Honorees!

Today in the United States is Presidents Day, a holiday which fell to its current setting, the third Monday in February, back in 1971.

Originally, the nation celebrated Feb. 22 as Washington's Birthday, marking the birth of our first president, George Washington. In order to standardize days off and government closings, Congress moved it and several other holidays to specific Mondays. That created the problem of having a day called "Washington's Birthday," so named by federal statute, which would fall on the 15th or the 21st or somewhere in between but never on the actual birthday of the person the holiday was intended to honor. Those who wish to throw up their hands in dismay at how the federal government was somehow unable to even get the calendar right may do so at this time.

By the 1980s, the day began to be commonly known as "Presidents Day" or sometimes "Presidents' Day," pushed by advertisers and retailers who may have found that to be an easier theme on which to hang an ad campaign. Or they may have thought that having sales that used the name of the president whose portrait is found on the $1 bill would reduce the amounts customers would spend. "Presidents Day" allows a celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birthday (Feb. 12) as well. Lincoln's birthday was never actually a declared federal holiday, and the official name of this holiday remains Washington's Birthday.

Different states have their own observances as well -- Massachusetts honors those presidents whose political roots are in that state. Alabama observes "Washington and Jefferson" day, though the third president's birthday is not until April. For some reason, Alabamans do not take much official notice of the 16th president's birthday.

I suppose marking a "Presidents Day" of some kind that honors all of the men who have served in that office is appropriate, even though it means that we elevate disappointments like Franklin Pierce or James Buchanan to the level of Kennedy, Roosevelt or the aforementioned Washington and Lincoln. Even the worst President of the United States is still the President of the United States, and if the duty to respect the office means we have to respect some of its less-worthy occupants, that's one of the prices we pay for the privilege of citizenship in our nation.