I didn't note this article by Lee Harris on the "father of our country" yesterday, when it would have been more appropriate (though it still wouldn't have been his actual birthday), but it's still certainly worth reading today, or any day. And I wholeheartedly agree with this:

Today we now call it President's Day, and no longer celebrate Washington's Birthday. This is a pity. For without the greatness, wisdom, and humanity of our first President, the office of the Presidency would almost certainly have become something radically different from what any of us are familiar with—indeed, it might well have become something that none of us would feel much like celebrating. It was not the written document called the Constitution that protected us from tyranny; it was the shining example of a single man.

The notion of "President's Day" is a travesty, and one that Congress should amend. Lumping all the presidents together, as though they're all somehow worthy of honoring on the same level as Washington and Lincoln--even the Buchanans and Hardings and Carters--just to create another three-day weekend, is a blight on those men's memory.

Let's not forget Washington the land surveyor and speculator. Western Lands were yesteryear's space colonies.

Amen.

GW was an incredible person, president, and rightly the father of our nation.

-g

We don't celebrate Washington's birthday because he is an icon of the "old" United States. The one defined in terms of freedom and liberty. The United States of the last 50 years has been defined in terms of the euphamisms "equality and justice". Washington is an embarassing reminder of when the socialist reformers didn't have a string to pull or a platform to stand on.

I don't know the details, but my take is that a King Washington wouldn't have gone over well. As I recall, about a third of the new country was still loyal to the UK and a third didn't care. Maybe the numbers had changed with the British defeat, but I don't see any schemes of royalty working out for Mr. Washington. My guess is that he figured that out as well. Perhaps this story was spread around a bit for propaganda purposes during one of the two elections.

I'd say however that his actions after the Revolutionary War indicate that he never was particularly interested in acquiring power. Truly a fortunate coincidence for the fledgeling US.

Hear, hear!!!

It's not certain how the practice of calling the holiday 'Presidents' Day' started but its *official* name remains 'Washington's Birthday'. per 5 U.S.C. 6103. See http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode05/usc_sec_05_00006103----000-.html

or http://tinyurl.com/5hoa5 .

I have no problem with recognizing all President's with President's Day, so long as they all follow Washington's example and yield power after their term is over. When that happens, they preserve the leadership that Washington set as the example for all nations.

Although I disliked Carter as a President, I respected his Presidency. The problem with Carter today is he no longer respects the Presidency.

I'm all for three day holidays. We should have a holiday for the great presidents like Clinton and Carter, and a holiday for the incompetent presidents like Bush I&II, Reagan, etc.