Editor,
Following the rash of recent news reports about zealous actions to completely separate Christmas from anything funded with tax dollars, I think the time has come for us to insist that the people who advocate radically secular positions have the courage of their convictions, and follow them to their logical conclusion. Obviously, the first step in this direction should be the introduction of legislation eliminating Christmas as a federal holiday.
While they're at it, they should also demand the elimination of Martin Luther King Jr. Day - after all, he was an ordained minister. George Washington noted in his first inaugural address, "It would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that almighty being who rules over the universe." As for Abraham Lincoln, we can't overlook his words in the Emancipation Proclamation: "I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of almighty God." Neither of these presidents, great though they were, passes today's strictly secular test of political correctness.
Well, what about Memorial Day, then? All those war dead in cemeteries, marked solemnly by row after row of crosses and Stars of David. This federal holiday will also have to go.
This brings us to Independence Day. What can you say about a holiday that celebrates a Declaration that includes the following politically incorrect language: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Sorry, but this one doesn't pass muster either.
On to Labor Day. This one stays. As the Department of Labor notes on its Web site, "The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take were outlined in the first proposal of the holiday - a street parade to exhibit to the public the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations." What's not to like about a holiday with no religious connotations, and an underlying theme of class war?
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Next up on the list is Columbus Day. Though its religious connections are relatively weak, no self-respecting secular multiculturalist would object to getting rid of this one. Nor would Leif Erikson's fans. What about Veterans Day? The original 1926 law making it a federal holiday noted that it "should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations." I'm afraid it also must go.
And what can you say about Thanksgiving? Celebrating a bunch of religious extremists thanking God for helping them to survive their first year in the New World? This holiday is obviously too politically incorrect to pass muster under the new rules.
But, lest you get too depressed, New Year's Day also will remain a holiday, since it seems inoffensive according to every measure of political correctness I could find.
In sum, if taken to its conclusion, the logic of radical secularism should leave us with just two federal holidays instead of the present 10. But that's a small price to pay for ridding our public life of all those awful references to faith and religion, isn't it?
Cali Garcia
UNM alumnus
