Let\u2019s start with the general principle that \u201cbank holidays\u201d in which government employees and schoolteachers have the day off, but pretty much no one else, are a stinky arrangement to begin with. Yes, I say that largely as a parent who has dealt with many Mondays of trying to manage a day off school when I can\u2019t necessarily take the day off work (though today, at least, my husband and I did both take the day off and spend a family day with the kids). But still: there\u2019d be a pretty darn good reason for the three non-holiday holidays of Presidents\u2019 Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and Columbus Day, to be worth the inconvenience of everyone else and the expense to the government. <\/p>\n
The most traditional of these is Presidents\u2019 Day, though its current incarnation, in which it\u2019s moved, in the general understanding, from a day to honor President Washington and President Lincoln for their extraordinary place in the history of our country, to a day to honor all presidents generically, has gotten a bit foolish. Look, folks, not all presidents are deserving of this quasi-sainthood. Just because a man has managed, by a mix of luck of birth and political acumen, to achieve election to the presidency, does not mean he is particularly worthy, in terms of his achievements or the general honorableness of his actions. <\/p>\n
As for Martin Luther King, Jr., I\u2019m again squeamish about elevating this one man to the secular American sainthood of a holiday. Was his role in the Civil Rights Movement so singular? Maybe, maybe to the extent that this day becomes a day to commemorate this movement in general, and the principle of equal rights under the law, there may be a reasonable basis for this holiday \u2013 though I still don\u2019t see a reason why we as a nation need to prove our dedication to equality by means of granting a holiday to government workers. <\/p>\n
And Columbus Day \u2013 eeesh. We know that the holiday was established not because he was a such a worthy man but because it was a way of the Italians marking their political \u201carrival\u201d and integration into the political realm. We know that he is not a man deserving of a great honor due to either great skill or leadership or due to his exceptionally morally worthy behavior \u2013 he did not believe the world was round when everyone else thought it was flat; everyone knew the world was round but believed (correctly) that the distance across the ocean was insurmountable and Columbus thought otherwise because his math was wrong. And you\u2019ve got to be living under a rock if you believe his actions in the New World were particularly saintly \u2013 sure, behavior such as massacring and enslaving large numbers of people was pretty much par for the course at the time, but it was nonetheless even then considered a \u201cfact of life\u201d at best (and even then, Columbus was removed from his post for his tyrannical behavior), but not a path towards holiness. <\/p>\n
So if the holiday isn\u2019t about honoring Columbus, what\u2019s the point? Look, you could make the argument that Columbus exemplifies the American ideals of daring and courage, even if he didn\u2019t live up to those ideals himself, or is a representative of the explorers, and the spirit of exploration in general. Perhaps we should just commemorate the First Contact and acknowledge that it was a pivotal event that had an extraordinary impact, and is, in a way, the \u201cbirthday\u201d of the New World as we know it today. After all, we know that the Vikings \u201cdiscovered\u201d North America first, but had no permanent impact. And we celebrate birthdays, without requiring that the individual in question be especially worthy.<\/p>\n
Or we on the center-right, who would probably be perfectly happy to have one less irrelevant government holiday, could make common cause with those who object to Columbus Day due to the unworthiness of the man himself, and just eliminate it altogether. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Let\u2019s start with the general principle that \u201cbank holidays\u201d in which government employees and schoolteachers have the day off, but pretty much no one else, are a stinky arrangement to begin with. Yes, I say that largely as a parent who has dealt with many Mondays of trying to manage a day off school when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[186,146],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-columbus-day","tag-pc"],"yoast_head":"\n