From “The Tyranny of Presidents’ Day,” by Roy Lincoln Karp, in the February 1992 issue of The Free Spirit, a journal published by students at LaGuardia High School, in New York City.

Recently there has been a trend in this country of taking the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and combining them into a new holiday called Presidents’ Day.  Although there is no official holiday known as Presidents’ Day, the phrase has begun to appear frequently in advertisements, on calendars, and in people’s conversations.

A tyrant would love the idea of Presidents’ Day, for it is a step toward the worship of all presidents.  It is based on the premise that all leaders should be praised simply because they are leaders.  It steals from the glory of the true heroes of this country, like Washington and Lincoln, as well as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and redistributes it equally among all our presidents, including the nearly impeached Richard M. Nixon.