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Chaverim y'karim ~ dear friends,
I recently heard Walter Russell Mead on What Really Matters, which is one of my go-tos for political analysis. I like his humility, humor, and honesty alongside his ability to see things calmly even though most media around us thrives on getting us annoyed, agitated, and anxious.
In his "Tip of the Week," Mead addressed "Presidents' Day" and what a disaster it was to lump all forty men into one day. Rather than the good ol' days when we highlighted the greatness of this nation's first president, Washington, and the man who saved the Union, Lincoln, somewhere in the 1980s, we focused on the whole lot of men. In so doing, we shifted from honoring the highlights of two great men and the gifts they gave our nation to celebrating merely the accomplishment of the men who won an election.
I am forever fascinated by both the founding of this country and its ability to have lasted for (coming up on) 250 years! Liberalism is not a default way of creating a society. Democracy is not an easy - or natural - way to govern. In fact, it is the worst way to govern in many ways ... it's just better than all other forms. (See: Israel Zangwill, 1923 or Winston Churchill, 1947.)
No president was perfect and surely each one had faults that historians have rightly brought forward. Washington and Lincoln were unique in the lot of presidents and their words, leadership, and strengths are fundamental to this nation's successes. God knows, literally, we could use leaders like them today. I suspect both of these greats would be sorely disappointed at how things are developing in our day, though undoubtedly they would not be surprised. After all, they were human and they knew the faults of humanity.
And so it is upon us to rally around the critical values which both embodied and upheld - the Constitution and Bill of Rights chief among them - and find ways to make sure their labors were not in vain. Democracy and Liberalism have worked exceedingly well on these shores and each generation needs to nurture, protect, preserve, and develop our country. May we honor those who came before us by supporting individual rights and liberties, rule of law, democratic and representative governance, and respectful pluralism.
L'shalom & Happy Presidents' Day!
Rabbi Mark Cohn
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