Presidents Day? Which Presidents?

Washington? Lincoln? Millard Fillmore?

David C. Stolinsky, MD
Feb. 15, 2010

February 15 is Presidents Day. It isn’t Lincoln’s Birthday, which was Feb. 12. It isn’t Washington’s Birthday, which will be Feb. 22. It is just a day planned so we can have a three-day weekend. Instead of a day to honor our great leaders of the past, it became merely a day not to work and to enjoy sales at stores. The meaning was removed.

Presidents Day? Which president? Millard Fillmore? He was an anti-Catholic bigot who signed the Fugitive Slave Law, which forced slaves who escaped to free states to be returned to their owners. Why should I honor him? Why should I mix the inferior with the outstanding? The result is a mediocre average that inspires neither admiration nor imitation, but merely apathy.

Now young people are taught not to honor even our great men. Lincoln held the Union together, ended slavery and was shot for his efforts. But he expressed − by today’s standards − racist views, so we can’t honor him. Washington was indispensable to the founding of our republic, but he owned slaves − though he freed them at his death − so we can’t honor him, either. No human is perfect, so all role models are removed, leaving our nation, like so many of our young people, fatherless.

America is undergoing a historectomy. No, not a hysterectomy, removal of the uterus, but a historectomy, removal of our history. But the two are related. Without a uterus, an individual can’t have children. Without a history, a nation can’t teach its values to the next generation. In both cases, continuity becomes impossible.

Unlike most nations, America is a relatively recent invention. Its population shifted over time with waves of immigration, and is still shifting because of continued immigration.

Unlike most nations, America is an idea. To define America, we cannot refer to an ancient land with a stable population. No, to define America we must refer to the ideas and ideals on which it is based.

But are we trying to preserve these ideas and pass them on to the next generation? Or are we doing our best to eradicate these ideas from our collective memory? Are we attempting to induce national amnesia? Are we performing a historectomy? Are we taking the soul of our nation and hitting the Delete key?

When I went to grammar school, we pledged allegiance to the flag every morning. We were taught patriotic songs for national holidays. And we enjoyed Christmas and Easter vacations, not winter and spring breaks. After all, the vast majority of Americans, and all of the founders, identified themselves as Christians.

In junior high, I had to memorize the Gettysburg Address, the Preamble to the Constitution, and the first and fourth verses of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” If you want to learn how a house is constructed, first study the foundation. But now, memorization is “old fashioned.”

In high school, I had to take American history and civics, not “social studies.” We learned about the great people and great events of our history, and (to a lesser degree) some of the unhappy events. I took ROTC, where my role models were master sergeants who had fought to defend my freedom. But now, ROTC has been kicked out of many high schools and universities.

I went to school, but I loved movies. I saw “Sergeant York,” the true story of how a pacifist farmer recognized that violent evildoers must be opposed by force, then went on the win the Medal of Honor. I saw “They Died With Their Boots On,” a fictionalized account of General Custer, but at least I learned that he played a key role in the Civil War, which is more than today’s kids know.

And there was “The Fighting Sixty-Ninth,” depicting Father Duffy’s role in this New York unit’s World War I exploits. So when I passed his statue in Times Square, I may have been the only one on the tour bus who knew who he was – not bad for a Jewish kid from North Dakota. But, you see, I was brought up to be an American.

Then there were the John Ford films of the West, where the U.S. Army was depicted in a sympathetic (perhaps overly sympathetic) light. I saw depictions of Abe Lincoln and Thomas Edison. I was being entertained at the movies, but I was also being exposed to my country’s past.

Contrast my upbringing with that of today’s kids:

· Today’s kids read books and hear lectures that describe America’s past as questionable at best, and evil or downright genocidal at worst.

· Today’s kids mumble a few words of the first verse of the “Star-Spangled Banner” at sports events. Forget about the fourth verse, the one that mentions (gasp!) God.

· Today’s kids are taught that the founders were deists, not Christians – that is, if religion is mentioned at all.

· Today’s kids are lucky to place the Revolution or the Civil War in the right century, much less the right decade.

· Today’s kids identify Grant as the man on the $50 bill, not the man who led the Union to victory and helped end slavery.

· Today’s kid’s see movies depicting our leaders as scheming warmongers, and our military as sadistic morons (“Spartan,” “Rendition,” “Syriana”).

· Today’s kids see clergy depicted as idiots or criminals, and Christianity shown as an oppressive, destructive force (“Sin City”, “The Godfather Part III,” “The Da Vinci Code”.

· Today’s kids, and even law students, are taught that the Constitution is a “living document.” (Do you give it mouth-to-page respiration if it collapses?) That is, it means whatever a judge says it means today. Tomorrow it may mean something else. In effect, kids are taught that we have no Constitution, but are ruled by the “elite.”

· Today’s kids are deprived of ROTC instructors or Scoutmasters as role models, so they may turn to a gang or cult. They are no longer exposed to the traditions that I was lucky enough to have passed on to me.

Traditions are important – they help us carry on when it is easier, or safer, to quit. People who have been deprived of their history and traditions are unlikely to survive as a nation in times of danger. To me, this would be a tragedy. But to those who have been erasing our history and traditions, whether we survive as a nation is a matter of indifference.

The current generation of Americans has been taught little of the foundations of their country. And what they were taught was often negative. What they saw in movies only served to strengthen this negative impression. No wonder they view America with ambivalence at best, and with open hostility at worst. Are “Taliban” John Walker Lindh and “Al Qaeda” Adam Gadahn aberrations, or just the tip of the iceberg? Time will tell.

People in other nations have also been taught to see us as despicable. Hollywood depicts us that way, and liberal politicians describe us that way. Why are we surprised when others see us that way? Why are we shocked when terrorists act on this belief? We are doing it to ourselves.

If you want to destroy a house, undermine the foundation. If you want to destroy a nation, do the same. If you want to destroy people who are defined by ideas, trash the ideas. If you want to bring down a society that is sustained by its history, perform a historectomy.

You want a meaningless day off work, so you can check out the sales? Then Presidents Day is for you. But I prefer Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays. I’m old enough to remember when holidays had a deeper significance.

Dr. Stolinsky writes on political and social issues. Contact: dstol@prodigy.net.

www.stolinsky.com