May first is now "Loyalty Day"?

[regnad kcin]

Apparently May 1st is now "Loyalty Day" in the US:

"NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 1, 2003, as Loyalty Day. I call upon all the people of the United States to join in support of this national observance."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/04/20030430-26.html

Every country in the world except the US, Canada, and South Africa celebrates May Day as Labor Day.

http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anarchism/mayday.html

Ironically, the events which May Day commemorate actually occured in the US.

That the US celebrates Labor Day on a more benign day with no historical significance or ties to early post-industrialization attempts at humane labor conditions may not seem Orwellian to you, but May Day's deliberate replacement with "Loyalty Day" really should make you stop and think.

Can you imagine a "Loyalty Day" in any other industrialized country in the world? If you suggested it in England or Italy or Sweden you'd be laughed at. In Germany you'd be called a Nazi and regarded with suspicion. In Japan its probably unconstitutional.

It sounds more like something from North Korea, or the USSR, or fascist Japan. Think about it.

[El_Kabong]

It's now May 3rd. Do we still have to be loyal?

[Milum]

Nice sentiments, stupid name. Bush is stupid about names. Patroits Bill indeed. Homeland Security indeed. Has Duba no language advisors? Loyalty Day indeed.

Geez. My hero is a 56 year old Boy Scout.

[Revtim]

Ah yes, a feel-good useless thing that you can't be against without sounding like a traitor. Now THIS is what really I want my legislators spending time and money on.

[even sven]

This is just another example about how Bush is trying to distance the United States from the rest of Western society. "Loyalty Day" is a stupid thing to begin with. But, holding it on a day so wraught with signifigance both here and abroad is a deliberate affront to European countries, and labor causes in general. Imagine if the European countries declared Thanksgiving day "non-agression day". The signifigance would not be lost on us.

[even sven]

Oh, excuse me. Not Europe. The whole freaking world. Great, just what we need- more chances to alienate the whole gosh darn planet.

[Apos]

Every country in the world except the US, Canada, and South Africa celebrates May Day as Labor Day.

I'll bet Liberia doesn't celebrate it in any real capacity.

Americans may have a long habit of covering up, forgetting, and just plain making shit up in regards to their own history... but it's not like we're alone in the world in that.

[Apos]

If this day was what it claims to be, I don't see how anyone sane could call it "Loyalty" day. If there's one thing the founders WEREN'T symbols, it was loyalty. They, after all, led a revolution against their own country.

[Sam Stone]

Canada celebrates labor day.

"Loyalty day" sounds stupid to me. And vaguely Orwellian. Loyalty is earned. You don't get it once a year just for yucks.

[Evil Captor]

C'mon guys. A significant percentage of Americans feel that Bush isn't really the president, that he was never elected but APPOINTED to the post by corrupt judicial hacks as part of a blatant electoral theft.

Of COURSE he's all for Loyalty Day. Needs all of it he can get.

[elucidator]

Only a "significant portion"? More proof that the war against ignorance is a Prime Directive.

This smells like Karl Rove, GeeDubya's Eminence Greasy. Co-opting a socialist-type "day" plays directly to the carbon-encrusted hearts of the extreme right. I'm surprised they haven't moved stogie-sucking "labor bosses" up there with lesbian trial lawyers. Same kind of button-pushing emotional pandering that moved them to time the Republican Convention so they can segue it into a Sept. 11th remembrance. Pimps.

I think they're panicking. When Gulf War I was over, G. the first was way more approved that G. the second. He was so far ahead all the major Democratic candidates bailed out and a snotty young punk from Arkansas got nominated.

GeeDubya has to wave the bloody shirt, wrap his sorry ass in my flag, and intone a boxcar full of jingoistic platitudes, delivered with jaw-jutting defiance. He preaches exclusively to the choir.

Read your kid's history books. You'll find they reduce the blood and stife of the labor movement into a murmured negotiation over tea. The rich and powerful of America, in thier wisdom and benign grace, stooped to empower the working man as though he were their equal....

elucidator passes out copies of the Internationale for a good, old-fashioned, Smash-the-State-and-Bugger-the-Bosses singalong. People's key of C.

[rexnervous]

Well, make sure you're flying your American Flag and have your prominently displayed photo of Bush showing next May 1st.

[elucidator]

When they stuff it into my cold, dead hand.....

[Philly Style]

:D

Bush is many things, but not stupid. He has gotten as much of his policy through as we see by having his foe underestimate his resolve and the strength of those around him.

I am a conservative republican. I also have read 1984 and recognize double speak when I see it. I agree with many of Bush's economic policies. I hate the way he and Ashcroft have wrapped themselves in the flag at our expense.

Keep in mind, I don't plant trees on Arbor day, I do treat the mailman to lunch on Mail Carries day, I don't follow or observe 99.9% of the Federal Holidays.

This is one more I'll miss.

[Terrifel]

How did you guys celebrate Loyalty Day? Since it's such a new holiday, there doesn't seem to be any tradition to follow. I was kind of at a loss for an appropriately symbolic gesture to demonstrate my allegiance to the nation, but eventually I simply decided to clip a photo of President G. W. Bush out of the newspaper and ceremonially anoint it with my own bodily fluids. God bless America.

Frankly, it's hard to understand how the country managed to last this long without an official Loyalty Day. How did our disloyal, traitorous forefathers manage to keep the nation together all this time? We should probably look into establishing a Patriotism Day and an Obedience Day, just to be on the safe side.

[patternagainstuser]

that's sick

[Revtim]

Originally posted by Terrifel
How did you guys celebrate Loyalty Day? Since it's such a new holiday, there doesn't seem to be any tradition to follow. Given how successfully they have convinced the sheep that criticism of Bush and/or the war is tantamount to anti-Americanism, there is no doubt in my mind that a primary reason for making this "holiday" is for people to celebrate by shutting up. They could have just as well called is "National shut the fuck up ya Commie hippie!" day.

So to celebrate Loyalty Day, you simple reflect upon how great our leadership is, and how inappropriate and treasonous it is to disagree with them.

[jayjay]

I celebrated by having my sinuses flow like Niagara. I thought it was just tree pollen, but apparently I'm allergic to Loyalty.

[KellyM]

I can't believe that my daughter's birthday is known as "Loyalty Day". :rolleyes:

[whitetho]

According to this page, the idea for "Loyalty Day" goes back to the 1930s, and "In May 1, 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower made it a day of national observance." -- The Loyalty Day (http://www.theholidayspot.com/mayday/loyalty_day.htm).

[Kal]

Originally posted by Revtim
They could have just as well called is "National shut the fuck up ya Commie hippie!" day.Or "National move to Canada" day. May as well link it to the original Loyalists.

[msmith537]

Do we get May 1st off from work? Cause otherwise I will probably never think of Liberty Day ever again.

[Milum]

Dadgumit regniad kcin you tricked me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Citizens of this great land.

Now, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 1, 1998, as Loyalty Day. I urge all Americans to recognize the heritage of American freedom, to honor the memory of those who have served and sacrificed in defense of that freedom, and to express our loyalty to our Nation through
appropriate patriotic programs, ceremonies, and activities. I also
call upon Government officials to display the flag of the United States in support of this national observance.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-second.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(My apologies President G W Bush, my loyalty to you, it seems, is vulnerable to the sinister misspeak of the liberal mind.)

But I still don't like anything called "Loyalty Day"! :(

[Terrifel]

Originally posted by Milum
Dadgumit regniad kcin you tricked me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(My apologies President G W Bush, my loyalty to you, it seems, is vulnerable to the sinister misspeak of the liberal mind.)

But I still don't like anything called "Loyalty Day"! :( Hey, how d'ya think I feel?! I wasted some perfectly good voodoo magic on this non-event.

Oh, well. At least I'm not the only American out there who'd never heard of "Loyalty Day." Apparently there's some kind of subconscious conspiracy to ignore stupid holidays. Case in point: according to whitetho's link, May 1 is also "Americanism Day," evidently as a sort of "double-Dutch fooey on you" to the dread forces of International Communism. On the other hand, maybe it's simply good old-fashioned Yankee inclusiveness at work: you can celebrate if you're a loyal American, or if you're loyal but not American, or if you're American but not particularly loyal. Everyone's invited!

And I don't think you owe any apology to old G.W., either. After all, the holiday celebrates loyalty to America, not to any specific elected official. For me, the concept of loyalty is embodied in the old quote by Carl Schurz:

Our country, right or wrong.
When right, to be kept right;
When wrong, to be put right.

So I consider Election Day to be the real Loyalty Day.

[Dogface]

Originally posted by Terrifel
How did you guys celebrate Loyalty Day?

Like the vast majority of Federally-proclaimed "days", we ignore it.

If we do end up remembering it, we will celebrate in the time-honored tradition of all other "days" that get some notice: Demand a day off from work and get thoroughly hammered on the alcohol delivery systems that suit our individual tastes.

We already have Independence Day, Veteran's Day, and Memorial Day. Likewise, since Memorial Day is at the end of May, this "Loyalty Day" nonsense" will become yet another Federal "day" that will be ignored by all real Americans.

In Indiana, it will be considered an annoying distraction from the real meaning of the already extant national May holiday: The Indianapolis 500.

Heck, on some years, it could even interfere with "Track Opening Day", a celebration of real import.

[Dogface]

Here's a kicker: JFK (that's Jack the Zipper), designated May 1 as "Law Day", where we are all to reflect on how wonderful it is to be "guided by the statutes of law".

http://www.theholidayspot.com/mayday/law_day.htm

[Mockingbird]

Originally posted by Terrifel
How did you guys celebrate Loyalty Day? Since it's such a new holiday, there doesn't seem to be any tradition to follow. I was kind of at a loss for an appropriately symbolic gesture to demonstrate my allegiance to the nation, but eventually I simply decided to clip a photo of President G. W. Bush out of the newspaper and ceremonially anoint it with my own bodily fluids. God bless America.


What a waste of body fluids.

Don't you know that there are tramps out there who go without body fluids just so you can annoint a picture?

Won't someone think of the hosebags?!?

[MsRobyn]

I dunno... I think "Loyalty Day" would best be spent with a proletariat uprising against the Bushwahzee. ;)

Credit goes to Molly Ivins for coining "Bushwahzee".

Robin

[John Mace]

For those who immediately jumped on Bush:

WHEREAS, In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law Public Law 85-529, which designates May 1 of each year as "Loyalty Day";

Every president since then has issued the same announcement that was linked to in the OP. Do a search on Loyalty Day and you'll find this.

Must be up there with "National Cheese Day". And I suppose the Bush-Bashers would find a reason to blame him for that, too.

[Dogface]

So what are we supposed to be loyal to: "Tastes Great!" or "Less Filling!"?

[Mockingbird]

Originally posted by John Mace
For those who immediately jumped on Bush:



Every president since then has issued the same announcement that was linked to in the OP. Do a search on Loyalty Day and you'll find this.

Must be up there with "National Cheese Day". And I suppose the Bush-Bashers would find a reason to blame him for that, too.

Of course he's done nothing wrong, doesn't deserve our ire, and thus is always unjustly bashed.

:rolleyes:

[John Mace]

Bird:

All I am talking about here is bashing Bush for something he has virtually nothing to do with. Are you defending that? If not, what's your point in quoting my post?

[regnad kcin]

Hey, my fault.

It wasnt deliberate trickery. I had no idea theyd all been doing it for 50 years. I roll my eyes at them all for this idiocy.

This still leads me to ask:

Was the original choice of May 1st deliberate?

Was the elimination of May 1st as Labor Day in the VERY country in which the events it commemorates occured deliberate?

Whats up with that? It smacks of 1984 no matter how harmless it is, and points to an ideological connection between government and anti-labor interests.

[asterion]

What does it matter if Labor Day in the US is in September and not May 1? This sounds like the world trying to be stupidly interested in American domestic affairs.

[John Mace]

RK:

I'm taking a guess here, because I honestly don't know, but think about it. 1958 was the hieght of the cold war. May 1st is not so much Labor Day (we celebrate that here in Sept) as it's "International Workers Day". A big celebration in the Communist countries. Is it any surprise that the US in the 50s wanted to distance itself from that event? This is the same decade that gave us "Under God" added to the pledge of allegiance. No surprise to me.

[rjung]

Just out of curiousity, does anyone remember when Loyalty Day was even [I]mentioned[/I} in the last twenty years previously? Is the attention being given to LD2003 a case of the White House giving it extraordinary attention, or just some bored nut soptlighting an obscure government proclamation for a cheap drive-by Bush bash?

(Bush-bashing is one thing, but unwarranted Bush-bashing is another)

[regnad kcin]

So Im a "bored nut" now, huh?

I think I owned up properly when I said:

"It wasnt deliberate trickery. I had no idea theyd all been doing it for 50 years. I roll my eyes at them all for this idiocy."

Not good enough for you, rjung?

[Sublight]

Originally posted by Terrifel
How did you guys celebrate Loyalty Day?
I shouted rude names at a Frenchman.