And that’s the crux.
Every time companies adopt a paid holiday they take away another.
People used to get Presidents Day, but that was replaced with MLK.
in fairness, juneteeth is pretty new. there has been what two of them? and the first was so soon after implementation that no one had time to adjust to this new holiday few even heard of.
it's kinda redundant anyway given its right before july 4th
i think it night be regional. i hear it's big in texas.
spent most of my life in the midwest and south and it's not one i heard of till a few years ago
I can not deal with conservatives whining about another federal holiday. I am so tired of the complaining. So, no, I don't want a federal holiday they have sufficiently sucked the joy out of everything.
The idea of "federal holidays" is nonsensical for so many Americans. No private business is compelled to give people the day off, nor are they compelled to give premium pay. If you get either, you're lucky. And for some parents, holidays during the school year just increase your childcare bill.
So, yeah. Add it as a holiday. I'm a veteran who has never had veteran's day as a paid holiday.
When daughter was in 2nd grade, she asked why her teachers had Veteran's Day off and I didn't.
That's a very good question, sweetie!
Employers have always said, you can have the day off! Use your PTO.
That's not really honoring my service. Not the same.
Election day being a federal holiday doesn't work. The people who need the time off to vote most will still work, and in fact, have to work more. Any person in a service job works harder on holidays because non service people come in for sales, order food, etc.
If election day was a holiday, more people would go off and do something fun as opposed to voting.
I would probably take Monday off in conjunction and do a 4-day weekend trip somewhere.
That's why aren't statutory holiday. Many states already require employers to provide time off for voting. Some even require business closures until certain hours. It's easy to make happen.
My concern with making election day a holiday is that many, many people don’t get every federal holiday off. It will be used to hurt those who need the time the most.
I’d say we extend Election Day to like maybe a couple days or a Friday, Saturday, Sunday affair instead of one Tuesday and require all employers to give employees at least one of those days off for voting.
I hear what you’re saying, but that will still create problems. Small businesses will be exempt, etc.
Mail-in is what makes sense. It’s secure. It allows people time to look at their ballot and vote. It increases engagement.
It’s why the Republicans hate it
If you took everyone who committed voter fraud in the last decade across the country, you could fit them in a bus. It's the "trans women in sports" of voting, people desperately peddling a solution by making up a problem.
I agree that voter fraud appears to be fairly rare, but your statement is absolutely not true. Just last week the Texas attorney general reported that his office is investigating 100+ non-citizens who voted in the 2020 and 2022 elections.
I live in Texas, and our attorney general Ken Paxton couldn't wake up in the morning without suing the Biden administration over whatever nonsense got into his head that morning. Ken Paxton "investigating" it probably means that it's absolute horseshit meant as red meat for the base. Keep track of how many convictions come of it, or even how many *trials*, because this is going to be "voter fraud" that only exists in headlines and Republican delusions
Also, Texans cast 11,315,056 votes in 2020. 100+ is, for all intents and purposes, nothing. Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate you've never heard of, got 33,396 votes. 100+ votes (even assuming that these are real and not made up by Ken Paxton, you can "investigate" anything you want) would be a fraction of a percent of the vote total for a literal, self-professed socialist.
We do in Texas. We have early voting for about 2 weeks before Election Day , yet people still wait for Election Day. I cringe when I hear people say, I did not vote because of the weather or did not have a day off.
That’s great for you in Texas, but it absolutely is not universal. My state has no early voting, and we do not have no excuse absentee balloting. You basically need to be out of town or too ill to make it to the polls for an absentee ballot. The state had to give special permission for people who were worried about the pandemic to get absentee ballots in 2020. Voting isn’t easy everywhere. Don’t get me wrong, I always vote but there have been times when I got in line 5 minutes before the polls closed because I had to work late. I would love to have early voting so I could vote on a day I don’t have to work.
North Carolina has 17 days of early voting. According to a quick Google, there are only 3 states with no in person early voting. So it's not universal, but it's pretty close.
That might be true, but there are still millions of us living in states that don’t. I’m glad that so many states offer it, but it doesn’t help those of us who don’t live there. People assume that it’s available to everyone and it isn’t. We also can’t get a mail in ballot without a valid excuse. There are 19 electoral votes split between the three states without early voting.
I’m in NH, one of the most restrictive states for voting which is surprising given our large Free Stater population. We also pioneered the citizenship requirement for voting which makes it a lot harder to vote if you don’t have your birth certificate/passport with you, or if your name has changed to something other than what is on your birth certificate.
My roommate decided to wait for election day last November because he didn't see the point in voting early when he works from home and we live down the street from our polling place. He then proceeded to crash his motorcycle a few days before the election and was in the hospital for election day.
I lived in Texas for 13 years and only voted day of (this includes all elections) a handful of times. The early voting is great. Most of the time, I did it right before grocery shopping because they had it right in the store.
I've been advocating for an election week for a while. Not everyone has the same "weekend" and some people don't have a consistent schedule. But most people will be able to find *some* free time to hit the polls in 7 days.
I've been advocating for it since before it was a thing in Virginia (where I lived at the time). Virginia had "in-person absentee" voting for a while, but you needed a specific reason to use it, and the average voter didn't have access to the benefit. I moved to Maryland around the time that Virginia made it a thing for everyone.
And think it should be nationwide. The inconsistency is a problem that might not affect me personally, but it certainly affects other people. You are, in fact, able to advocate for things that you already have locally but you'd like to see implemented elsewhere to benefit others.
Maybe - and hear me out - we could extend election day to last a few weeks with no excuse early/absentee voting.
The Tuesday election day turnout numbers are a blip everywhere in the country now.
Access to voting is a problem nowhere in the country (except perhaps among homeless populations in states like Washington and Oregon with voting by mail only).
Assuming from the username you are in Atlanta, tou already have that. Early voting started Oct 15 and required 2 Saturdays be available. You had weeks.
It's called early voting and it can go on for a couple weeks or more before election day.
Anyone who says they didn't vote because they couldn't get to a polling place on Election Day is basically admitting they didn't do any research or even really try to vote that year.
Yeah but we have it good in Colorado. We get mailed our ballots with a full informational packet on everything we’re voting for and have days to fill it out and drop it off at our convenience in a drop box.
When I lived in Wisconsin, getting to the voting booth around my work hours was absolutely terrible. The first year I could vote I worked second shift and stopped and waited in line for awhile before work, then got turned away because I had just moved for college and did not have proof of address. Had to just go to work. The last time I remember standing out the door in cold November rain in the dark after work waiting in a very long line at the same time everyone else got off.
All states should do it like CO, seriously it makes voting so much less stressful. Otherwise yeah give people off work so they know it’s something they should focus their damn day on.
Would it even increase turnout? People may make plans, go out of town and be outside their usual routine. Keep it a normal day but widen accessibility.
I’m so glad to see someone else point this out. The people that an Election Day holiday would help the most (white collar workers in m-f 9-5 jobs) are not the people who have trouble voting. Shift workers who may already struggle to find time to get to the polls will have even more trouble getting time off. A day that others get off/schools are closed will always be a day that everyone else wants to also take a vacation day.
What about all the people in essential jobs that can't be shut down for a day? Emergency Room staff going to be exempted? Or do they have to go before or after their shift? If they can go before or after work, why can't everyone else?
Also, making voting mandatory is bullshit. Voting is a right, and so ia the right *not* to vote.
First off, that's ridiculous about essential jobs. There's mail-in/absentee voting. Mandatory works well with many other democracies. Fill in mickey mouse for all I care. You sound like someone who's proud to take but never take responsibility.
>First off, that's ridiculous about essential jobs. There's mail-in/absentee voting.
If essential workers can do mail in voting, then so can everyone else.
>Fill in mickey mouse for all I care.
Then what's the point?
>You sound like someone who's proud to take but never take responsibility.
Ad hominems are the fallback for the immature and those who haven't actually thought through their positions.
And just because I don't think people should be compelled to vote, doesn't mean I personally don't vote.
Except flat-earthers, moon landing denyers and other fools./s
I really don't understand people who believe everyone should vote.
If you're going to vote, do it responsibility. Research the issues from multiple sources. Understand that people have agendas. Vote your head, not your heart.
There are still a ton of people who have to work on statutory holidays.
The real way to solve the voting problem is a mail-in system like Colorado runs
I've been pondering this - For the states that insist on voter ID laws (not legal IMO, but for the sake of discussion) we can set up some entity like the post office to distribute ballots for several weeks prior to the election. Come in, show your ID, get marked off the list, go home, read about the candidates, drink heavily until one seems not as terrible, fill out your ballot, and mail it in. None of this waiting 3 hours in line where nobody is allowed to give you a bottle of water garbage.
Once you’re registered, you’re registered. There’s no logical reason to require someone to show an id to have their ballot mailed to them.
Unless you’re suppressing votes.
Interesting to see the down votes for saying people should take responsibility for making sure we keep the right to vote. Must be those with a vested interest in people not voting (MAGATs).
How? They can turn in a blank ballot or write in a nonsense vote if they want, but if they're going to throw away their vote away they should at least have to get their ass up off the couch to do it.
Not universally true, and hours aren't necessarily conducive to people who have to work long hours or multiple jobs.
But it's also why a certain party has been working to get rid of voting by mail, which would be accessible for all
Early voting where I am is 7 days a week for at least two weeks 12 hours a day. There is no excuse not to go and there is no way you’re not available at all. Mail in voting should not be a thing except for absentee ballots.
That's great! And if that was the same way everywhere then there would be no issue. I also don't see any issue with mailing people ballots than they can just sign, seal, and drop off at polling places rather than waiting in line.
We have it almost halfway there in Virginia. Schools are closed since most are used as polling stations. Growing up in California, that was not the case as I remember going to school in elementary and people came to vote in our library.
Virginia also has a requirement that employers allow their workers time to go do so. If you’re out of town or can’t make it during regular polling hours, you can go early. This was all pre-Covid so of course the vote early has changed.
Seeing how the Fed’s can’t make people have the day off and it would just join the dozen or so other federal “holidays” that people still work, I don’t really care one way or the day.
I work at a children’s learning center for space science education. I’m all for it! But also there’s no way in hell that it would mean a day off for us though lol
Yup. I’ll never understand the flat-earth or “moon landing hoax” crowds. We have video evidence from before advanced editing by computers was even a thing, of round Earth, and we have laser-sighted reflective arrays that prove Tranquility Base is up there on the moon and I’m sure we could point the James Webb at the location and visually prove it’s still there.
I understand, I don’t agree with it but I understand it.
They need to see it with their own unaided and unprotected eyes. “Video can be faked”, “the windows on planes are curved and therefore the view outside is distorted”
Ok but does it make sense that other countries would also agree that we’ve been to the moon if it was fake? Do you really think Russia, at the height of the space race, would cover up a lie saying the US was the first to go to the moon?
> I’m sure we could point the James Webb at the location and visually prove it’s still there.
JWST has a resolution of roughly 0.1 arcseconds. It's at Earth-Moon L2 (further from us than the Moon), and because the Apollo landings were on the Earth-facing side of the Moon, that means it could only see Tranquility Base if the moon was opposing Earth from JWST - meaning the distance from JWST to the Moon is roughly 1.5 million km (Earth-L2) plus 384,000 km (Earth-Moon.)
At a distance of about 1.9 million km, 0.1 arcseconds resolves to around 900 meters - meaning (even if you could, which you couldn't since the Moon is so bright in infrared it would instantly destroy JWST) that JWST couldn't see anything on the Moon less than 900 meters across. So unfortunately, you couldn't see it with JWST.
i have a friend who vehemently argued for years that the moon landing was fake. gladly, they were 12 at the time and 12 year olds believe all kinds of bs and grow out of it. they went to some special school for gifted kids so they believed they COULDNT be wrong. the moon is fake, the earth is flat, and space is just a projected sky and thats why the stars dont move. suddenly changed their mind at like 17.
i still hold it against them to this day whenever they try to argue with me. its terribly frustrating for them but amazingly satisfying to me.
To be fair, it's all about what kind of information and people you surround yourself with this. To me, this idea is old news. But here is a podcast with plenty of thoughts about this idea.
There's already an international Moon day, the idea is just to make it a national holiday since America got there first and should be proud of it.
https://twit.tv/posts/tech/lunar-landing-day-movement-make-july-20th-federal-holiday
So one thing to bear in mind is that there are 11 federal holidays... and many private companies give 10-14 (sometimes they omit a federal holiday, sometimes they tag on a state one, etc).
So we have to assume the number can't change and recognition of a new holiday means demoting another to a meaningless in name only kind of thing.
So here's the list of federal holidays:
* New Years Day
* MLK Day (end Jan)
* Presidents day (Mid Feb)
* Memorial Day (Late May)
* Juneteenth
* Independence Day
* Labor Day (begin Sept)
* Columbus Day (mid Oct)
* Veterans Day (Nov 11)
* Thanksgiving
* Christmas
Alright so, right off the bat you've got New Years, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas as your top 4. Those are locks and deeply embedded in the culture with traditions+. Can't change or drop any of them.
Memorial day sees significant observation by folks in the armed forces and is perhaps next most "celebrated" / culture significance. It's timing is also key (end of school year - beginning of summer). So now it's not movable.
Presidents day & Labor day are clutch for breaking up some of the winter and early fall slog, even if they don't get much cultural "celebration" outside of schools.
So what are our duds here? MLK Day, Juneteenth, Veterans Day, Columbus Day.
Columbus Day is slowly getting rebranded into an indigenous people's day as political sentiment changes how we think about the era of European exploration, and Thanksgiving is already a bit of a recognition of Indigenous
\+ European contact in a way that works a little bit better. We could replace this one.
Veterans day is mostly a WW1 reference, and it sees way less observation than memorial day. Replacing this is fine too.
Celebration of emancipation + civil rights is huge, but MLK falls on an awkward time of year (right after new year holidays, before presidency) so observance is lower than it should be. Juneteenth is new, on a Thursday, and is elevating a kind of niche aspect of emancipation. I would argue we should combine these days into 1 civil rights themed. That would give us one.
Here's one issue thought:
The moon landing was on July 20th. From a timing perspective (relatively close to the 4th), it's awkward.
So I might pick another date associated with American invention... but lots of other big ones are close to existing holidays. The transcontinental railroad completion (May 10) and Edison turning on the lights in New York (Sep 4) are maybe next biggest events but those are near other ones. Maybe Grahm patenting the telephone? That's in mid march, and we could really use something in March-Apri.
Absolutely ridiculous. We should have fewer holidays, not more. Why do we need both Memorial Day and Veterans Day? Just combine into one. Also eliminate Presidents Day, MLK Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day/Indigenous People's Day. Move Thanksgiving and Xmas to Sunday, like Easter Sunday.
Considering the current US President put out his opinion that there are too many federal holidays and that "American workers want to eliminate several", I don't see this being something seriously considered.
The fact that the president issued this opinion on Juneteenth may give us some insight into which holidays he would like to eliminate first.
As a veteran I’d really like Veterans Day off and I think it’s crazy that we literally have thousands of people who get Veterans Day off who aren’t veterans.
No, we could literally find something that is monumental for every single date. It would be great if we could have 365 federal holidays a year but it’s just not peaceful.
No company I have worked for has given days off for all federal holidays. They decide which ones to make holidays for all, and then give 1-2 floating holidays.
Adding a new federal holiday will make zero difference in my life
I think it’s funny this topic was posted, I made a similar comment last week that the lunar landing should get more recognition.
It came up because I overheard a colleague talking with another, he said he didn’t know the date of the landing off the top of his head but he bet another colleague did who sits across from him. I was thinking to myself “of course that colleague would know it off the top of his head.” I know it too but I’m a space nerd (as if the Star Trek name reference wasn’t enough lol).
I told my colleague later that I wasn’t surprised he knew it, he and I are the type who know random trivia/knowledge and such like that. He had thought to himself maybe cuz he’s “old” is why they thought that, but I pointed out he has got 20yrs on me and I know it so that’s not the reason (I wasn’t even alive for it). People just don’t know these pieces of history.
Something like 25% of all Americans believe the moon landings were faked. That number has more than doubled in the past decade. It’s almost like the further we get from historic events, like the holocaust or civil rights protests, the less value they have to society.
It won't work. The government would not want this either. Because it would bring more attention that they don't want, to things like Stanley Kubrick's pre-death bed video confession of him calmly explaining how he directed the movie of the fake Apollo moon landing. Half of us have seen this video by now.
Fine, but if we're going to add a holiday, let's drop one in March. Better yet, two, since you never know until the brackets come out whether your team is playing Thursday or Friday.
Need to have a minimum of 12 National Holidays per year. Basically one per month.
Thing is, we already have one in July.
Maybe declare a Space Exploration day in one of the months without a national holiday.
As a government employee who gets all the federal holidays off work, I support it.
In practice, if it doesn't come with continued strong government support for the sciences, what is the point.
I think the general consensus is "Eh, what the hell? Why not?" Seems aboit right to me. It'll make your paycheck show up a day later but that's worth a day off in my book.
https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/artemis/
With NASA’s Artemis Program still scheduled, celebrating Americans landing on the moon the first time might be diminished were we to venture to the moon again.
I see no reason or need to make it a holiday and the federal workers get enough holidays as it is....that is our money that is paying them for days off simply so they can do what shop.
I'm down to make anything and everything a federal holiday because I get every federal holiday off work.
Moon landing? Yes. The opening of Disney World? Sure. The date of the Miracle on Ice? Hell yeah.
Is someone trying to do this? I think it would be stupid. That’s something that impacted the whole world, making it a US holiday makes us seem vain. There’s def a part of me that believes we never landed on the moon to begin with tho.
Do you mean the upcoming one? Or one commemorating the first one?
Actually - doesn't matter. I love that we went and that we're going again. Neither deserves a holiday.
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