Let’s all sing “the Worried Man Blues” on President’s Day 2015

Carter Family: "It takes a worried man to sing a worried song,"

With the Twin Cities (my neighborhood) awash in ads for celebratory sales, I’m thinking about President’s Day to be celebrated across the US tomorrow, the third Monday of February, and I only vaguely recall the origin of this holiday. Never fear. I refreshed my memory by reading an article by Lauren Himlak at USParks.about.com. Lauren reminds us the holiday originally commemorated the birthdays of Lincoln, Feb. 12, and Washington, Feb. 22, and was only later designated as President’s Day, which falls on Feb. 16 this year.

Himlak explains:

Today, President’s Day is well accepted and celebrated. Some communities still observe the original holidays of Washington and Lincoln, and many parks actually stage reenactments and pageants in their honor. The National Park Service also features a number of historic sites and memorials to honor the lives of these two presidents, as well as other important leaders.

Continuing to follow up my Google search regarding President's Day, I came across a recently updated essay by Bill Moyers that movingly connects us with Abraham Lincoln:

I had a history professor at the University of Texas - Robert Cotter - who believed the most remarkable quality of Abraham Lincoln was his empathy for people he didn't personally know. The working man. The soldier in battle. His widow and orphans.

Ordinary folks caught in the undertow of events. We could use that kind of empathy today. As Washington obsessed all week over the fate of one nominee to the cabinet, and as we watched hearings about the failure of watchdog agencies going to sleep on the job, we heard almost nothing of the people across the country suffocating in the wreckage of their lives. Some of us born in the Depression still remember the song made famous by the Carter Family singers, called the "Worried Man Blues".

"I went across that river and I lay down to sleep. When I woke up there were shackles on my feet."

Read more:

Time for a Laugh: Read “Obama on Thin Ice”

After ridiculing DC schools for closing for “some ice,” President and Mrs. Obama coincidentally visit their daughter Sasha’s school the next day. Photo credits: AP.

Jeanne McManus who retired from the Washington Post in 2005 has had it with out-of-towners picking on Washington, D.C., including President Obama. In today’s guest column, McManus responds to Obama’s ridiculing the city for closing its schools the other day due to some ice.

McManus writes:

I was born and raised in Washington, and though I live in Bethesda now, I still don't take too kindly to people breezing in from out of town and telling us how to run our lives. Maybe it's because I was vote-deprived for so long. Got that? Maybe it's because I thought it grossly unjust that some Republican congressman like Virginia's Joel T. Broyhill was empowered to tell Washingtonians what our priorities should be, as he opposed home rule for the District. (As you can see, I don't forget. It's kept me in a defensive crouch for a few decades.)

On an even smaller and meaner note, I will confess that when I was deputy sports editor at The Post from 1991 to 1999, I took with glee the phone calls from aggrieved and transplanted New Yorkers complaining that we didn't provide enough coverage of the New York Knicks or Giants. My former boss, George Solomon, will be pained to learn that I would elbow aside other editors to handle such a call, just so that I, in my chirpiest voice, could give the troubled subscriber my solution: "You want more about the Giants? Move back to New York. Bye-bye!"

So many out-of-towners who get stationed, transferred or elected to serve here feel entitled to waltz in and take shots at the way we dress (we wear too much black; women wear sneakers with dress suits), the way we drive (too aggressively and erratically) and, most recently, the way we respond to snow (we like to shut things down).

Read More:

In Response to Hillary’s Campaign Finale

I just watched Hillary Clinton’s speech in Washington in which she thanked her supporters and endorsed Barack Obama. I was deeply moved and inspired by her words, but I’m still far too outraged by the blatant sexist and misogynist behavior I’ve witnessed repeatedly throughout the Democratic primary from both party leaders and the good old boys’ network in the media to match the magnanimity of Clinton's spirit.

In a recent CBS News poll, 45 percent of the respondents perceived the media had been harder on Clinton than on the other candidates; 67% said this was due to gender bias. The American people have seen what was going on; where have the Democratic party leaders been? Why didn’t Howard Dean speak out against the sexism and misogyny?

Until I am convinced the Democratic party will never again allow one of its own to be subjected to such utter disrespect simply because she happens to be a woman, I’m one lifelong Democrat who will hereafter register as an independent.

Obama’s Wins on Saturday Come as No Surprise

Obama’s three-state sweep this Saturday that included the caucuses in Washington and Nebraska and the primary in Louisiana came as no surprise to either the Obama or Clinton campaign. Obama’s track record has been better in caucuses, and he has done well among black voters, who made up about fifty percent of voters in the Louisiana primary.

The New York Times reported that Obama received the support of about two-thirds of those attending the caucuses in Washington and Nebraska to about one-third for Mrs. Clinton.

Today, Clinton and Obama campaigned in Maine, which holds its caucuses on Sunday. Later on, the two candidates headed south to Virginia where they were scheduled to speak this evening at the state party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson day fund-raiser.