February 22, 2024. Happy Washington’s Birthday. I’m recalling a time when George Washington (born February 22, 1732) and Abraham Lincoln (born February 12, 1809) each had his own day of acknowledgement and celebration. Now we ignore both dates in favor of a generic Presidents’ Day, celebrated on the third Monday in February, not on the actual anniversary of either president’s birth. What an affront!
Happy birthday, George.
Oh what has become of your high office! You’ve had some incredibly unworthy, and a few gifted, successors. And the powers associated with the office have gone in directions you’d surely find offensive and inappropriate. Makes me wonder who’s speaking for you today, reminding us of the ideas and ideals that animated you and our other founders when this country was new, and you were striving to create a system of governance in the wake of a bloody war and in light of the needs and opportunities of the day.
And I wonder how those ideas and ideals might shape what we might invent to respond to the needs and opportunities of our day.
You left us the sins of slavery and racism. But maybe that’s also a topic for February 12, not just February 22. You didn’t know the benefits and costs of a two-party system, but I wonder what you’d have to say today as neither party is faring or serving us well. You and your colleagues left us an Electoral College which is a disastrous assault on a true democratic presidency. You probably could not have imagined the distortions money works in our elections and public debate. We seem to have devolved into the best government that money can buy, with the attendant tilt to those with money, lots of money.
We know that broadsides, attacks, distortions, and lies infected political discourse in your day, but maybe you have some advice about how to address their poisonous effects in an era when bots and connectivity make calming the waters and steadying the soapbox for debate seem like a distant memory, if not a fantasy.
You were experimenting as you invented democracy, trying out new ideas, risking occasional missteps and failures that were the inevitable corollary to the uncertainty of the moment. George, where’s the appetite for that today as we’re living with the results of your best efforts when ours are called for?
So many concerns, George. So many questions. And we don’t even have a whole day dedicated to raising and addressing them. What a loss.
Happy birthday anyway.
A bit mournful but does reflect my discouragement at our governing bodies' apparent inability to act in the public interest.
These are certainly uncertain and unsettling times. Thanks for reading and engaging!