Monday, February 15, 2010

Presidents Day -- come on, really?


Today is Presidents Day. The reason I know that is I tried to call a credit union today and was told essentially they were closed for Presidents Day. Made it sound all official. What it didn't say is they were on the last third of a three-day weekend like most federal institutions.

OK, it's Presidents Day, so what. What happened to George Washington's birthday and Lincoln's too?

Presidents' Day used to be just Washington's birthday, but it's observed on the third Monday of February.

In 1968, legislation was enacted that affected several federal holidays. One of these was Washington's birthday, the observation of which was shifted to the third Monday in February each year. This act was designed to simplify the yearly calendar of holidays.

A common misconception is that Presidents' Day is the unification of Washington's Birthday and Lincoln's Birthday, or that it is a celebration of all U.S. Presidents. Both of these assumptions are false.

So what's it for besides closing the banks? Big deal, Presidents day. Let's have Meter Maid day then.

If you're the President or a former President of the United States, then, yes, you should get the day off. So Obama, both Bushes, Clinton, who may not be feeling all that well anyway, and Carter. hey, go see a movie, watch Oprah, skydive out of plane, take your wife to lunch, do whatever you do on a day off.

But for the rest of you who got the day off, you should be required to at least submit a paper on one of the presidents because, fact is, you should have been at work today.

4 comments:

Texas Lawyer said...

I'm not sure I follow your logic. Would you find it more acceptable if we celebrated Washington's birthday on the same date every year? Or are you just angry because the Credit Union was closed?

What other holidays do you object to? What criteria should we use to decide which holidays are o.k. to celebrate at all; which ones are permitted to be celebrated on Monday;, and which should be ignored. Maybe we should have some sort of democratic process to decide whether the government should be closed on particular days....

Oh wait, we do. "In 1968, legislation was enacted..."

kf said...

Lighten up, Texas Lawyer.

Canadian Wildcat Football said...

He's an angry man, I'd say.

Barry Cochran said...

JMB's the one who should lighten up.

I didn't get the day off, but don't seethe with resentment at those who did.

If most of the newspaper staff feel this way, maybe they should stop accepting all of those President's Day Sale advertisements?