2-20-12<\/p>\n
On President\u2019s Day this is a topic that has relevance, perhaps more so when \u201csocial issues\u201d inhabit headlines. Lest we judge, lest we be judged, we should acknowledge that it is an open question with no definitive answer, yet a fit topic for discussion. In the end, addressing who might have been the most observant<\/em> president would hew closer to historical evidence and verifiable records. <\/p>\n I addressed the topic last President\u2019s Day, it proved to be the most popular \u2013 or at least the recipient of the most \u201chits\u201d and reactions \u2013 in the three years I have been blogging and writing devotional essays. Are people hungry for intellectual \u201cparlor games”… or wanting to connect the dots between political leaders and Christian faith?<\/p>\n First: Presidents\u2019 Day is a holiday one of whose aspects I abhor: its mush-brained attempt at \u201cinclusiveness.\u201d Beyond a thank-you for the time certain presidents served, and sacrifices they probably made \u2013 already covered by various grade schools named for them, and the pensions they received \u2013 simply doing one\u2019s job should not be justification for a federal holiday.<\/p>\n To honor all<\/em> is a way of honoring none<\/em>. For historical saps like James Buchanan, sharing a national holiday with Abraham Lincoln is to knock the latter off a pedestal. Historical accidents like John Tyler and Millard Fillmore should not be mentioned in the same hemisphere as George Washington. Some few presidents did great things in great ways.<\/p>\n The impetus for President\u2019s Day was provided by unions and retailers, who desired another long weekend on the standard calendar. The result? Our civic saints live in the popular image, now, as Abe Lincoln impersonators hawking used cars on TV commercials; and George Washington (his talking portrait on animated dollar bills), not the Father of His Country, but the Father of the President\u2019s Day Weekend of Unbelievable Bargains and Sales.<\/p>\n Americans used to reject, but now embrace, the Marxian mindset of mediocrity \u2013 every thing, and every one, must be leveled. In America today we pull down some of humankind\u2019s greatest figures, like Washington and Lincoln, in order to \u2013 what? not hurt the feelings of Franklin Pierce and Chester Alan Arthur? There\u2019s<\/em> a lesson for our school children: grow up to become president, have a pulse, and you, too, will have post offices close a day in your honor.<\/p>\n Obviously I am eager to honor Washington and Lincoln, whose birthdays, this month, officially have been homogenized, as have their reputations. I do honor them, frequently, in my writing, and in discussions, and conversations with children, and in my reading and my studies. So should we all do with people and causes that we revere, even more urgently when the culture obscures them from our vision.<\/p>\n