Lately, there seems to be a lot of discussion going on about when we might celebrate Lincoln’s birthday — the city, not the president.

If you assemble some of the press that has surfaced lately, and read between the lines, it’s as if we’re leaning toward reinventing the date Lincoln and/or Lancaster became a city.

Now, I know that’s not the case, but it IS somewhat disturbing to read more press suggesting that we push the date back than there is describing what our actual plans for next year’s city sesquicentennial might be.

In 1959, the good people of the city of Lincoln went to a great deal of trouble and expense to celebrate their town’s centennial. At Pershing, for example, an extravagant pageant was assembled.

It featured both Hollywood celebrities and a host of high-energy, better-than-average, local yokel actors who graced our airwaves and TV sets of the time.

It even had scantily-clad men holding scepters and donning gold grease paint from head to toe. Parades featured beauty queens and brass bands.

An area on O street between 11th and 13th streets was transformed into a Centennial Mall, resplendent with decorative pavers and grassy knolls. Many of Lincoln’s citizens sewed, fetched and otherwise procured clothing correct for the period, which reflected the days leading up to the creation of the town we call home.

Neale Copple, former city editor for the Lincoln Journal, wrote a wonderful book called “Tower on the Plains,” which celebrates the city and its honorable citizens from day one to 1959.

So my question is this: Why would we want to change a date that our ancestors established as THE date to celebrate our city’s birth? In this instance, we care not that we began as Lancaster and ended up as Lincoln — a mere technicality in the grand scheme of things.

It just seems to me that we’re looking for a way to push the city centennial back a few years simply because no one thought to plan the darned thing sooner.

What kind of a message does that send to Lincoln’s citizens enjoying their golden years? Why are we suddenly reinventing ourselves? I mean, the one thing the press I’ve read makes painfully clear is that there is not enough provenance to sustain any of this chronological surmising. Do you cast aside the legend of the meeting under the big oak by the creek and make it obsolete, simply because new theories have been voiced?

I was watching TV the other night, and one channel was featuring a rerun of “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.” As a Western, it gets my “Box-of-Dots-Coke- and-a-Large-Buttered-Popcorn-Best-Viewed-in-the-Balcony-of-the-Stuart-Thumbs-Up.”

Anyway, near the end of the movie, a U.S. senator played by Jimmy Stewart has just painfully chronicled a tale in which he explains that the accolades the good citizens of Texas bestowed upon him some years hence, actually belong to his friend, (John Wayne) now lying in a cheap wooden coffin in front of him.

In a show of respect to the illustrious senator, a diligent and unrelenting newspaper man transforms himself into a hero by deciding that the legend is more powerful than the truth. (It is my personal perception that he relents because he realizes the citizens who read his paper had adopted it as same, many years earlier, and would rebel at the suggestion of any notion to the contrary.) He burns his notes and prints the legend.

All the while exalting: “No, sir! When the legend becomes fact, you print the legend!”

That, my friends, is how I feel about my city and my ancestors.  They felt strongly enough about it to hold a wonderful centennial celebration in the spring of 1959. Let us show all those who planned and witnessed that event the measure of respect they deserve.

And, at the same time, we can give our children something to tell their children. Let’s all pull together and have a great celebration next spring. High schools? Colleges? Dust off those band uniforms. Drama clubs? It’s time for “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” “The Music Man” or maybe “Paint Your Wagon.”

This city is alive with a variety of artistic venues. The retail community should jump high at the chance to promote something so memorable. City Council? Arise in our hour of need!

Mayor’s office? We know you have a plan. Assemble the troops and sound the advance. We’re all ready to roll up our sleeves and help. Let’s make this thing happen the way it should — in the spring of 2009. And, hey, we won’t have to apologize if there are so many good ideas that the pomp and circumstance extends on into the year 2010. That’s what great and memorable, well-planned celebrations are all about.

I appeal to you, good citizens of Lincoln, isn’t it time we made the legend fact?

Jonathan Roth lives in Lincoln.