First up, this is not a debate or pitting of the ethics of slavery or the place in history of Jefferson Davis or the causes of the Civil War.
Today is a state holiday in Alabama in honor of Jefferson Davis’s birthday. (His actual birthday was June 3 but it’s taken on the first Monday in June.) (The state used to take Robert E. Lee’s birthday (January 19) off as the 2nd Monday in January; it was co-opted in Martin Luther King’s Birthday (January 15). It’s sometimes still referred to as R.E.L. Day. Also Thomas Jefferson’s in April.
I don’t think any reasonable person would argue that Jefferson Davis’s birthday should be celebrated with a holiday or anything else beyond perhaps a “This Day in History” blip (and even then it should be long down the list). Many people of course would argue but that would make them unreasonable.
One reason I think it’s ridiculous is having read a good bit about Jefferson Davis’s later years: he was freaking hated in the south with the passion of a thousand hot Mississippi suns by the end of the Civil War. He never achieved the icon status of Robert E. Lee in his own lifetime and in fact he was very bitter over it; he was in fact more like the anti-Lee, taking the blame for everything that went wrong with the war. Southerners softened their opinions a bit when he went to prison and cheered him when he was sprung but then they basically ignored him for the next twenty years, finally deciding they liked him again when he was decrepit and about to die and the wounds of the war had scabbed over somewhat. He had a really huge funeral and post-mortem tour and then it was back to “Lee’s the one we really liked” until Lost Cause rhetoric made him a martyr. Today he’s pretty much forgotten again save for by SCV types, most of whom couldn’t tell you a thing about him save he was president of the Confederacy.
On the other hand, if you’re an employee of the state of Alabama (and whatever other states celebrate it), it’s a paid off day and it’s not like you have to spend it laying statues on your Jefferson Davis shrine.
So here’s a poll in two parts. Please answer once for each part.
While I think most reasonable people would prefer to have a paid holiday dedicated to something else, if your choice was a paid holiday for J.D.'s birthday or NO paid holiday at all, which would you pick?
If the legislature authorized you to keep the holiday but dedicate it to something else, what would you dedicate it to?
What’s up with the Rasputin bashing in the poll choices? Grigori is something of a hero of mine. A lunatic with nothing but the clothes on his back and the delusions in his brain becomes the right hand of an emperor.
Since I went with “other” I would probably make it some sort of Alabama ballot issue; give a list of say 4 possible State holidays and let the voters decide from there. OK - they could pick “Larry the Cable Guy Appreciation Day” but what the heck? Its still a day off and a chance to drink to excess.
Nicholas was suspicious when the seers predicted Rasputin would be played by Tom Baker in the movie. The prophesies had all agreed that a righteous holy man would only be played by Jon Petwee.
I’m willing to have “Anne Neville Is Fat, Ugly, and Stupid Day”, as long as I get off work for it.
Same thing I dedicate other paid holidays that I don’t celebrate to. Sleeping late and computer gaming. Maybe Chinese food, like I do on Christmas, because I like Chinese food.
I looked it up out of curiosity: Florida is the only other state that has a J.D. Birthday holiday (though they take it on the actual birthday of June 3). Mississippi used to but now they combine it with Memorial Day. Eight other states have Confederate Memorial Day but they’re inconsistent on when its observed (in Alabama it’s a paid holiday in April).
One thing to know about Alabama is that state salaries have been frozen for years so they’re loathe to take away any paid holidays.
Out of curiosity, does your state have any holidays not generally celebrated by other states?
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As to the second - the US needs a federal holiday in August.
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WW2 ended August 15 with the surrender of Japan. That would be a nice rest stop twixt 4th of July and Labor Day.
Victory Day is celebrated on the second Monday in August in Rhode Island.
Apparently there is some controversy because some people think we shouldn’t be celebrating killing all those people. To which I respond, it’s the anniversary of when we stopped killing them.
Now Strategic Bombing Day - that would be tasteless.
Until I was a freshman in high school there was a holiday called Fast Day. Never heard of it, right?
And of course, my state of birth still celebrates Patriots’ Day.
After almost a decade without any, I have trouble wrapping my mind around the concept of a paid holiday.
I’d like to institute a punishment instead, though everyone would get the day off - Hang Up and Drive Day. For a month before the holiday everyone caught driving like an asshole while talking on a phone is issued a summons for HUDD - they will then spend the day watching videos of horrific accidents caused by assholes like them. Everyone else celebrates by not driving like a drunk.
I think holidays for Jeff Davis should go the way of flying the Confederate flag. As much as I love holidays (I get 12 in odd years, 13 in election years), I’d prefer to work rather than take the day off in memory of Davis.
But many of those Texas holidays are listed as “partial staffing.” Which means that most people have to work. Sam Houston characterized Jefferson Davis as “ambitious as Lucifer & cold as a lizard.” (Or maybe it was a snake; need to brush up on my Houston.)
We’ll be able to celebrate June 19th this year, since it falls on a Sunday.
coincidentally, my) birthday.