On Trump’s Parade
To the Editor:
Our nation is being asked to pay special attention to the birthday of a US president. That day and celebration will include a military parade that is unusual in many ways. Our national tradition has been to use military parades to celebrate major military victories, as happened after the Union won the Civil War and the Allies won WWII. Such parades honor military personnel, and their sacrifice, not elected officials.
This parade will launch America’s 250th Anniversary, starting June 7-14, 2025 ( www. army.mil/1775/). The celebration honors the day, June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress voted to create a standing army after local militia in Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775) sent the British Army back to Boston. The US Army dates its birth to nearly a year before the Declaration of Independence, long before independence was achieved. That new “army” was highly speculative.
Discussion of how to celebrate presidents’ birthdays has existed since George Washington’s presidency. Predictably, and perhaps rightfully, after he became the first president, supporters called for a national celebration of his birthday. Those calls were met with caution. The new nation, the new Constitution, the new idea of an elected leader as chief administrator, all were framed as universally opposed to monarchy. The nation aspired to be a self-governing republic without a king. His staunchest supporters assumed that Washington had earned that title for many reasons, but he shunned that honor. No one knew better than he that the new country had been created by organic debate and the raising of a volunteer military force. The people earned the new country; Washington had only helped them gain their liberty. Writing at the time with the pseudonym, Valerius, a citizen argued that celebrating a president’s birthday is “a forerunner of other monarchical vices,” it sows “seeds of distinction and inequality.”
Citizens have continued to want to honor our presidents’ birthdays, especially Washington’s. The desire to celebrate Lincoln’s birthday culminated in two dates in February to honor both Washington and Lincoln, perhaps to help students learn civics. Lincoln’s birthday was celebrated in the North, but predictably less so in the South—a day of infamy. Because of his popularity, supporters wanted to honor the birthday of FDR. Instead, he convinced them to celebrate that day as March of Dimes, to raise money to battle polio which had left him paralyzed. Rather than celebrating Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays, our nation has decided to celebrate Presidents’ Day, marked on calendars as the 3rd Monday in February.
Our nation celebrates our presidents, including their birthdays, but in modest ways that avoid the pageantry of monarchy. Only 31 presidents have served in the military. So, we have to be careful that military celebrations salute soldiers rather than politicians, especially those who did not serve. Commentators point out that dictators rejoice in military parades, whether on their birthday or a nation’s birthday. Celebrations are for “we the people,” with special attention at special times, in this case to men and women who serve in the army but never for political leaders. For those who want more of this discussion, a lot is currently online.
Bob Heath Carmine