Beyond-Presidents Day

It seems that the natural progression towards enlightenment is from more government to less.  Unfortunately, this is not the natural progression of history.  All progress is not forward.  As children become adults, they learn to become less dependent on their parents.  In my opinion, the most significant breakthrough in this process is understanding that you really don't need your parents' help any more.  This point often comes after it has been true for quite a while.  Likewise, as a society matures the people within it begin to understand that they require less and less help from their parental "public servants."  Maybe someday we will have the ability and the widespread understanding required to live without them entirely, but I won't hold my breath.  We need baby steps, and I propose that we start by getting beyond "Presidents Day".

The office of the presidency is too powerful as it is.  We don't need any further excuses for the average citizen to sit in mindless and uncritical awe of its present and former holders.  They have been programmed for a lifetime to accept the primacy of "the leader of the free world."  Think back to grade school.  Were you taught anything substantive about decentralization of power, the philosophical underpinnings of the revolution, the debates between the founders, the Articles of Confederation, the history of the central banks, or the various political and economic factors that culminated in the war between the States?  If you were like me, you weren't taught any of that.  Instead, you were forced to memorize the names of all the past presidents in order - rote memorization in its most banal form.  Instead of learning fascinating and critical information our minds were turned off by tedium, and every year we celebrate with ritual.

I hereby propose that from now on we celebrate the third Monday in February as "Beyond-Presidents Day."