His 275th, to be precise.  His life deserves celebration, though few "mainstream" journalists seem to think so.  (A search at Google News on the phrase, "Washington's birthday", got just 981 hits.)

Nor do many political leaders think his birthday deserves mention; a quick search found nothing about his birthday at this site — and Washington state is named for him.  I suppose that our governor has other things to do.

Although we can not know for certain what would have happened without Washington, there is good chance that had he never lived (or had he died early, something more common in his times than ours), we would have lost the Revolutionary War, and we would have failed to establish the United States on a firm foundation.  In both of those, his contributions were, most likely, crucial.

If the United States deserves honor, then the "father" of our nation surely does.  His contemporaries understood how important he was; "Lighthorse" Harry Lee summed up the feelings of most Americans with his line at Washington's funeral oration: "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen".  And his foe during the Revolutionary War gave him an even bigger tribute.

The painter Benjamin West wrote that when he talked to King George III during the Revolutionary War, the monarch asked him what he thought George Washington would do if he prevailed.

Return to his farm, West predicted -- accurately, as it turned out.

"If he does that," King George remarked, "he will be the greatest man in the world."

Washington did return to his farm after the war and, almost as important, after two terms as president, setting an example that has lasted until the present.

Finally, a question for parents with school age children:  What, if anything, do your children learn in school about George Washington?  (This article suggests that they don't even learn the myths.)

(You can learn more about Washington from this PBS program, this White House biography and this Wikipedia biography.

Credit where due:  The Spokesman Review did run this column on Washington's birthday.  I look forward to reading more by Richard Davis in the future.

Two fun facts:  Washington was born on February 11th, but the date was retroactively changed to the 22nd.  You can find an explanation here, should you need one.  Last Monday, the 19th, though almost universally called "President's Day" is still, officially, Washington's birthday, though it seldom falls on his birthday.)