Now that Juneteenth is a Federal holiday, what new one would you like to see?
I would love to see Pride as a Federal holiday, but I’m not expecting that to happen during my lifetime. But I could be wrong; I never thought I’d live to see legal same-sex marriage.
I would prefer some kind of EU style extensive paid vacation time. Rather than various days throughout the year for this or that reason.
Not that your idea for federal “pride day” is bad, but as people chime in to this thread, at some point we are gonna run out of days. Do we keep “pride day” or replace it with “Eid al Fitr” or “Japanese Internment camp day” or “we landed on the moon day” or “blue lives matter day” or “black lives matter day”
Maybe some parameters would be good. With Juneteenth we are up to 11 federal holidays. So up it up to 15?? It’s your thread, you tell me.
And i’d be okay with switching Columbus Day with Indigenous people day Maybe combine Veterans Day and Memorial Day? (not sure if i even know the difference between the two) That would free up a day.
Christmas day is kinda of a Christian Holiday, and with separation of church and state and all…but that would be a tough sell.
Election Day should be a federal holiday.
Veterans Day is for those of us who served and came home. Memorial Day is for those who did not return. (Armed Forces Day is for those currently serving.)
Christmas Day is a federal holiday.
I could go for May 9th as John Brown Day and July 21st as Moon Landing Day.
This. More important than all of the currently existing Federal holidays put together.
The thing is, the majority of people who don’t have time to vote on Election Day are the same class of people who don’t get a day off for federal holidays either.
A cure for cancer isn’t going to stop me from getting hit by a bus, either, but it’s still a huge improvement.
It is absolutely insane that we got any new federal holiday other than election day. That would be functional. Almost anything else is… “decorative”, not that I’m going to complain about new holidays.
Do you not have a statutory entitlement to time off to vote? That’s what we have in Canada. Not a holiday, but the employer must ensure each employee has three consecutive hours off to vote.
It is absolutely insane that we continue to insist that voting be confined to a single day.
I’ve pondered the possibility of having as much of the country as possible shut down for the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Obviously some categories of businesses would have to stay open, but some of them could at least go to reduced hours.
This is a proposal my wife and every other European expat I know harps on every Christmas.
And make that voting week.
I ignore 6 of the current 12 federal holidays anyhow. MLK was only a holiday when I worked for a Birmingham, AL based business but it was a floating holiday if you didn’t work in Birmingham so I never paid attention to it. Presidents’ day is just an annoyance if I have to go to the bank. I stopped getting labor day off in college since we wouldn’t be laborers. I’d rather drop a bunch of our current holidays and double them up so New Year’s day gets New Year’s eve as a holiday, christmas get boxing day, Thanksgiving gets black Friday, 4th of July get 5th of July, and Memorial day turns into a 4 day weekend.
For adding a holiday I’d add Halloween and all saints day. I wouldn’t have election day as a holiday and instead I’d rather go to national 100% mail in voting.
Not at the federal level, though a majority of states have some sort of law regarding it (typically requiring employers to give employees 2 to 3 hours to vote). In some states, that time is “paid time,” while in others, while the employer must give time to vote, it can be unpaid.
I was very surprised to find out that Inauguration Day is a holiday for federal employees. Obviously, it’s once every four years – they don’t consider January 3 when new congress members are sworn in to be an inauguration day.
So, drop that holiday and make Election Day a federal holiday. I envision this as being every 2 years, including the midterm election as well as the presidential one. States could add election day holidays if necessary for their local elections.