CELEBRATING . . . SOMEBODY

CELEBRATING . . . SOMEBODY

It's February 21, 2022.

Presidents Day.

Or President's Day.

Or Presidents' Day.

Never has the presence, absence or position of an apostrophe mattered so much.

In ten states, it's Presidents' Day. Call these the "s-pos" states.  In eight states, it's President's Day.  Call these the "pos-s" states.  And in three states, its Presidents Day.  Call these the "no-pos, just s" states. Together, and for reasons that will become clear later, call that triumvirate of choices the "s-trilogy".

This whole mess started in 1971 when the federal govenment passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act.  Beforehand, the country universally celebrated Washington's birthday on February 22.  The Act, however, moved that celebration to the third Monday in February, which means the holiday can occur anywhere from February 15 to February 21.  For most federal holidays, this creates no more than a convenient fiction.  Instead of celebrating on the actual day something happened, it gets moved to a Monday and everyone enjoys a three-day weekend.  

With the alteration on Washington's birthday, however, additional complications were introduced.  These were largely owing to the fact that Abraham Lincoln had also been born in February (on the 12th) and numerous states (though not the federal government) had proclaimed his birthday a holiday as well.  When the Uniform Monday Holiday Act passed, these states decided that they too would seize the third Monday in February to celebrate Lincoln as well.

Which has led to a veritable . . .

Linguistic Mess.

The pos-s states have just followed the federal government in treating the holiday (or at least referring to it)  as a celebration of Washington's birthday.  The s-pos states have apparently decided to honor Washington and Lincoln or Washington, Lincoln and all of their forty-four colleagues.  And the no-pos, just s states have punted on any precision at all.

Sharp minds will note that, when you add the s-pos, pos-s and no-pos, just s  states together, all you get is twenty-one. This means that thirty states have decided to forego any of these designations.  Even sharper minds will wonder how thirty states declined to embrace the s-trilogy in one form of another, when there are only fifty states and 21 plus 30 equals 51.

Not to worry.

Puerto Rico is not a state.

But it is an s-poser.

Anyway, back to those thirty others.

Among them, a host of alternatives has emerged.

Montana, Ohio, Utah, Colrado and Minnesota each embrace the holiday as a celebration of Washington and Lincoln's birthdays but avoid any catastrophic apostrophe problem by naming it after them specifically.  So it's "Lincoln's and Washington's Birthday" in Montana, "Washington and Lincoln's Birthday" in Minnesota and "Washington-Lincoln" or "Washington's and Lincoln's" "Day" in Colorado, Ohio and Utah, the latter of which abjures the hyphen. Maine goes for a compromise in favor of Washington. There it's "Washington's Birthday/President's Day". But Arizona goes the other way, with "Lincoln/Washington/Presidents' Day".

There are, however, purists.

States which are steadfast for Washington.

In Virginia, it's "George Washington Day".  In Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Louisiana and New York, it's "Washington's Birthday".  In Connecticut, Missouri and Illinois, it's a celebration of Washington's Birthday alone; each also celebrates Lincoln, but on the 12th.  And California celebrates it as Washington's Birthday but doesn't name it.

Then there are the real outliers.

Alabama celebrates the "George Washington/Thomas Jefferson Birthday".  Arkansas calls it the "George Washington's Birthday and Daisy Bates Day". And Indiana, Georgia and New Mexico celebrate in entirely different months.

At least one state appears exhausted by it all.

That would be Delaware.

Which doesn't observe the holiday.

For the five which remain  (for those of you still counting) . . .

Who knows.

I do not.

It is perhaps fitting that confusion should now be the order of this day. 

The country is polarized in the extreme.  As regular readers know, my own view is that there was nothing to celebrate in our forty-fifth president. And while I am convinced that this remains the case, especially given the events of January 6 and "the former guy's"  unyielding propagation of the outright lie that he won an election he clearly lost, I am equally baffled (and disturbed) by the fact that millions are still enthralled by him and that he either controls or at least has outsized influence in one of America's major political parties.

This is especially disturbing in light of the genesis of today.

Washington and Lincoln, despite their flaws, were giants in the American pantheon.  

The former helped birth a country by assuming a presidency the Founders crafted knowing he would be its first occupant. He then defined the job and thus created a template for future occupants.  His definition, which was non-partisan and faction-less, did not survive in anything resembling the actual form it took while he was president.  But at the very least he bequeathed an office bathed in the notion that the chief executive had to act in the interests of the nation as a whole and that federal unity was superior to state sovereignty.

As to the latter, he redefined the country, forcing it to come to terms with the founding Declaration and decide whether all were created equal in fact and not just in form.  He was willing to fight to see Jefferson's truth turned into reality.  But he also closely respected the representative realities that had to be accommodated in a diverse and widespread republic.  Slavery ended because of the Civil War.  There is no Emancipation Proclamation or Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution without it.  Lincoln knew this and his greatness, therefore,  is as much a testament to his patience as it is to his courage.

Which brings us back to today.

The actual today.

Not the today that is President's Day . . .  or Presidents' Day . . .  or whatever.

Our current President, Joe Biden, must operate on the knife's edge of an almost equally divided Congress where getting things done is next to impossible and a viscerally divided body politic that in many precincts hates any opponents.  

But whether you love him or hate him, the one thing Joe Biden has been in his thirteen months as President is . . . 

Patient.

As I write, he is attempting to cajole Vladimir Putin into foregoing an invasion of Ukraine that will upend the rules based order that has preserved the peace in Europe since 1945.  He is doing this by resurrecting the western alliance that Trump consistenly undermined and, through that alliance and the astute disclosure of real time intelligence, by making it clear to Putin that we know what he is planning as he is planning it and that he will pay dearly if he invades.  In the Trump Administration, Putin could count on either support or chaos, both of which he exploited.  That has ended.

At home Biden is attempting to cajole the stubborn among us who refuse to get vaccinated so that Covid can end and supply chains can recover.  In the best of all worlds, he would  not have to deal with partisans exploiting irrationality in the face of a health crisis.  In past health crises -- AIDS, SARS, etc. -- partisanship has been muted and irrationality avoided.  That, however, is not the world we live in today.  So Biden is working with what he has.

Whatever Joe Biden is, he is not the former guy.  There is a deliberateness and deliberation to the decision-making.  Gone are the petulent outbursts, the reactive tweets, the idiotic suggestions. No aides are rushing to the cable channels talking about alternative facts or walking back unhinged rants.

It may or may not work in the sense that the ultimate outcomes may or may not be preferred.  

As of now, there is no guarantee that Putin will not become a latter-day Nazi and take over some part  or all of an independent European state. There is also no guarantee that inflation will end within the next few months.  

What there is, however, is a steadiness in the White House that was missing for four years.

And on this day, whoever and whatever it honors, that is somebody to . . . 

Celebrate.