Jack of Harts

We just got done celebrating Presidents Day, though celebrating may be too strong a word. I remember when I was a kid, we celebrated Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays separately, but then modified the holiday schedule to add Martin Luther King day and then have a generic Presidents Day. Now of course, there is little mention of the holiday at all.

Today we have to go looking to learn about the Presidents that came before us, unless we are talking about which recent President we plan to impeach next. Or which jobs the current President plans on erasing with his next Executive Order.

When I was a kid, we learned how George Washington could not lie about cutting down some tree, and how he led the Continental Army that helped liberate our nation, and later served as the first President under our second Constitution. We knew Jackson fought the Bloody British at the Battle of New Orleans by firing cannons until the barrels melted down. Then he grabbed an alligator and fought another round. We learned about how Lincoln and his famous Stove Pipe Hat held the nation together after the Democrats touched off a Civil War because they didn’t think the Republicans would let them keep their slaves. They ended up being right on that point. We learned how Teddy Roosevelt charged up some hill during an old war with Spain or something and conquered Cuba. We read about Wilson bringing us into World War I and FDR pulling us through the Great Depression and World War II. We knew Truman Dropped The Bomb on Japan, and that Everybody Liked Ike.

Not everything we learned was accurate, of course. But that was the thing. We were celebrating the Presidents of the past, and sometime telling tall tales about them while we were at it. We celebrated our country, and all the great things we did.

That is not fashionable today, so it is up to those of us who love our nation to remember what we were taught. How the Presidents have sometimes saved and sometimes changed our nation. Cherish the good ones and remember the bad ones.

It’s Presidents Day. A good day to remember and celebrate the Presidents who have represented our nation.