GA Russell Posted January 19, 2015 Report Posted January 19, 2015 Tomorrow is MLK Day. Anyone here have the day off because of it? Quote
paul secor Posted January 19, 2015 Report Posted January 19, 2015 I'm retired, but when I was working I had Martin Luther King Day off. Quote
jazzbo Posted January 19, 2015 Report Posted January 19, 2015 I'm retired too, and when I was working I had Martin Luther King Day off. Now I rarely get a full day off. Quote
Jazzmoose Posted January 19, 2015 Report Posted January 19, 2015 Never had it or Columbus Day off. I'm still part of the "northern European origin only holiday celebration" land. Still hear the complaints too. Boy, are people going to shit a brick in twenty years when Harvey Milk Day comes along... Quote
David Ayers Posted January 19, 2015 Report Posted January 19, 2015 In Europe I am not aware of any holidays commemorating secular figures. I'd be interested to hear of any - ? Quote
ejp626 Posted January 19, 2015 Report Posted January 19, 2015 On 1/19/2015 at 10:32 AM, David Ayers said: In Europe I am not aware of any holidays commemorating secular figures. I'd be interested to hear of any - ?Apparently, Scotland (and Canada) still get Victoria Day off. Plus, every time the Royals get hitched they can call a bank holiday in the UK. Must be nice. Quote
Milestones Posted January 19, 2015 Report Posted January 19, 2015 (edited) I always have MLK off Some people get off Columbus Day. If memory serves, we had separate days off to commemorate Washington and Lincoln. Then it became one day: President's Day. Now I don't think it's even a holiday. Edited January 19, 2015 by Milestones Quote
uli Posted January 19, 2015 Report Posted January 19, 2015 On 1/19/2015 at 10:32 AM, David Ayers said: In Europe I am not aware of any holidays commemorating secular figures. I'd be interested to hear of any - ? Swiss national holiday, August 1st celebrates the three oath takers of the first Swiss confederation Werner Stauffacher, Walter Fürst and Arnold of Melchtal. Quote
JSngry Posted January 19, 2015 Report Posted January 19, 2015 On 1/19/2015 at 2:31 PM, Milestones said: I always have MLK off Some people get off Columbus Day. If memory serves, we had separate days off to commemorate Washington and Lincoln. Then it became one day: President's Day. Now I don't think it's even a holiday. President's Day is still a bank/federal holiday, as is Columbus Day. Quote
jazzbo Posted January 19, 2015 Report Posted January 19, 2015 My favorite day off work was when I would occasionally get Confederate Heroes Day off when working for the State of Texas. (It was a "skeleton crew day"--the offices didn't close but most had the day off. . . I usually ended up working those holidays). Quote
The Magnificent Goldberg Posted January 19, 2015 Report Posted January 19, 2015 On 1/19/2015 at 4:28 PM, jazzbo said: My favorite day off work was when I would occasionally get Confederate Heroes Day off when working for the State of Texas. (It was a "skeleton crew day"--the offices didn't close but most had the day off. . . I usually ended up working those holidays).Did they make you work 'cos you was a Yankee? MG Quote
jazzbo Posted January 19, 2015 Report Posted January 19, 2015 No, it was because I was important! One of the busiest of the grunts. They nearly always wanted me to work, and if I worked that day I got more done as there were less phone calls etc. and I also got to take another day of my choosing off, so a good deal for me. Quote
David Ayers Posted January 19, 2015 Report Posted January 19, 2015 On 1/19/2015 at 11:55 AM, ejp626 said: In Europe I am not aware of any holidays commemorating secular figures. I'd be interested to hear of any - ? Apparently, Scotland (and Canada) still get Victoria Day off. Plus, every time the Royals get hitched they can call a bank holiday in the UK. Must be nice. On 1/19/2015 at 3:34 PM, uli said: In Europe I am not aware of any holidays commemorating secular figures. I'd be interested to hear of any - ? Swiss national holiday, August 1st celebrates the three oath takers of the first Swiss confederation Werner Stauffacher, Walter Fürst and Arnold of Melchtal. Interesting... Quote
A Lark Ascending Posted January 19, 2015 Report Posted January 19, 2015 The Tories keep threatening to abolish the May bank holiday (way too socialist) and replace it with Trafalgar Day in October - which would be Nelson Day, I suppose. Quote
paul secor Posted January 19, 2015 Report Posted January 19, 2015 Reagan was opposed to making Martin Luther King Day a federal holiday. Quote
gmonahan Posted January 19, 2015 Report Posted January 19, 2015 When I was working, we got Presidents Day. Then, when the King holiday came on, they traded them. So, I got the King holiday, and not Presidents Day. So it goes. gregmo Quote
GA Russell Posted January 19, 2015 Author Report Posted January 19, 2015 On 1/19/2015 at 6:24 PM, paul secor said: Reagan was opposed to making Martin Luther King Day a federal holiday. Paul, I have no recollection of Reagan's view on the matter. But I do recall that there were many Republicans who felt that the day should be called Civil Rights Day, and not be associated with MLK. I think their reasoning was that, except for JFK and Bill Clinton, MLK was America's most famous cockhound, and the government should not be honoring such a person. Is that how you remember it? Quote
jazzbo Posted January 19, 2015 Report Posted January 19, 2015 I certainly don't remember any talk of MLK infidelity in those days and the reasons I have seen listed for the holiday being opposed was that MLK was some sort of a Commie as he opposed the Viet Nam War, and that his importance was overblown. I'm certain there was some racism behind some of the opposition. Quote
ejp626 Posted January 19, 2015 Report Posted January 19, 2015 On 1/19/2015 at 8:40 PM, jazzbo said: I certainly don't remember any talk of MLK infidelity in those days and the reasons I have seen listed for the holiday being opposed was that MLK was some sort of a Commie as he opposed the Viet Nam War, and that his importance was overblown. I'm certain there was some racism behind some of the opposition.I remember vague rumors, but they certainly didn't put those front and center as the reason for their opposition. Back then, private lives were far more off-limits to the press (indeed, it really did seem to be Gary Hart and then Clinton that kind of brought down the walls).Reagan claimed to be opposing it since he didn't want one more federal holiday (to save the tax-payers) and didn't think it was reasonable to downgrade Washington's and/or Lincoln's birthdays in favor of MLK. That's how I remember it. Quote
JSngry Posted January 19, 2015 Report Posted January 19, 2015 On 1/19/2015 at 7:55 PM, Greg M. said: When I was working, we got Presidents Day. Then, when the King holiday came on, they traded them. So, I got the King holiday, and not Presidents Day. So it goes. gregmo Since I work "for" a bank, I get stuff off that many other private sector people don't. That includes MLK Day, President's Day, & Columbus Day. I don't know if most people get Memorial Day & Veteran's Day, but I get both. What I don't get off that most people do is the Friday after Thanksgiving. My wife works for an insurance company, and she just lost Christmas Eve as a holiday, but got an additional "diversity day" added. Frankly, I don't get why she got it in the first place. Christmas Eve is not a holiday, really, it's the day before a holiday. I get off a few hours early every year on that day, but it's not scheduled, it's just a traditional managerial "courtesy", and I'm fine with that. I don't know what it's like in every environment, but in my wife's company "diversity day" originally just meant the same thing as the old "floating holiday" only it allows for black folks to take off on MLK day and white folks don't have to, they can show up for work and complain instead of having the imagination and gumption to get it declared a company holiday. Or better yet, take a Diversity Day on the holiday yourself. Civil rights is not just a "black" thing, it's a human thing, or at least an American thing, what it takes to get July 4 to have the same meaning for everybody, dig?. Oh, hey white people, I guess you LIKE having to come to work on a national holiday, I guess you really are that ignunt after all, to be tricked into thinking that none of this is relevant to you. Sure looks it. Hate to be that cynical about it, but that's really what it is. Company don't give a shit about right, just in keeping all the workers comfortably dissatisfied. Y'all know the drill, I'm sure. As for the addition of another Diversity Day to take the place of Christmas Eve, well, I get that in a workplace that is becoming more religiously diverse. That one makes sense to me. Why they ever had it off in the first place does not. But Columbus Day, really, what's that one all about? I see no need for it at all, although hey, day off, I'll take it. Still, ok, no banking and no mail on MLK day, I get that, time to reflect, all that. Same on July 4, Labor Day. Profound experiences essential to the national character regardless of their name, built-in contradictions included, especially the built-in contradictions. America has been at its best when confronting and resolving those contradictions in the relentlessness pursuit of a ONE nation under a groove. Even Presidents Day for people who need that, I get it. Definitely Memorial/Veterans Days (although if you need to combine them both, just keep the sentiment alive). And Thanksgiving, anybody who's opposed to the idea of Thanksgiving Day, hey fuck them, right, let's all focus instead on being ungrateful entitled gluttonous self-absorbed backstabbing punkass bitch toxic gaping assholes, centers of our own universe and determined to be the center of everybody else's as well, not (and yet the irony). Keep Thanksgiving if you keep nothing else. These are all days upon which it is proper to contemplate all that goes into the creation, maintenance, and sustainment of a Living & Breathing Always And Forever Still New World. Take those days and use them well. But you gonna tell me that I can't get mail or do banking because I'm supposed to be honoring/reflecting upon/whatever some freakin' Christopher Columbus? Sorry man, just not feeling that one. At all. Not some guy who all he did was chop down the indians to prove that the world was round, and then he said Isabella, I cannot tell a lie, let me free all the slaves to make up for the error of my ways. Flip Wilson done covered all that, thank you. On second thought, let's have Flip Wilson Day! But hey, paid holiday. As long as it's there, there it is. Day off. Quote
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