Jack of Harts

We celebrated the birthdays of President Lincoln and President Washington when I was young. Each had their own day, and I remember the celebrations of what they did. One created our country. One saved the Union and freed the slaves. It was a time to study and remember the tyranny our nation was born in, and the courage it took to stand against the most powerful nation on Earth. And it was a time to remember the war that took more American lives than any other, that pitted brother against brother, and resulted in the end of Slavery in America. We would read Washington’s Farewell Address, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, and the Emancipation Proclamation in those days. Then Reverend Martin Luther King was granted a Federal Holiday, and the Lincoln Birthday celebrations just went away. Washington’s Birthday became President’s Day, and the idea of celebrating the President who freed the slaves disappeared under the appeal of showing the actual footage of Martin Luther King having a dream of equality. He was a great man, and he deserves recognition, but I will always associate the celebration of his birthday as the year we stopped celebrating Lincoln’s Birthday. And that is a great shame. Goodbye President Lincoln.