I don’t begrudge state workers their holidays. The state of Alabama has three holidays glorifying bigotry. In January when everyone else is celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday, Alabama is celebrating MLK/ General Robert E. Lee day. That pisses me off so much. Lee who chose his allegiance based on whichever way his home state went is being celebrated. He might have been a good military tactition but what a twisted sense of morality he had. He chose state over country; state over ideals; state over everything else. I could understand Virginia celebrating his life, but Alabama??
Today, the state is closed for Confederate Memorial Day. The Monday after the National Memorial Day, Alabama will be closed for Jefferson Davis’s birthday. There is no good reason at all to celebrate this man’s life. I’d love to give state employees two personal days in exchange for Confederate Memorial Day and Jefferson Davis’s Birthday, as well as, drop RLee from MLK day. Do you think that will happen? I’m not holding my breath. There are way too many assholes in this state who like it just the way it is. I fully expect to hear from them later in this thread. I could be wrong though.
In Virginia it’s Lee-Jackson-King day. Martin Luther King was added to an existing holiday honoring Lee and Stonewall Jackson.
It’s easy to get pissed off now - but getting the King holiday was a struggle. It had to go state by state, and lots of states didn’t want to add another paid holiday for state workers. Some solved this by grafting the day onto an existing holiday - Virginia was one of these.
Reading up on it, this seems to be the bigger issue. Alabama state employees get way too many paid holidays - looks like about 13 per year, including Mardi Gras, the aforementioned Confederate Memorial Day, Jefferson Davis’ birthday, and the rest of the standard litany, including Columbus Day and Veterans Day.
Lots of these are just fine for private reflection and celebration. I just don’t see where state employees need time off for them, though.
I mean, c’mon, Mardi Gras? I will admit that this is important in Mobile. The problem is that you then have to give the day to the other state employees to be fair. And since this makes little sense, you ought to go the other way and just cut the day entirely.
At least Virginia has some kind of (weakass) excuse, when compared with Alabama, for commemorating Lee. After all, he was a Virginian.
I’ve never understood the idea that Lee was somehow better than the other traitors. In many ways, I view him and his ilk as worse - not only did they fight a war to preserve slavery, but they had sworn oaths of loyalty to the United States as part of its army. They had made that conscious, voluntary step, and then violated said oath. That’s a step further than someone who just happened to be born in the US and decided to fight for the South.
I should add I am not a fan of comemorating Lee, Jackson, Davis or any of them. Annoys me no end that I have to drive to work each day on Jefferson Davis Highway, or that I used to live just off Lee Highway.
Just as a clarification: Alabama state employees not in Mobile get a personal day in lieu of Mardi Gras day, but your reasoning is spot on, as well as the explanation given for the personal day granted to other state employees.
As someone who spent years working for the state of Alabama, I am of two minds about this. First, I generally agree with you about letting the past be the past, but there are some problems:
There need not be a Confederacy in order to have a Confederate Memorial Day. There are still many, many families who remember their terrible losses during the Civil War. They know exactly who died, where they died, and they still honor their memories as family members and as soldiers. And however you feel about it, PLEASE do not dismiss the idea with the old “well, they were fighting for slavery” trope. It’s simply not true for the vast majority of Confederate soldiers.
fervour has already addressed Mardi Gras. State workers outside Mobile DO NOT get Mardi Gras off. They get a personal day in lieu of Mardi Gras.
Lee/MLK - the focus of this one has been steadily changing over the past few decades. Lee will probably be dropped at some point.
What the heck do you people care how many holidays Alabama state workers get anyway? Jealous?
Now between smacks I will let you in on a little secret - we know that. But you see, Talladega was this past weekend and a good deal of this state is still hung over. We needed the rest.
It’s a memorial. Where I come from memorials are not celebratory - they are simply memorial. I didn’t have to like my great-grandfather to know where he is buried.
Frankly, I think our attitude toward history is healthier than is certain other countries. We remember everything, in excruciating detail, and then argue about what it all means - and we not only do this for ourselves but for other countries who frankly cannot be trusted to write their own history anymore.
Germany and Japan both would just as soon take whole unpleasant periods and pretend they never ever happened at all.
If the by-product of our non-denial is the realization that Confederates were a lot like us (as indeed they were) and thus not worthy of complete demonization - well, then, perhaps we all have to live with that.
Yea, what the hell do you do on a Confederate Memorial Day? Do you have a cookout but no one thinks to plan out the supplies and you have to eat hotdogs on a piece of white bread? Do you have hamburgers where all the accessories like tomatoes and stuff keep falling out of the bun? Do you make your black neighbors cook for you?
Do people really still morn the loss of someone who died a few generations ago?
Seriously - we’ve been drinking Natty Lite for about 4 days straight while breathing in exhaust. And you want us to call it what??*
You know, I tried that last year. Did not go over well. Not well at all, sir. I did begin screaming about celebrating my Confederate heritage and there was some grumbling but eventually they did it. However, when they showed up at my house the next day with some talk of reparations I had to admit that what was good for one was good for the other. And that’s the story of how I had to buy new (to me) furniture at the thrift store. Every once in a while I pop over to say hi and sit on my old couch and watch my old TV and they smile and laugh and say “Hope that burger was worth it, cracker.” Good times, good times.
*OK, really this weekend I went to the Magic City Art Connection, not the race. It was like the Anti-Talladega. Kinda weird, actually.
Having travelled extensively in Germany and talked to many many Germans I can attest that the above is entirely untrue for Germany. The modern German state works very hard to educate people on WWII and Germany’s many crimes during that period (not so sure about WWI, but that was a very different war). The German people have faced and accepted their responsibilities to the past and a determination to avoid a repeat. They do not deserve statements such as this.
Blah. I lived in Alabama for a year and found the level of racism there to be pretty astonishing. The first thing we saw, upon arrival, was a car with a bumper sticker saying, “I have a dream” along with a picture of the Alabama state house flying the Confederate battle flag. Then one of the guys unloading our moving truck treated us to a lengthy discourse on how lazy niggers are, and how they never do any work, etc. Apparently, he just assumed we wouldn’t object, which told me something about how pervasive racism must be in his circles. Finally, while we were there, Alabama had a referendum to remove its anti-miscegenation statutes from the books (which had been invalidated by the courts anyhow). 40% of voters voted to keep the laws on the books. No offense, BamaDopers, but I shook the dust of that state from my sandals pronto.
Don’t confuse me with logic, dammit. (Good to see you back, BTW)