President’s Day: The Lessons Of History

With today being President’s Day I think it’s a good time to look back on the history of the Presidency.

As of late I’ve been watching a series of DVDs from The History Channel on the first 43 Presidents (George Washington to George W. Bush) and while there is obviously only so much that can be covered in a six hour documentary that covers over 200 years, I have still found it very fascinating. It’s a great way of putting the history of the Presidential office in some kind of context.

Rather than just memorizing the names of the Presidents and the trivia of the things they accomplished (or failed to accomplish) I think it’s important to understand the progression of the Presidential office and where things could have gone in significantly different directions than they did. We must realize that things are not the way they are today because of history. To many people seem to think of history as bunch of dates & names and not as the very basis of our existence today (which is exactly what it is.)

Abe Lincoln’s Assassination

One such obvious place is when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated because the Civil War had just ended and the very important period of joining the North and the South back together was beginning. We will never know exactly how Lincoln would have handled the situation but all indications are he certainly would have done a far better job than his successor, Andrew Johnson.

Imagine for a moment that black people in the south didn’t have to wait until the 1960s to get their civil rights. Imagine instead they got those rights in the 1860s. This alternate history could have very well been our real history if Lincoln had not been killed.

Those Who Look Backward & Those Who Look Forward

Throughout history there has been a struggle between those who look forward (progressives) and those who look backwards (conservatives.) In the end progressives always win because that’s how the world works. The world spins and it cannot be held in place and it certainly cannot be spun backwards.

That’s why today the question should not be whether homosexuals will be given equal rights but when will homosexuals be given equal rights? And the question is not whether marijuana will be legalized, but rather, when will marijuana be legalized? When will those who look backwards be pushed out of the way, so that those who look forward can make the things that so obviously will happen, happen sooner so that justice can be ours today rather than tomorrow.

This is 2009 and it’s time to look forward. The future is now. Let the small mindedness of the past be left behind for good.

Black people in the south had to wait 100 years to get the rights they deserved. Let us not wait 100 years for homosexuals and marijuana users (and certainly homosexual marijuana users!) to get the rights that they deserve.

There is no doubt: Those who are against equal rights for homosexuals and the legalization of marijuana are on the wrong side of history. These are the civil rights/civil liberties issues of today and there’s no reason to let them linger into tomorrow. If you believe in equality and civil liberties then make your voice heard now.