on my calendar blotter from last Tuesday, the 12th, with George Washington’s birthday this coming Saturday.

When I was a kid, we had both days off from school but those individual dates have had less significance (and far fewer school closings) for many decades since Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act and we rolled both of those birthdays into a larger celebration to honor all those who have had the privilege to serve as President. 

Now it’s simply called Presidents Day which we just had this past Monday (which explains all those mattresses, adjustable bases, and box springs on my porch I guess since Presidents Day is now when we do bedding sales, for reasons I’ve never understood), but I don’t think we really appreciated it.

That George Washington 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. Honest Abe used his Second Inaugural Address to offer "(w)ith malice toward none, with charity for all..." at a moment in our nation’s 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).

And now I wonder why we and all the loudmouths and blowhards on all sides of the political divide, refuse to work together to get this handbasket we're all in out of the hell we've maneuvered ourselves into.

When George and Abe were presidents, people disagreed with one another so vehemently they were fighting wars. You’ve seen the weapons in use back in their days, nothing neat and clean about them; it took a lot of work to shoot and kill somebody but a lot of people were more than willing to do that.

And now we have all this pouting and posturing on Sunday morning talk shows, in the Halls of Congress and on cable news channels 24/7 that makes my teeth hurt and should we ever we sort out who's to blame for all the wrongs and shortcomings, real and/or imagined, I’d hope we’d devote a scintilla of that energy to fixing things (but I won’t hold my breath). Instead, we keep playing ‘red or blue?’ games.

George Washington, James Monroe, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, and so many from every walk of life who were never close to being President like Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and Stephen Douglas were so engaged in nurturing this nation and defending it from attacks both from within and without they didn't have the luxury of ideology. So how did we get here, where less than sixty percent of all registered voters could be bothered to vote in the 2016 Presidential election? 

Monday’s holiday didn’t cap a three-day shopping weekend, despite advertising to the contrary. It should have marked a moment to examine the lives and legacies of the forty-five men (so far) who have been President of the United States and to reflect upon their efforts and examples.

But more importantly, it should have strengthened the effort to better understand both our differences as well as our similarities in order to form a more perfect union and to jump-start the decision-making process we’ll each use to vote come November. 

-bill kenny