Every year the misinformation, helped by the retailers, that today is “Presidents Day” arrives on our doorstep, clothed in bunting and waving flags. Well it’s not! Today is Washington’s Birthday Holiday, folded into the holiday parade of the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act” in 1971.
In scouting the newspapers this year, I have found very little reference to this day. I suspect it’s in part because of the big deal we made about Lincoln’s birthday last week and the ball of contextual twine we seem, as a nation, determined to wrap around Lincoln, Obama, and slavery. History isn’t like that, however. We don’t’ just get to pick and choose what feels good. History is full bodied and complex. Human rights suppression and slavery are related, but not the same thing.
Take the time to read what Wiki says about GW, HERE. Reflect on his comments regarding the efficacy of workers. GW was a man of his time. He did some remarkable things. We live in a remarkable country today in large part, because of him.
What would GW think about our country today? A place where big bucks keep bigotry alive? A place where religious ministries with ties to the security firm Blackwater can shape California Law? (I find myself suddenly interested in possible financial articulations of federal money spent for security in Iraq and Proposition 8 campaign contributions.)
Focus on the Family spent big on Prop 8
Ministry, related donors spent $1.25 million on anti-gay marriage measure
By ERNEST LUNING 2/11/09 10:13 AM
[Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family gave $727,250 in cash and services to the anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 campaign in California, according to records released by the California secretary of state, including a $100,000 check in late October, just days before the evangelical media empire announced it planned to lay off nearly 20 percent of its employees….]
http://newmexicoindependent.com/18143/prop-8-spending-examined
Speaking of security, border concerns are everywhere, melded with inadequate coordination and lack of money.
No backup on the Northern border
A rural county is saddled with international responsibility.
NEWS – From the February 09, 2009 issue of High Country News
By Gabriel Furshong
[It’s 10 degrees below zero in windblown Toole County, Mont. Thirty-four miles south of the longest non-militarized border in the world, the county seat of Shelby serves as the last stop for all international traffic heading for the Sweetgrass Port of Entry and the snowy wheatland flats of southern Alberta….]
http://www.hcn.org/issues/41.3/no-backup-on-the-northern-border
Border security issues aren’t going any better on the southern line. Land usurpation, large scale environmental changes, federal waste and futility abound.
Back to the Wall
Can Janet Napolitano stop the border-fence boondoggle?
MELISSA DEL BOSQUE | FEBRUARY 06, 2009 |
As President Barack Obama champions change in Washington, D.C., Eloisa Tamez waits to see whether an 18-foot steel and concrete wall will be built in her backyard.
The Department of Homeland Security has already taken Tamez to court in an effort to condemn a piece of property, a mile inland from the Rio Grande, that has been in her family since the 18th century. The wooden survey stakes that sprout from her land remind her that the bulldozers could arrive anytime. “Just about every week, DHS announces that they will start building,” Tamez says. “It seems to be some kind of strategy to keep everybody here uptight and nervous.”…]
What can you say about this security mess? Is Obama really continuing a Bush fight over “State Secrets” versus human rights? The whole thing smells of monoply and oligarchy.
Justice Department Stands Behind Bush Secrecy In Extraordinary Rendition Case
(2/9/2009)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org
[NEW YORK – The Justice Department today repeated Bush administration claims of “state secrets” in a lawsuit against Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen DataPlan for its role in the extraordinary rendition program. Mohamed et al. v. Jeppesen was brought on behalf of five men who were kidnapped and secretly transferred to U.S.-run prisons or foreign intelligence agencies overseas where they were interrogated under torture…]
If one of the effects of security is the right to choose our representatives, then it’s time to free DC. It’s truly glacial pace, but after 200 years, residents of Washington DC may finally get the right to vote. Yea!
DC VOTING RIGHTS BILL MOVES FORWARD ON STRONG BIPARTISAN VOTE
League Calls on Full Senate to Act on Legislation Quickly
[Washington, DC – The League of Women Voters today applauded the Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs for passing S. 160, the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009, on a strong bipartisan vote…
…”For two hundred years, Americans living in our nation’s capital have been denied their constitutional right to elect a voting member to the body that taxes them, makes their laws, and sends them to war,” concluded Wilson. “Citizens living in our nation’s capital are treated uniquely and the League urges our elected members of Congress to finally correct this injustice.”]
http://www.lwv.org/AM/Template.cfm?Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=12871
I’m intrigued with Dennis Kucinich’s idea that we should have a cabinet level Secretary of Peace. Security measures surely should come from a broad based approach.
Kucinich Reintroduces Department of Peace Bill with 62 Cosponsors
Rep. Dennis Kucinich
Washington, Feb 4 –
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) yesterday reintroduced legislation that would authorize a Cabinet-level Department of Peace.
“It is well known that in times of economic difficulty violence increases. When relationships are strained by economic hardship, domestic violence, violent robbery and abuse of children and animals all increase. When the world is facing possibly the largest economic downturn since the Great Depression, now is not the time to ignore social issues and interpersonal relationships, now is the time to make special attention to make sure that our relations and health do not suffer along with our pocket books,” stated Kucinich.
The Cabinet-level Department authorized in the legislation embodies a broad-based approach to peaceful, non-violent conflict resolution at both domestic and international levels. The Department of Peace would serve to promote non-violence as an organizing principle in our society, and help to create the conditions for a more peaceful world
“Peace is a foundational principle of this Congress and of this country. This bill gives it a chance to have an animating power in our civic life by addressing the issues of domestic violence, spousal abuse, child abuse, violence in the schools and racial violence,” added Kucinich.
http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=110300
Grab and Keel 
On the Armstrong & Getty radio show this morning, there was much disbeleif that the recent beheading of the woman in New York was not covered more widely in the news…outrage that it was downplayed because he was a muslim and it was domestic violence associated with “honor” as defined in muslim custom.
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