Honoring William Henry Harrison

In Honor of Presidents Day, I wanted to write about one of our lesser known Commander in Chiefs, William Henry Harrison, our 9th President.  His presidency is remarkable for apparently only one reason.  He delivered the longest inauguration address ever.  On a very cold and wet March 4, 1831, Harrison delivered a two hour, 8,444 word address to the cold and damp crowd. After his oratory exploits, he rode through the streets of DC, caught a cold, which later turned into a fatal case of pneumonia.  He died April 4, 1831, 31 days after taking office. 

I am not here to ridicule Harrison.  His life was full of achievements and his biography is an interesting read on wikipedia.  I wish to mock the concept of group holidays, specifically Presidents Day.  When I was a kid (here we go with the Grandpa Simpson routine), we had two days - Washington's Birthday and Lincon's Birthday.  Somewhere, somehow we got ripped off and they came up with the one day creation of Presidents Day.  

Contrary to popular theories, Presidents Day was not caused by the creation of Martin Luther King day.  Instead, the thought was to have one holiday that would fall on a Monday, rather than mid-week.  It was designed to honor all our past Presidents, no matter who or when they served.  Apparently, some states like Massachusetts wanted to honor all their sons who have been president, while some Southern States might not like the idea of a holiday honoring Lincoln (not NC - Feb 12th was a holiday where I grew up!)

My complaint - and I have two - is this.  One, we lost a holiday and a day off from work.  This really doesn't make that big a difference to me now; President's Day is not a holiday at my company.  Losing one day off or two really doesn't change too much for me.  

My second gripe is this:  The establishment or changing one should not be taken lightly.  Holidays are very few for a reason; they honor events and people which have a positive impact on our society.  Holidays are part of the collective culture of a society; they are a reflection of our common beliefs and heritage, not to be tampered with lightly.  Usually the events or people they honor have withstood years of scrutiny, after society has distanced themselves from the event.  Thanksgiving was not made a holiday until 1789, over 140 years after its first celebration.  Labor Day did not become a Federal Holiday until 1894.  MLK died in 1968, but it was not observed until 1986.  MLK day passed, despite much opposition from Republicans who questioned whether King was important enough to qualify for a holiday.  Some of this may have been racially motivated, but some wondered if we were still too close to the events surrounding MLKs life to properly judge his impact on society.  It takes time for humans to process, and generations to evaluate the impact of any one person.  Deciding who is deserving of a holiday takes time.

And for anyone who doubts my rambling, remember on President's Day 2009, you will be honoring George W Bush.

For those who wish to read more about our 9th President:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Harrison