One Over X News

Abe Birthington's Washday

When I was young there were two Presidential birthdays observed in February. Neither of them was a school holiday. I don't recall but I think banks and the post office were closed though. I guess that for such a short month, two legal holidays were too much. Thank God there was no official observance of Groundhog Day or St Valentine's Day. Other than the passing reference to whether Phil saw his shadow, I ignored GHD.

Observing St. V's Day was kind of silly too. There was the annual, traditional and almost mandatory exchange of valentines with all the members of the opposite sex. Not only did you give them to the prettiest girls - those that would never otherwise give you the time of day but also you had to include all those that you feared might actually believe that you had some cloistered amorous intentions. I suppose in these politically correct times it has not occurred to anyone that this practice probably violates some obscure federally-mandated something-or-the-other as it discriminates against those that might want to exchange some same-sex valentines. Don't laugh.

It usually takes Congress to create something utterly ridiculous. A case in point may well be President's Day.

You may have noticed on the calendar that Abe Lincoln and George Washington's birthdays are ten days apart. It is kind of obvious; even Congress noticed it. I think it was around the same time that Congress decided to make the daylight appear to last longer, that they also created a holiday so that we would not have to officially honor each of the two individuals that were born in February. If they were still alive to know about it they would pprobably react the same way that my daughter Amanda might if I told her that since her birthday is on the 19th of December and so close to Christmas that we are just going to pick a day between the two and celebrate that instead.

I could be wrong but as I recall in the years that followed the tragic assassination in 1963,there was a little discussion about making John F. Kennedy's birthday a national holiday and as should come as little surprise Congress could not seem to agree on doing that. They had already replaced the venerable Ben Franklin's likeness on the 50 cent piece to create the Kennedy Half Dollar.

Anyway, the creation of a combined holiday eventually sort of served to quell all the emotionally driving and politically controversial good intentions; thereby the new holiday was extended to honor all past and present presidents so that in the event that someone might ever think of creating a holiday to honor someone else, say Harry S. Truman, Calvin Coolidge or Chester B. Arthur - well you see my point. There could have been a situation that almost everyday in the year was a Presidential birthday and national holiday giving Congress an even greater excuse to not be in session.

The way that President's Day emerged it became a simple way to honor, remember and basically have excuse for the rest of the year to ignore the times of the greatest and the most obscure of all the Presidents. Combine everything into one grand celebration that could be remembered in a tribute to the office itself and the individuals that have served. There is a sort of egalitarian logic about that and it strikes me as being a particularly American sort of thing to do. At any rate it was a fairly intelligent and therefore probably unintended after thought pursuant to the legislation. I was there and I know that at the outset the holiday was only intended to honor the two patron demigods of American myth and legend: George that could never tell a lie and good ol'honest Abe.

When Congress was debating the matter. It wasn't like the creation of the holiday really needed a whole lot of discussion but just that debating is one of the things that Congress seems intent on doing and they are pretty good at it since they have had a lot of practice. Someone asked my mother what they were going to call the combined holiday. Her reply was classic and clearly it made me laugh because it was just as ridiculous as the whole concept of combining the two birthdays. Then and ever after February not only has been unique for its having merely 28 or sometimes 29 days. It is the shortest month of the year given to honor the history of Black people - like the issuer of tribute months could not muster up a 30 or 31 day month not to mention how easily the contribution of the Black men and women of this country is for the most part conveniently ignored for the other 11 months of the year. February has been forever associated in my mind with everything else that is kind of off-center and maybe even sideways about our country.

By the way, my mom's suggestion was, what else - 'Abe Birthington's Washday'.

E

posted by Unknown @ 11:52 AM