Memorial Day: Just another day for some
By John David Powell (05/30/08)
Millions of Americans spent May 26 observing this year’s federally approved date for Memorial Day by chugging beers, burning meat, and participating in a host of other activities that had absolutely nothing to do with commemorating our nation’s war dead. Meantime, thousands of school children spent the day in classrooms, much to the dismay of some parents and talk-radio hosts.
Although Memorial Day is a national holiday, it is not a federally mandated observance. At least not in the sense that states or public entities run the risk of losing federal funding or getting a wagging finger from Uncle Sam if they choose not to close shop on that day.
Here’s the weird thing. The schools that stayed open on Memorial Day closed their doors on Labor Day, Thanksgiving, that period at the end of December and the first couple of days of January that used to be Christmas Break, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents Day, and Spring Break.
Houston County, Tenn., schools took off ten days in October for Fall Break and another two weeks in March for Spring Break. Lancaster County, S.C., schools took two, four-day Spring Breaks: one in March and the other in April.
And the kids in Seguin, Texas, got out to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, something kids in Mexico don’t do. Go figure.
School officials say they had to keep their doors open. The guy speaking for Taylor County (Fla.) High School blamed it on the state legislature that changed the academic calendar for Florida’s public schools.
The spokesperson for Lancaster County, S.C., schools (the ones that took two Spring Breaks this year) also blamed his state’s legislature, which he’ll have to do again next year, because the school board in February approved the 2008-09 calendar that also does not include a Memorial Day holiday.
While driving in from the ranch the other day, I listened to a local talk-radio guy in Houston lambaste school officials down in McAllen for not observing Memorial Day. He failed to point out, though, that McAllen kids almost never get out of school. They don’t get Labor Day, MLK Day, Presidents Day, Fall Break, Cinco de Mayo, or a student/staff holiday the week after returning from Spring Break like the kids up in Austin get. All the McAllen kids get are a couple of days at Thanksgiving, those days at the end of December and the first couple of days of January that used to be Christmas Break, and a week in March for Spring Break.
There is a point to all of this. Maybe holidays are too important or too personal for legislatures, school boards, and bosses to decide. Oh, they can set aside a finite number of days that their employees can take off, but maybe they should let their employees decide which days to stay home.
An example is Christmas. There was a time when Christmas was the day set aside to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, you know, the Messiah, the Son of God. So, who would observe such a day? Certainly not Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and atheists. Yet they all got Christmas off. Of course, today we don’t have Christmas. We have Winter Break, those days at the end of December and the first couple of days of January that used to be Christmas Break.
Why not let local folks decide for themselves when to work and when to celebrate whatever it is they wish to celebrate? It’s a state rights thing, only on the local level.
Here in Texas, we have several holidays that other states probably would celebrate if they put aside their Lone Star envy. San Jacinto Day on April 21 commemorates the capture of Santa Anna and more than 700 of his troops at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836, but it’s just another work day for most Texans. We also have to work on Texas Independence Day (March 2), Emancipation Day (June 19), and Lyndon Baines Johnson Day (Aug. 27).
I’d like to visit Hawaii some day. Until then, I might like to stay home every June 11, eat some pineapple, get lei-ed, and celebrate King Kamehameha Day. But I can’t, because someone else decided what holidays I can have.
John David Powell
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