Presidents Day – Let’s Not Forget to Honor the Big Three
By Michael Bresciani (02/19/06)
There is little doubt that people now remember Presidents day as a day to
find a good deal on a car. How did things get like this?
Commerce was never meant to be at odds with congress or even juxtaposed
with it. But Presidents Day, it seems, like other special holidays has
gone the way of all flesh. Even as a boy I remember questioning how the
Birth of a Savior could be overtaken by the notion of a fat little
benevolent man who comes bearing gifts. How did the celebration of a risen
Savior get replaced with a candy egg bearing bunny? How are the hopes of a
new year brought in by ending the old one in a drunken stupor? These
questions don’t need to be answered as much as pondered. The answers are
largely understood, knowing how to back out of our clearly cuckoo behavior
is not.
Would George Washington be glad to know that we have found a way to honor
his work in the founding of this country by making deals on an invention
he could not have imagined in his own time? Perhaps he might be let down
by the fact that Lincoln at least got a car named after him. But where is
the new Dodge George Washington four wheel drive SUV?
Lincoln was known for many things but not one of them could be remotely
connected to the sales of automobiles. How is it that automobiles got
connected to him? Hasn’t anyone noticed that a fleet of Lincoln
Continentals cannot compare even marginally to the great character and
legacy that Lincoln left to us all?
Lincoln said “Intelligence, patriotism Christianity and a firm reliance
are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present
difficulty.” Was he remiss or did he forget to add the part about a good
deal on a car?
It was said that Lincoln was more like a spirit than a man. He was the
only president who not only was unafraid to use God in his speeches but he
actually referred to Jesus Christ as well. He was well known for the many
failures in his life. They all seemed to prepare him for the one great
success which was even more than his presidency but the preservation of
the union itself.
Well known was Lincoln’s ability to defuse a hot situation and bring peace
and harmony where there was discord. His more down home quality may have
been the ability to split logs to make rail fences and he was very good at
that it is said. One lesser known talent was banjo picking and singing old
folk ditties. Even these proclivities can’t be thought of as anything
resembling barking for the sale of a people moving buggy.
In my grammar school days we were told the story of how Lincoln walked
five miles back to the merchant who gave him too much change. He returned
a penny. Judging from the pennies I see on supermarket floors and parking
lots, I’d say people wouldn’t even bother to bend over to pick up a penny
today. Some say this story may not be true at all. I say that if anyone
might have done it that way it was probably Abraham Lincoln.
Being a good student is scoffed at in today’s schools. Trying to be kind
is thought of as weakness in the land of extreme sports and blood fights.
And renowned men of old whose character and deeds are legendary are
insulted by our indifference.
Is the final insult to replace or supplant all repose to them in any
fashion with the super sale of the latest stuff out of Detroit? By our
indifference to the presidents both in practice and in the halls of
academia perhaps we should heed the warnings of Lincoln who said “The
philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of
government in the next.”
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