“If we do this [change the date of the Washington holiday celebration], ten years from now our school children will not know what February 22 means. They will not know or care when George Washington was born. They will know that in the middle of February they will have a three-day weekend for some reason. This will come.” These prophetic words, passionately argued by Tennessee Congressman Dan Kuykendall more than 40 years ago, have come true. Ask most school kids today why February 22nd is special, and they will probably give you a blank stare.
The passage of the Uniform Monday Federal Holiday Law in 1968 triggered an avalanche that would bury “the father of our country,” along with his guiding virtues and reminders of how and why the U.S. was born.
Washington inspired his contemporaries and countless American s since, motivating others to emulate him. Washington set the gold standard for presidents and private character. “His example was as edifying to all around him as were the effects of that example lasting,” wrote John Marshall in Washington’s official eulogy. “The purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues.”
“More than any other,” says Matthew Spalding, Ph.D., Washington “made possible our republican form of government.”
When we grew up, celebrating George Washington’s birthday was a big deal, and you couldn’t help but be inspired by him. We studied him, what he stood for and what he did to bring America to fruition. Mary Beth’s grandmother, a patriotic American if you ever met one, loved that she shared the same birth date with Washington, always having a birthday cake covered with cherries and American flags.
When faced with the crisis of the Civil War, a council from Philadelphia came begging Washington’s Farewell Address be read as a morale booster and bulwark to a teetering and fear-filled country. Tennessee Senator Andrew Johnson introduced the petition in the Senate. “In view of the perilous condition of the country,” he said, “I think the time has arrived when we should recur back to the days, the times, and the doings of Washington and the patriots of the Revolution, who founded the government under which we live.”
In his Farewell Address, Washington’s advice to the nation was to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law, protect American independence, and encourage morality and religion. The reading of the Farewell Address in the Senate remains an annual event, even if his advice is ignored there.
Since the 1968 law makes it a federal holiday, individual states dropped the ball in celebrating Washington’s Birthday. Historian C.L. Arbelbide says, “For students in Texas, the renaming of the states Washington holiday to ‘President’s Day’ established the beginning of generations of children whose connection to Washington was fading.” In the 2004-2205 school year, of Virginia’s 134 school districts (Washington’s own home state), only two listed on their internet sites the correct “Washington Birthday” title for the holiday. But Virginia is not alone; other states and their schools have similar records.
Across the country, school districts have dropped Columbus Day, Veterans Day and the misnamed, generic sounding President’s Day.
Remember Washington’s deeds and heed his advice. A step in the right direction would be to correctly attach February 22nd to the federal George Washington’s Birthday holiday. This year Washington’s Birthday holiday falls on the 21st, the closest it can be to his actual birthdate, since Congress in 1968 changed the federal holiday to the third Monday in February.
“His example is now complete,” said John Adams, “and it will teach wisdom and virtue to magistrates, citizens, and men, not only in the present age, but in future generations, as long as our history shall be read.”
George Washington was a man of honor known for his great leadership and character.
“Wherever men love liberty, wherever they believe in patriotism, wherever they exalt high character, by universal consent they turn to the name of George Washington,” said Calvin Coolidge. “No occasion could be conceived more worthy, more truly and comprehensible American, than that which is chosen to commemorate this divinely appointed captain.”
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Washington was arguably the greatest American in our nation’s history. Without his leadership and extraordinary presence/credibility with the people of his day, the US would not have come into being until years, perhaps decades after it did.
He was given the absolute, dictatorial power of a King by the congress. Yet after the war, he simply gave it BACK and went home to Mt Vernon. Anyone imagine Hussein returning such a gift?
Unfortunately, recognizing the greatness of Washington would infer a greatness to the US which the radical left must at all costs avoid. So we have “President’s Day.” And once again, our steel-spinded, patriotic, elected Republican officials don’t say a damned word.
There was a time in America when no one would have imagined incorporating the great Virginian Geoge Washington’s birthday with the great tyrant Lincoln’s Birthday to make room for a MLK holiday!
That is nothing. Here in an intercity grade school; in Washington State; where I tutor the students and teachers both say George Washington was a “Bad Guy” as he was a nasty old white guy who owed slaves. But there are scads of books about Barrack and Michelle. For sure no pictures of George Washington in public schools today.
George Washington was a great man. He fought for our freedom. He was a man of God. He kneeled down at Valley Forge and prayed in order to win the Revolution against great odds. He’s on Mount Rushmore and he has a Monument named after him in Washington DC. What does Obozo have named after him besides the DC, New York and Chicago sewer system. Washington did not own slaves. How about Obozo. He owns slaves. We’re all his slaves. I’m fighting against this government enslavement that Obozo has forced on us. I’m gonna fight until the day I die. “Give me liberty or give me death.” Go to website: http://www.haasstrep68.com
See website: http://www.haasstrep68.com Please, listen to the song on page 1 completely.
This was one of a number of boondoggles where government employees through their unions received a day off with pay which was never originally intended. Great Job Floyd and Mary Beth.
Washington’s Birthday
When Congress, in January 1879, added George Washington’s Birthday to the list of holidays to be observed in the District of Columbia, the principal intent of that resolution was to make February 22 “a bank holiday.”5
Although there is no indication in the authorizing statutes of 1870 and 1879 (or in the accompanying floor debates) that any federal employees were to be paid for such holidays, an analysis of holiday legislation subsequently signed by President Rutherford B. Hayes in April 1880 seems to support such a conclusion. This legislation was prompted by a grievance filed by a group of employees who had been denied holiday pay for the previous New Year’s Day while other federal workers had been paid for the day.
The House committee which favorably reported the bill stressed that while there were no existing laws requiring such payment, this group of employees, “in the committee’s opinion, should be placed upon an equality in this regard” with those of other government departments. The committee went on to point out that, on the “question of legal holidays,” the Revised Statutes of the United States were silent, but those relating to the District of Columbia were very precise on the issue. The implication was that the other federal employees in the District had already been paid for the holiday.6
Such reasoning is substantiated by an opinion issued by Acting Attorney General James C. McReynolds in August 1903. McReynolds indicated that, for “many years” prior to 1870, it was “customary to close the Executive Departments of the Government at Washington” on five holidays—New Year’s Day, George Washington’s Birthday, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day—that had been “declared to be such by District laws.”7
My 8 year old grandson was in 3rd grade last year and I asked him if they were doing something for Washington’s Birthday/Presidents Day in his school. He explained that they don’t call it that anymore…”It’s Obama Day now.” He was the only “white” male student in his class. Most of the others were Haitians. This is in a state which prides itself on their superior educational system. A state which has Harvard, and MIT.
How can I tell him that his teachers are lying to him? How can I tell him that Obama is ruining his chances of making a living 10 or 15 years from now? How can I tell him that he now owes over $200,000 to pay his share of Obama’s spending spree? How can I tell him that he probably won’t be able to vote when he turns 18 …or ever? How can I tell him that his little sister won’t be able to drive a car when she grows up and she could be killed if she speaks to a man who is not her husband?
Fortunately, he’s in a better school this year, with teachers who have better than a 6th grade education, but I’m afraid some damage is already done.
He learned his teachers are following one agenda or another and to he has to ask his parents which is right. You tell hin which is right and tell him what he learns from you is more important than what anyone else tells him. Keep him home one day a week old school teaching. Review what he has learned each day, that’s your homework.
It is time that our Education System Leaders be brought around to what and who have made this Country GREAT. They, the Educators seem to think it is not important to teach our Children what happened during the GREAT WARS of World War ONE and World War TWO.
They, the Educators seem to delve into noting b ut present day happening. WW One and WW Two were about STRONG ARMED DICTATORS trying to make the workd to their liking.
We have some people in our country right now trying to do the same thing.
Time to bring our Country back to what our Fore Fathers stated in the last 1400′s.
Need i say any more.
Just lump them all (presidents) together and set aside a special day for Marty just because the negroes say so. Disgusting!!!