Don't Celebrate "Presidents' Day"

This "Presidents' Day," I recommend you take the advice of former First Lady Nancy Reagan: "Just say No!" Yes, I'm aware she was talking about drugs, but her advice should also be applied to the most shallow and ridiculous holiday of the year.

Of course, according to the United States Code, there really is no "Presidents' Day." The holiday does not officially exist. The third Monday in February is formally designated as George Washington's Birthday Observed. But who's George Washington? Ask most Americans to name just five specific, tangible contributions Washington made to America, and they'd mumble something about "first President," "cherry tree," and "false teeth." Therein, of course, lies the problem. To put it bluntly: We are CLUELESS about the Father of our Country.

It didn't use to be that way. For years, George Washington was a central focus in our classrooms. Now, his portrait has disappeared from classroom walls and very little is said about him in many of our nation's textbooks. His birthday was once universally observed with school cancellations, business closures, proclamations, speeches, and even an annual reading in Congress of Washington's Farewell Address. James Rees, executive director of Mount Vernon, writes: "[Senior citizens] frequently tell me about the George Washington's Birthday parades they viewed as children and the school assemblies that featured skits about Washington's honesty and goodness." Those days are largely gone.

Though it is but a part of a larger problem, the demise of Washington's holiday began in 1968, when Congress passed the Monday Holidays Act. This act moved the official observance of Washington's Birthday to the third Monday in February, regardless of where February 22 (his actual birthday, according to the Gregorian calendar) fell during the week.

While convenient for workers and families, the Monday Holidays Act reduced our cherished national holidays to little more than three-day vacation weekends and commercial sales bonanzas. Washington's Birthday became merely a day to pack up the kids and visit Grandma or check out department store sales. Washington's fate was sealed in the 1970s and 1980s when it became fashionable to refer to the February holiday as "Presidents' Day." The result has been that Americans now see the weekend, originally set aside to honor George Washington, as a highly commercialized and ambiguous tribute to all of our nation's Presidents.

Now, at a time when George Washington is so neglected throughout the year, he can't even get prominence on his own birthday! Instead, Washington enjoys no higher tribute on "Presidents' Day" than William Henry Harrison (who served merely 30 days in office) or James Buchanan (who watched helplessly and incompetently as the Union splintered in 1860). That we have allowed this to happen to the Father of our Country is shameful and inexcusable.

It was George Washington who led the nation to victory in the American Revolution. It was Washington who headed off a potential military coup, at a now-forgotten standoff in Newburgh, New Jersey. It was Washington who resigned his commission upon the formal end of the Revolutionary War, confirming that the United States would begin under civilian leadership. It was Washington who presided over our Constitutional Convention, strengthening our federal government and giving our nation a chance to survive and prosper on the world stage. It was Washington who, as our country's first President, navigated our infant nation through serious domestic and foreign challenges. And it was Washington who walked away from power once again, by retiring from the presidency after two terms.

Congress, state legislatures, county boards, city councils, and school boards across the nation should pass measures similar to H.R. 75, the Washington-Lincoln Recognition Act. We must restore George Washington's Birthday, while also finding a way to specifically and appropriately honor Abraham Lincoln. Combining both men into one holiday, however, is not the answer. And the fact that they must share that day with the other forty-one Presidents is particularly abhorrent.

It is time we right this wrong. It must start with abolishing Presidents' Day at every level of our society and restoring George Washington to his rightful place of prominence.