Our Voices: A President’s Day Note from the Judge Todd Little

By: Todd Little

The third Monday in February is probably the most overlooked national holiday for Americans. To most, Presidents’ Day is nothing more than a surprise three-day weekend bookended by Valentine’s Day and Spring Break, overshadowed in popular culture. The commemoration of George Washington’s birthday has been observed in some form or fashion since Americans could shake hands with Washington himself, and its cultural significance remains just as relevantin the 21^st century as from before the White House had even been built.

One month ago, Americans welcomed back into the White House a man that more than 70 million support for his unapologetically America-first zeal as a political “outsider.” Team Red enjoyed scoring the final touchdown in the 2024 election Superbowl, following a four-year hiatus brought about by the plays of Team Blue. In the meantime, both teams have grown weary from the tournament and now simply watch the President in anticipation of many changes to come.

At no time in our national history have Democrats and Republicans agreed on everything;in a nation full of people with different religious traditions, ethnic backgrounds, economic conditions, lifestyles, and priorities, we must accept that discourse is the nature of a free society. It is better to come together over the ideals that we all do – or at least, should – share in common, while letting the art of respectful compromise answer for everything else.

It is this sort of willingness to compromise, negotiate, and work toward solutions beneficial to ourwhole nation that is encapsulated by the spirit of the Presidents’ Day holiday. Though the original purpose of Presidents’ Day was to commemorate the birthday of George Washington, the “father of the United States,” the holiday has expanded in scope over the decades to become an appreciation for the Office of the President itself, regardless of which political figure presently occupies it.

Presidents’ Day is a day to celebrate our great republic, an idealthat a large and multifaceted nation like the United States can elect a single individual who, regardless of his or her partisan priorities, primarily represents the common spirit and energy that animates the nation and all its people. The holiday is a bold declaration to the world that in spite of all our differences as free individuals, Americans share higher ideals, beliefs, and a common sense of patriotism and liberty that is very real and tangible – tangible enough to be expressed through the persona of the President we elect to serve as the face of our nation.

As a nation, our presidents have compromised, negotiated, and extracted a common political agenda to, God willing, advance freedom and prosperity for all American people – e pluribus unum, or “out of many, one” – as embodied by the individual we have chosen to represent us.My fellow citizens, it is a remarkable achievement even rarer than we may realize throughout the long history of the world and is precisely why I am excited to wish Ellis County a happy Presidents’ Day!

Ellis County Judge Todd Little is a 3rd generation Ellis County resident. He served as Mayor of Red Oak, TX from 2000-2006.