Presidents’ Day evokes thoughts not only about our current and past Presidents, but also about our ties to the United States itself. We do that also, of course, on Independence Day, but the celebrations on that day are totally upbeat, and maybe rightly so: after all, we are then marking the birth of our nation, and birthdays are a time for celebration, not an evaluation of the life of the person or nation whose birthday is being commemorated. Read more...

On this Presidents’ Day celebration, can we admit the gap between our professed ideals and the grimy, bloody reality with which we live? Only then, I think, does our observance of the remembrance rise to be worthy of a free and democratic people. Without that recognition of the ideals yet to be achieved, we risk elevated military might and economic wealth to nearly-idolatrous levels of veneration.  Read more...

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