Thread by @salimfurth

The Columbus/Indigenous People's Day debate is utterly fruitless. Neither of those can be a holiday for all Americans at this point. So you can try to score points for your team, or you can join my longstanding call for #HolidayReform.

(Those graphs are pre-Juneteenth).
My short theory of holidays is that the ones that "work" are those where people can agree on some common set of activities - BBQs, family time, gift exchange, whatever.

In the U.S., our national culture is that we don't do grief or solemnity very well. Only Veterans Day has it; Memorial Day is just too nice-weather to be sad. We're not equipped to do anything constructive with grief- or sorrow-based holidays, so don't bother trying.

There's a lesson there for Juneteenth: use it to celebrate freedom & the end of slavery. Don't be mad when people have BBQs or go to the beach. It's not racism; that's the same thing they do to remember the WWII dead. Fun = success. Preachy = failure.

So what are our specific problems?
1) Too few nice-weather holidays (Juneteenth was a good step).
2) No holiday from mid-Feb to late May.
3) Several duds, the worst of which is Columbus Day, but also Presidents Day.
4) MLK Day is overshadowed by Xmas & New Years.

Now we get to my solutions:
1. Replace Columbus/IP with National Parks Day, set in late April. States can make it "Maryland State Parks Day", etc.
2. Shift MLK Day from January to the Monday closest to Aug 28th (the date of "I Have A Dream").
2A. Shift Labor Day to late Sept.

3. Make Juneteenth a Monday holiday (there's always a June Monday that ends in -teen, which is conveniently near the midpoint btwn Memorial Day and July 4). It'll get broader buy-in and be easier to schedule events around.

The goal here isn't to push the heroes or holidays *I* think are most important. It's to give all our holidays the best chance of being times we spend with family or neighbors in constructive ways that unite Americans.

Thank God, I found my old file, so I can update to include Juneteenth. I used 2024.

Notice how the pre-Juneteenth calendar had just three (3) holidays during the six months during which our hemisphere has at least 12 hours of daylight? Juneteenth makes it 4. My proposal would make it 5, with New Labor Day juuuuust outside, last Monday of September.