Government Holidays

I was thinking, just a short while ago, whether today was considered a holiday and if the mail would run or not.  I remember when I was very young and first started working, that most companies would have considered today, Monday, July 5, 2010, a holiday.  It used to be that if a holiday fell on a Sunday, then Monday was your holiday.  Likewise, if a holiday fell on a Saturday, then the Friday before was your holiday.  But, in the business community at least, getting the Friday before a holiday off slowly became a thing of the past.  I don't think there are many businesses today that give the Monday after a holiday off, either.  I regret that.

I regret it because it signifies a passing in the evolution of the life of our society.  It signifies another ending to practices that recognize the value of a worker, of another human being.  I remember Christmas vacations, Easter holidays, including Good Friday, and Lincoln's Birthday.  (I can't remember if there was a holiday for Thomas Jefferson or not, but I think there should be.)  Holidays have more impact if nothing's open and no one goes to work.  Of course, that's changed, too.

It's been so long now that it's hard to remember when things started to change.  I remember these things from the Kennedy years and the Johnson years, certainly.  Nixon  started changing things by replacing Lincoln, Washington, and any other President's holiday birthday with the generic "President's Day", as well as instituting the 3-day weekend by simply replacing weekday holidays, which were thought to be too disruptive by big business owners, with a Monday.  Many Americans liked the idea of having a full three days off work, but others, like myself, liked the idea of having a day off during the work week, to break it up every now and then.

People who owned the bigger businesses, like factories, department stores, etc., didn't like their workforce off in the middle of the week because it disrupted productivity and sales.  And so, year by year, big business bargained with the workforce.  If the wanted something, they had to give up something.  I guess their reasoning was that in order to insure profit growth, if they had to pay more for one thing, then they were going to have to cut back on something else.  If the workers wanted a raise, then they were going to have to give up something - like a holiday.  

Aided and abetted by the Congress, particularly during the 80s, 90s, and our present decade, big business has slowly stopped granting those little extras that have been so much a part of our country's tradition.  Hardly anyone works 9-5 anymore.  Overtime and earlytime is not only encouraged, but expected by most firms.  As companies have been granted more and more leeway by the Congress and the courts, they have in turn demanded more from their employees.  It is no longer the gratuitousness of an employer toward his/her employee - it is more of an attitude that the employee is lucky the employer granted the position; therefore the employer is owed.  Basically, it's the attitude of servitude.  Back to the days of Lords and Serfs.

As a human being, I have to say that this attitude rather offends me.  It is so medieval, so arrogant, so...sociopathic, that it is repugnant.  As a society, I used to think we had evolved further than this.  

Allowing people who own huge corporations, particularly multinational corporations, to dictate how they will run their business and treat their employees, regardless of the harm it does to the environment, society, and their employees, is unconscionable and weak.

Yet, that's basically what our Congress, our Presidents, and even our Supreme Court, have done.  Woe to us! when businesses are given the same, ascribed rights of "personhood."  Because, what that basically says is that the person or persons who own these huge businesses that are now considered "people" - at least, for the purpose of political contributions - now basically own...well, people.  Yet, it is illegal in our country for one person to "own" or claim to own, another person.  (They called it slavery, remember?)  However, I've yet to hear a legal argument on this point.  Perhaps they think it's useless - after all, it would most likely go to the Supreme Court.....


It's sad, and downright scary, that the seemingly last bastion of non-partisanship (or, at least we hoped they were non-partisan), the Supreme Court, has at last succumbed to the pressures of party ideology.   If they were meant to be the level-headed, fair-minded, all-knowing parents of an immature Congress, they have now failed in that role.  Now we come to the beginning of what millions of people have called totalitarianism - the rule of one political party and total control over the government, and therefore, the citizenry.  


I don't know about you, but that just scares the heebeejeebies right out of me.  The Tea Party people are all fighting for the wrong thing; it's like the blind leading the blind.  And meanwhile, the rich get richer and the rest of the country goes to hell in a handbasket.  But, I digress and that's another story for another day.


We were talking about holidays, and how I wanted to know if the mail was going to run today.  Well, being the red-blooded American gal that I am, I turned on the computer and googled it.  Sure enough, up came the U.S. Federal Government website, right to the page where all its federal holidays are listed.  It's a federal holiday today, which means not only does the mail not run, but all other government offices are closed, as well.  I guess that means that my recycling and garbage will also be picked up a day late this week.


But, are the banks open? Not my credit union, anyway.  I think from the fireworks still going off around me, that there must be people home from work, as well.  Then again, there's quite a few unemployed people in my area, so maybe they'd be home, anyway.  And of course, school's out.  Still, there are cars in driveways that are usually not there at this time of day, so maybe some businesses, or even most, have decreed today a holiday, in keeping with tradition.


And speaking of tradition, here's what puzzles me:  There are people in Congress that spout patriotism, tradition, and values virtually every time they get up to speak.  You might know some of the politicians I'm talking about, if you follow politics.  But here's my question:  Why are these people lobbying for the wealthy big business owners, instead of the traditions and values that they claim to honor?  And why aren't they doing more to give us back Easter vacation?  Christmas vacation?  How about Christmas carols in the public schools?  Or public prayer in the schools?  I'm a fairly observant person, and I observe mostly talk and far too little action in any area that gives back our traditions and values, ESPECIALLY when it comes to sacrifices by the wealthy big business owners.


I notice that the U.S. Government website no longer grants a holiday for Good Friday or Easter.  When I was young, all the schools and all the businesses, including government offices, closed on noon on Good Friday.  Monday was also a holiday, so for us kids, it was "Easter vacation."  3 and a half days off school, yay!  We'd walk past the Cathedral and people would be pouring in for noon mass.  I'm not Catholic, but I liked to see the public respect and display of a people recognizing a higher power.  One no longer sees that today, because the respect and tradition are both gone.  I think that's quite sad,too.


If these so-called patriotic, traditional/conservative politicians want to restore respect and values in our society, then why don't they start by giving us back those social mores?  Decree Good Friday and Easter Monday holidays once again.  Restore each individual President's holidays, and let the people take off work on the day it falls, rather than a generic Monday.  

We, as a country and a society, start losing our traditions and values when we allow others to take them away from us.  When we don't stand up and speak out, when we don't fight for what we believe in, the bullies will come and take it away.  It's as simple as that.  Plus, most of the bullies today have money...and money talks.  And the politicians are listening.  Those same politicians that are telling us how much they want a return to traditional "morals and values" are telling us one thing to our face and screwing us behind our backs.  And most of us are too stupid, I guess, to realize it.  I personally think it's time for some good old-fashioned "put up or shut up".  Instead of feeding us focus-group approved lines, DO SOMETHING.  Stop squawking and write bills that mean something.  Without the pork, please.