President's Day, U.S.

Today, February 18, is President's Day in the U.S. When I was a little girl, back when dirt was new, we celebrated Washington's Birthday (Feb. 22) and Lincoln's Birthday (Feb 12). I am not sure if the presidents were combined when the feds went to the Monday/Friday 3 day weekend holiday schedule or when the federal government decided to add MLK Day, but they were combined.

In honor of their birthdays, I offer the following wisdom. First, from our first President, George Washington, the only president to have no political party affiliation:

"As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is, to use it as sparingly as possible; avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts, which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen, which we ourselves ought to bear."

GEORGE WASHINGTON, Farewell Address, Sep. 17, 1796

Last, from Abraham Lincoln:

"You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage-payer. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatreds. You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."