President's Day....a cautionary tale?

Once upon a time, there was a country called America.  In this exceptional country, years ago, the children learned about its constitution, learned songs which celebrated the great land they lived in, and were proud to recite a pledge of allegiance to this country's flag every morning in school. Children learned about the founding fathers, the presidents, and women who contributed to this country's greatness .  They learned that these men and women were intelligent and worked hard in creating a country which its people could be proud of and which would stand as a beacon for those immigrants wanting to share in its dream, when people wanted to be AMERICANS.  In those days, the immigrants came in legally, never thinking of sneaking into this great country because they had integrity and pride and wanted to contribute, not detract from this country they knew would give them opportunities they could not have dreamed of in their own lands.  America was a great reality for some and a hopeful dream to others.

The children in that America learned about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and most of the other presidents, and even knew the dates during which they served.  They learned to admire these men and some of the children even hoped they would grow up and be like them. 

Then, something happened.  Learning about the presidents and saying the pledge and studying the constitution became old fashioned.   Teachers argued that memorization was a waste of time and who cared what dates people served, anyway?  The pledge became a thing of the past because there might be children from other countries there and their sensitivities were more important than that of the vast majority of American children.  All that children in America did for years and years now became not only old fashioned but deplorable to some who lived in this land.  Suddenly, children knew President's Day was a day off from school, but they weren't quite sure to which presidents they owed this stroke of luck. They wondered if two presidents might have been born on that same Monday but weren't sure which ones.  To be honest, by this time, the children weren't sure what a president did.  They heard people arguing about them and screaming at each other on television about which was better but they didn't know if that mattered or why those adults had to get so angry.  And it seemed to them, from TV, that only Democrat presidents were good, but that's really all they knew.


This country called America didn't do too well after that.  These children who didn't know anything about presidents or the constitution or much else about the country started wondering what exactly America WAS after all.  Why would anybody fight for it?  Why be proud of it?  Why put its interest first?  Some even got into college and wondered why we had been so great and wasn't it time to give another country the chance to be a world power, but when people asked those kids which other country they might suggest, they couldn't think of one. Didn't some other country have great people who founded it and greater people still who continued that drive to be the best, to help other lands through amazing generosity, to be a beacon to those who hoped to come from lands lacking opportunity?  No.  Odd, but they couldn't think of one. Maybe they were living in the most exceptional country in the world, maybe they did have great opportunity, maybe it was worth fighting for.......could that BE?   And, just maybe, those presidents were on to something?

Is it silly to suggest the fact that we celebrate President's Day without names mentioned is problematic to this country?   Is it a huge stretch to think our children not knowing which presidents got them a day off is metaphorical for something bigger, far, far worse? 
I'm not sure.  I hope not.

What do you think?

Happy ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND GEORGE WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAYS DAY.  Please only read the rest of you have time..........mostly, I'd like to hear your opinions of my thoughts above.  Thanks!  Z

No matter what our kids and the new generation think about us, WE ARE AWESOME !!! OUR Lives are LIVING PROOF !!!    To Those of   Us  Born   1925 - 1970  : ~~~~~~~~~  TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE  1930s, '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s!! First, we survived being born to mothers who may have smoked and/or drank  while they were pregnant.    They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.    Then, after that trauma, we were  put to sleep on our tummies  in baby cribs covered  with bright colored lead-based paints.    We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets,  and, when we rode our bikes,  we had baseball caps,  not helmets, on our heads.   As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.. Riding in the back of a pick- up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.    We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter, and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And we weren't overweight. WHY?    Because we were always outside playing...that's why!    We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.  No one was able to reach us all day.  --And, we were OKAY..    We would spend hours building  our go-carts out of scraps  and then ride them down the hill,  only to find out we forgot the brakes.. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We did not have Play Stations, Nintendos and X-boxes. There were  no video games, no 150 channels on cable,  no video movies or DVDs,  no surround-sound or CDs,  no cell phones,  no personal computers,  no Internet and no chat rooms.     WE HAD FRIENDS  and we went outside and found  them!    We fell out of trees, got cut,  broke bones and teeth,  and there were no lawsuits  from those accidents.. We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping-pong paddles, or just a bare hand, and no one would call child services to report abuse.       We ate worms, and mud pies  made from dirt, and  the worms did not live in us forever.    We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.  Little League had tryouts  and not everyone made the team.  Those who didn't had to learn  to deal with disappointment.     The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!   These generations have produced some of the best   risk-takers,  problem solvers and inventors ever. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.  You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives  for our own good.  And WE LEARNED TO LOVE OUR COUNTRY!!! (Z)   While you are at it, forward it to your kids, so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.  Thanks, commenter-pal Impertinent, for sending this to me just in time to include it in my Monday blog post above.............it was a perfect fit, in my opinion. God bless America. Oh, I forgot:   George Washington (1732-1799) Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)  :-) z