Peter Roff: ‘President’s Day’ is a Ridiculous Insult to George Washington
[Peter Roff is a columnist for U.S. News & World Report.]
On Monday America will again observe Presidents' Day, the holiday established to honor all the former chief executives of the United States.
It wasn't always so. In 1968, under the provisions of the so-called "Long Weekend Act," the United States Congress changed the calendar in order to move George Washington's birthday to the most convenient Monday. The three-day weekend the act created, while helpful as a stimulus for shopping, does little to honor the memory of the nation's first, and perhaps greatest, president.
President Richard M. Nixon, who probably suspected even then that it was unlikely his birthday would ever become a national holiday, seized the opportunity Congress had provided and, in his first Washington's birthday proclamation as president, called for a remembrance of all the former presidents--not just Washington. Thus "the father of our country" was eclipsed on the calendar and began his slow descent from the pantheon of immortals that have guided this nation for more than 200 years.
Read entire article at U.S. News & World Report
On Monday America will again observe Presidents' Day, the holiday established to honor all the former chief executives of the United States.
It wasn't always so. In 1968, under the provisions of the so-called "Long Weekend Act," the United States Congress changed the calendar in order to move George Washington's birthday to the most convenient Monday. The three-day weekend the act created, while helpful as a stimulus for shopping, does little to honor the memory of the nation's first, and perhaps greatest, president.
President Richard M. Nixon, who probably suspected even then that it was unlikely his birthday would ever become a national holiday, seized the opportunity Congress had provided and, in his first Washington's birthday proclamation as president, called for a remembrance of all the former presidents--not just Washington. Thus "the father of our country" was eclipsed on the calendar and began his slow descent from the pantheon of immortals that have guided this nation for more than 200 years.