Counting to Forty-Six

Abraham Lincoln's Birthday was this past Sunday, the 12th, but it has had less significance for decades, since Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act and we rolled it into the birthday celebrating the Father of Our Country, George Washington (traditionally, 22 February).

This year, we observe what we now call Presidents’ Day this coming Monday, the 20th, and everyone is looking forward to a three-day weekend without having to think about why we have it.

That’s where I come in.

That George spent more than half of his farewell address warning his compatriots about the dangers of political partisanship, I find, in light of where we are today, astoundingly prescient.

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 life a little more than thirteen months later) causes me to wonder why we,(and by that I mean 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 try to work together to get this handbasket we find ourselves in to a slightly cooler place than where we are at this moment.

Both of them and all of the men (so far) who’ve been President are in a very exclusive club, all of whom have had an almost overwhelming burden of expectations and hopes of their fellow citizens to carry every moment of every day while in office. And they pressed on and persevered.

To be honest, the litany of lament, the blame game, and pouting and posturing we are up to on Sunday morning talk shows, and in the Halls of Congress makes my brain hurt. Perhaps when we get 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? Pick a problem, find someone to help fix it, and then move on to the next one. Lather, Rinse, and Repeat..

It was Harry Truman, an accidental President if you will (when FDR died, he assumed the office), who once said, ‘it’s amazing how much you can get done when you don’t care who gets the credit.’ You’ve already guessed, without my telling you, that was a long time ago because neither of us could think of anyone who would say something like that aloud these days.

All those whom we celebrate with a holiday on Monday and countless, nameless others were so busy building this nation and defending it against attacks from within, and without they didn't have the luxury of ideology. This shouldn’t be a weekend to shop, a barrage of advertising to the contrary-it's a moment to look at the lives of the forty-six men who have been President of the United States and whose efforts and sacrifices we honor on Monday.

And even though we don't get a day on the calendar for ourselves, it’s when we should use their day as a fulcrum to move each and every one of us closer together in order to form a more perfect union. And stop being so bitchy with one while we're doing it.
-bill kenny