Doing little things well is a step toward doing big things better.
Harry F. Banks
A Brief Commentary on This Holiday
I had to do some computer DBA security work over this past weekend; quite often outages on nights, weekends or holidays serve related purposes to minimize impact on users during regular workdays. My point of contact used "Washington's Birthday" which seemed somewhat odd; I probably have heard it called Presidents' Day since early adulthood; this includes TV ads which celebrate sales on or around every public holiday. I was vaguely aware of some states fusing the February Washington and Lincoln birthday celebrations. But on closer reflection, my contact was absolutely correct: on the federal calendar, it's still Washington's Birthday.In recent years, I had become much more of a critic and skeptic of Lincoln; this had nothing to do with any neo-Confederacy or slavery sympathies. (To any libertarian, slavery is a first order offense against the unalienable right to liberty. Many of us feel the collapse of slavery in the South was inevitable, especially given a slave-free Northern Union which would repeal the Fugitive Slave Law.) But to us, Lincoln through the Civil War violated the non-aggression principle and the principle of voluntary association.The Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to Union slave states. His first inaugural address made it clear that he would support retention of Southern state slavery from a constitutional perspective; what he would not negotiate is loss of his Southern state tariff income. Not to mention his flagrant violations of the Bill of Rights, including repression of the critical press.
Let's be clear: I find it ironic for a republic to celebrate a surrogate for a strongman. To be honest, if we are going to celebrate government (ironic for a libertarian), I would prefer a more inclusive Public Service Day, also recognizing the contributions of legislators and jurists.
In more recent years, I've used the holiday to feature less celebrated Presidents like Grover Cleveland and Calvin Coolidge. But in the future, I'll probably return to calling it Washington's birthday. This is a man on multiple occasions voluntarily withdrew from public service or any related personal agenda or ambition. He was nonpartisan during his Presidential tenure.
