Go ahead, argue with the Fonz

Updated with proper spellings! Dates are correct!

This weekend we honored two of America’s iconic figures, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Great men, both. No argument here, both deserve our nation’s enduring gratitude for their service.

            But you have to wonder what it takes to get your birthdate on a calendar. I buy a calendar every year and still haven’t found one with a rememberance of my birthdate.

            Washington, Lincoln, Martin Luther King and Cesar Chavez and that’s all. No more birthdays on most calendars you can buy.

            Washington served in the army in the French and Indian War before rejoining the colonials as a General to fight in the Revolutionary War. Then he gave us eight years of steady leadership as president and retired.

Isn’t that what Dwight David Eisenhower did? He served in the U.S. Army during the First World War, and then was a key figure as a General during the Second World War. He was elected president and gave us eight years of steady leadership before he retired. He even helped golf gain popularity.

And Eisenhower gained the backing of a popular cult figure (albeit a fictional one) named Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli, who once said, “I like Ike. My bike likes Ike.”

Eisenhower was born October 14, 1890 but you’d never know it by looking at a calendar.

And what about Franklin D. Roosevelt? The only president to be elected four times, the longest-serving president. He steadied a panicking nation during the Great Depression and lived long enough to see us through the worst days of the Second World War. He died knowing we’d win.

Compare FDR to Honest Abe. Lincoln’s first election brought about the start of the Civil War, which is what you’d call your basic indelible mark on American history. He was elected twice, issued the Emancipation Proclamation and lived long enough to know that the Union had won the war and that the nation would be reunited. Had Lincoln lived through his second term, there is no doubt the nation would have been better served during what was a very difficult time for the country as a whole.

But why isn’t Roosevelt’s name on my calendar? I mean, geez, he was elected four times.

We’ve had many Americans that made their mark on our history without serving in the political arena, like Dr. King and Chavez did. Not all of them should be honored with calendar space. Al Capone, for example, would be a bad choice. Having Capone’s birthday on a calendar would be sort of like having Amelia Earhart’s name on a line of luggage.

Wait a minute. There is a line of Amelia Earhart luggage.

Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson are memorialized on the side of a mountain in the fabulous Mount Rushmore monument, alongside Washington and Lincoln, but you don’t see Teddy or Tommy on calendars. Mountains are one thing, I guess, but calendars are different.

We have something proclaimed as President’s Day, which is supposed to honor all of our chief executives. Including, I suppose, Richard Nixon and Ulysses Grant.

Now, you can argue that Washington and Lincoln have their birthdates on calendars because their birthdays are observed as holidays. You’d be wrong. Washington’s birthday is February 22, which none of us will have off, and Lincoln’s birthday, which everyone ignored, is February 12. The holidays are observed, you know, at some convenient time.

Personally, I think John Wayne’s birthdate ought to be on calendars every year, along with newsman Walter Cronkite’s. One other guy, too, William M. Robison. Robison worked for Wells Fargo for 40 years, transporting millions of dollars in gold safely for the company and its customers. He was also a leader of the African American community in Stockton, California. I have a free calendar from Wells Fargo next to my desk. Robison’s picture and a brief bio appear on the side of the February page.

But Robison’s birthdate is nowhere to be seen.

           Thanks for reading.