I'd been floating along on the assumption Matt is keeping a fairly low profile at school. The new principal who arrived last year after we left Japan surely would not connect Matt's name to Matt's face - and, more importantly, to my face -until after Christmas at the soonest. This translates in my personal language to a license to fire off pithy missives to the school administration on a fairly regular basis, imagining the principal scratching his head and wondering, "Who is this brilliant woman with all these incredibly constructive suggestions?"
This Walter Cronkite gig put the brakes on that little hobby. Apparently I am not as insensitive as you first suspected.
Frankly, though, I'm worried all this newfound self-restraint is going to give me an ulcer. You don't want that to happen so I'm going to blow off a little steam here by sharing my thoughts on Columbus Day. I had plenty of time to accumulate these thoughts and build up a head of steam while producing my 60 photo cards for the JAW conversation group, a little assignment I managed to complete in just under 39 hours. Mimi says this might be a new record. (This would be the same Mimi who has been banned from the base print shop for life after last year's card-making fiasco.)Here goes.
Why is Columbus Day a Federal holiday still? Why do Department of Defense schools close on Columbus Day when many other school districts remain open? Our nation was crawling out from under a Great Depression when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared Columbus Day a Federal holiday back in 1934. Were Federal employees paid for not working on holidays in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s? Maybe a Federal holiday in 1934 was a euphemism for shutting down our national government for 24 hours in order to save the taxpayers a chunk of money, like the steel industry and automakers used to shut down factories for a week or two and call it Deer Season.
Let's tell Congress we can no longer afford Columbus Day. Why should Federal employees get eleven (11) paid holidays when the people paying for those holidays - the taxpayers those Federal employees are there to serve, let's not forget - might get as many as seven (7) paid holidays but more often get none and consider themselves fortunate to have a job? If Congress doesn't have the backbone to eliminate just one questionable holiday, I say we let them foot the bill out of their own personal pockets.
I feel the same about our military personnel not showing up for work on Columbus Day, especially when I consider all the soldiers, sailors, marines, and the couple of dozen pilots on hazardous duty in Afghanistan or Iraq or floating around on and under the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Those kids who are protecting our interests for days, weeks, and months on end are the ones who deserve a three-day weekend but they won't be getting one soon.
How many civilian doctors and dentists do you know who don't schedule patients on Columbus Day, or Presidents' Day, or Martin Luther King Day? That's when Dr. Baker used to schedule my kids' dental checkups (Dr. Baker also worked on rainy days but that's another issue for another day).
Native Americans despise Columbus Day, the Italian-Americans can get over "losing" a paid holiday they no more deserve than the Irish-, Polish-, Mexican-, and Nigerian-Americans, and the last I knew Catholics were no longer being singled out for persecution by the Ku Klux Klan, so let's get rid of Columbus Day. We don't need it and we can't afford it. I don't know about you, but I don't want my precious future grandchildren to have to spend half their lives paying interest on the money we'll have to borrow from China to pay Mike not to work tomorrow.
And that's the way it is.
(Before you leap for that comment button like a returning champion on Jeopardy, Mike, be assured we all know that you personally work 24/7, in sunshine/snow/hurricanes/typhoons, and personify service in its most glorious and noble connotations.)
We here on BLUE RIDGE do indeed work through the weekends and holidays. That's because we have very real world issues with which to deal, and those issues don't take days off. Also, being away from our families, what else - really - is there to do? I do look forward to making up some of that time when back on shore, close to family, while someone else has the watch. But for now I'm happy to take the watch so those who already have done so can have quality time with their families.
ReplyDeleteWhat is that shiny thing? Is that a UFO? No, it's . . . wait a minute . . . it's a blindingly bright halo floating offshore on the tide. Some sort of saint or angel, I guess.
ReplyDeleteThe Piano Man has a bright future in broadcast journalism, IMHO.
ReplyDeleteBroadcast News! Put that movie on our Mother's Day List.
ReplyDelete