Holidays

When Easter came and went last month, I started to think about religious
holidays. Specifically, I began to wonder why the federal government
observed them. The First Amendment requires that no religious holiday
should be mandated by the government. So I checked the list of federal
holidays, and discovered that the only religious holiday the government
actually observes is Christmas.

Since Christmas is a christian holiday, this means that the government
is promoting christianity. I would like that to stop. I have nothing
against the christians celebrating their holidays, but the government
has no business promoting it.

This brings me to the "war on Christmas" baloney that is trotted out by
the likes of Bill O'Reilly every December. They all seem to think that
being more inclusive and recognizing that other cultures and other
religions have holidays around that same time of year is somehow
undermining and attempting to get rid of their holiday. They will even cry
"persecution". It is not persecution to remove christianity's
privileged position, and treat them as all others are treated.

I would like to propose a way to eliminate Christmas from the federal
holiday calendar. When the First Amendment argument is brought up as a
reason for eliminating the holiday, I am sure that there will be
objections. The most valid one is that the holiday itself has become
secularized to the point that most who are not christian celebrate it.
It will also be said that it is tradition and therefore should remain.
So, I propose that the holiday be renamed on the federal calendar to
"Winter Holiday". It should also be moved to the fourth friday in
December, instead of always being on the 25th. This would keep the
holiday available for the traditional celebrations that christian and
non-christian alike share. It also makes it more efficient for the
federal offices that would be affected.

As an added bonus, it would greatly increase productivity at private
employers. Since most employers follow the federal calendar to varying
degrees when determining their own holiday schedules, this would make
the winter holiday a three day weekend, even when the 25th is in the
middle of the week. No more juggling the floating holidays around to
accommodate the day of the w
eek on which Christmas falls. Of course,
private employers would still be free to observe Christmas directly.

There is precedent in federal law for moving a holiday from it's
traditional date to a specific day of the week. The Uniform Holidays Act
of 1968 adjusted Washington's birthday, Memorial Day, and Columbus Day
from their traditional dates to a specific day of the week.

Wife on the road too

My wife is on the road now. She is taking a trip to the pacific
northwest with her father. Helping him to navigate is taking quite a bit
of her time, so I don't get anywhere near as much time on the phone with
her as I usually get. It makes for some long days, it starts getting to
me.