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Holidays & Presidents' Day
Feb. 16th, 2004 12:49 pmI find holidays in the United States largely obscure and, as often as not, just an excuse to take a day off work--maybe to watch some football, barbeque some raw meat, or throw a frisbee around with the kids and dog, depending on the precise time of year. Beyond that, the holidays blend together.
"Monday's a holiday," Kimberly had mentioned to me a day or two ago.
"It's Presidents' Day, right", I said, quite unsure. That's my typical reaction, because Labor Day, Veteran's Day, Memorial Day, Presidents' Day ... they all run together.
This has been aided and abetted, no doubt, by a couple of my recent jobs. When I worked at Chaosium, we had a fairly arbitrary 12 or 13 days of holiday each year. We got Christmas and Thanksgiving, sure, and New Year's Day. But we also tended to have all the Friday the 13ths off and maybe Halloween instead of some of the many obscure American holidays. The staff at Chaosium liked it that way, because it meant that they had a few days off every year where everything was actually open. The real reason, though, I think, was contrariness. Much of the staff at Chaosium was good at that (most likely including myself).
At Skotos we only offer a couple of days holiday each year, but make up for that with more vacation. Since we're an always-on service, we decided that we couldn't afford to have all our employees taking the same "official" days off, so we let them spread out more via scheduled vacation.
To return to my long-winded point: the various holidays don't mean a lot to me.
On Presidents' Day
Which brings me back to Presidents' Day. Having figured out that this was indeed the holiday in question I dutifully spent a few moments in retrospective, considering the actions of the 43 men who have ruled our country.
What particular lystruck me is that I don't feel like we've had a good President during my entire lifetime. Some have been bad or horrendous, some mediocre, and some might have showed glimmers of greatness, but overall the Presidents of my lifetime are forgettable, other than their scandals.
I was born in 1972 and so my first president was Richard Nixon. What can you say about an obsessive paranoid with no respect for civil liberties?
Gerald Ford was next, and I have to say I know very little about him, other than the fact the he fell down a lot. He wasn't elected, and he served less than a full term.
Jimmy Carter is one of the two Presidents of my lifetime that I think will get some positive recognition in the long run. He did good things to bring peace to the Middle East, and overall seemed like a fair and kind man. He was brought down by a severe lack of charisma and a badly faltering economy.
Ronald Reagan is the other President that I think will be remembered. He oversaw an economic revival and is generally credited with bringing down the Soviet Union; personally, I don't believe either the economy or the state of the USSR had much to do with who was in office at the time, but maybe. On the flip side, he punched up the power of the military cartel in America, pushed the expensive and absurd SDI program, funded death squads throughout Latin America, and then supported George Bush, Ollie North, and others in lying about these programs. He in many ways outlined the plans of the next couple of Republican Presidents to, I think, the deficit of the country.
George Bush hides deep in Reagan's shadow, and there's very little to say about him, other than the fact that he fought the first Oil War in the Middle East. During his term the economy was once more on a downslide, and between that and his choice to fight a war overseas (or perhaps just to "win" it too quickly), he was doomed.
Bill Clinton was a President of Hope, that I think had a lot of opportunity to turn the country around. Instead he acted the consummate conservative. He railed against gay rights in his don't-ask-don't-tell decree and in his Defense of Marriage Act. He also gave more power to corporations through NAFTA and other giveaways, the true impact of which on our civil liberties still isn't understood by most Americans. (Don't worry, you'll see it, as corporations increasingly sue the American government for passing laws that impact their ability to make a profit.) Ultimately, Clinton's ability to govern was entirely undermined by his infidelity, fair or not, but given the laws he actually did pass, that might be just as well.
George W. Bush, I honestly believe, will go down in the history books as one of the worst Presidents ever. He's preyed upon people's fears and manipulated the American public through lies and deceptions in a way that's never before been seen. He's attacked two different countries and generally destabilized the International community--not just the Arabic world, but the European Union and its relationship to the U.S. as well. He's fought to deny equal rights to all Americans even more fiercely than Clinton, and he's generally tried to turn America into a religious oligarchy. I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop. I don't believe it's beyond him to personally stage a terrorist attack upon this country late in the year, then cancel the elections as a result.
To find actual good Presidents, I have to go further back in the 20th century. Woodrow Wilson did a lot to try and create an international community in the shadow of The Great War, even if he did ultimately fail. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, without a doubt, did an enormous amount to create our current society with his New Deal, and gave a lot of the freedoms and rights to individuals that we've slowly been eroding away ever since. I think JFK might have been a good president too, though its hard to say because of the mythology surrounding him. He definitely did a lot for the morale of the country with his moon program and managed to find his way through the Cuban missile crisis without the world being destroyed. On the other hand we have his disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion, and the fact that he just governed for 3 years.
So, there you go, Presidents' Day.
"Monday's a holiday," Kimberly had mentioned to me a day or two ago.
"It's Presidents' Day, right", I said, quite unsure. That's my typical reaction, because Labor Day, Veteran's Day, Memorial Day, Presidents' Day ... they all run together.
This has been aided and abetted, no doubt, by a couple of my recent jobs. When I worked at Chaosium, we had a fairly arbitrary 12 or 13 days of holiday each year. We got Christmas and Thanksgiving, sure, and New Year's Day. But we also tended to have all the Friday the 13ths off and maybe Halloween instead of some of the many obscure American holidays. The staff at Chaosium liked it that way, because it meant that they had a few days off every year where everything was actually open. The real reason, though, I think, was contrariness. Much of the staff at Chaosium was good at that (most likely including myself).
At Skotos we only offer a couple of days holiday each year, but make up for that with more vacation. Since we're an always-on service, we decided that we couldn't afford to have all our employees taking the same "official" days off, so we let them spread out more via scheduled vacation.
To return to my long-winded point: the various holidays don't mean a lot to me.
On Presidents' Day
Which brings me back to Presidents' Day. Having figured out that this was indeed the holiday in question I dutifully spent a few moments in retrospective, considering the actions of the 43 men who have ruled our country.
What particular lystruck me is that I don't feel like we've had a good President during my entire lifetime. Some have been bad or horrendous, some mediocre, and some might have showed glimmers of greatness, but overall the Presidents of my lifetime are forgettable, other than their scandals.
I was born in 1972 and so my first president was Richard Nixon. What can you say about an obsessive paranoid with no respect for civil liberties?
Gerald Ford was next, and I have to say I know very little about him, other than the fact the he fell down a lot. He wasn't elected, and he served less than a full term.
Jimmy Carter is one of the two Presidents of my lifetime that I think will get some positive recognition in the long run. He did good things to bring peace to the Middle East, and overall seemed like a fair and kind man. He was brought down by a severe lack of charisma and a badly faltering economy.
Ronald Reagan is the other President that I think will be remembered. He oversaw an economic revival and is generally credited with bringing down the Soviet Union; personally, I don't believe either the economy or the state of the USSR had much to do with who was in office at the time, but maybe. On the flip side, he punched up the power of the military cartel in America, pushed the expensive and absurd SDI program, funded death squads throughout Latin America, and then supported George Bush, Ollie North, and others in lying about these programs. He in many ways outlined the plans of the next couple of Republican Presidents to, I think, the deficit of the country.
George Bush hides deep in Reagan's shadow, and there's very little to say about him, other than the fact that he fought the first Oil War in the Middle East. During his term the economy was once more on a downslide, and between that and his choice to fight a war overseas (or perhaps just to "win" it too quickly), he was doomed.
Bill Clinton was a President of Hope, that I think had a lot of opportunity to turn the country around. Instead he acted the consummate conservative. He railed against gay rights in his don't-ask-don't-tell decree and in his Defense of Marriage Act. He also gave more power to corporations through NAFTA and other giveaways, the true impact of which on our civil liberties still isn't understood by most Americans. (Don't worry, you'll see it, as corporations increasingly sue the American government for passing laws that impact their ability to make a profit.) Ultimately, Clinton's ability to govern was entirely undermined by his infidelity, fair or not, but given the laws he actually did pass, that might be just as well.
George W. Bush, I honestly believe, will go down in the history books as one of the worst Presidents ever. He's preyed upon people's fears and manipulated the American public through lies and deceptions in a way that's never before been seen. He's attacked two different countries and generally destabilized the International community--not just the Arabic world, but the European Union and its relationship to the U.S. as well. He's fought to deny equal rights to all Americans even more fiercely than Clinton, and he's generally tried to turn America into a religious oligarchy. I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop. I don't believe it's beyond him to personally stage a terrorist attack upon this country late in the year, then cancel the elections as a result.
To find actual good Presidents, I have to go further back in the 20th century. Woodrow Wilson did a lot to try and create an international community in the shadow of The Great War, even if he did ultimately fail. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, without a doubt, did an enormous amount to create our current society with his New Deal, and gave a lot of the freedoms and rights to individuals that we've slowly been eroding away ever since. I think JFK might have been a good president too, though its hard to say because of the mythology surrounding him. He definitely did a lot for the morale of the country with his moon program and managed to find his way through the Cuban missile crisis without the world being destroyed. On the other hand we have his disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion, and the fact that he just governed for 3 years.
So, there you go, Presidents' Day.
