Make
Election Day a National Holiday
You can open
your eyes. It's finally
over. Truth, justice, and the American
way won out over lies and all that money. Finally, scientists have discovered how to get
those billionaire "job creators" to let loose with a little bit of their cash, unfortunately,
we'll have to have national elections every year.
Voting last
Tuesday was quick and easy, in and out in five minutes. I've never had any trouble voting here in
Fairfield, California, but my TV kept showing me sad images of voters in other areas waiting
in long lines for many hours. In his
acceptance speech, President Obama said, "We've got to fix that." I agree and, naturally, I have a few
suggestions. Congress should enact a
basic set of Federal Election Laws that specify a minimum number of days and
hours for early voting, a minimum number of voting booths and poll workers per
thousand registered voters in a precinct, and paper ballots, like we have here
in California, that can be manually counted to verify the accuracy of any
questionable voting machine or tabulating system.
One more
thing: Election Day should be a national holiday. The words, "Election Day" are already
capitalized, so we're halfway there. I
can hear bosses everywhere howling: "You lazy workers just want another day off." Of course, but what if I told you we could
have an Election Day holiday with no adverse effect to your business? What if Veteran's Day was celebrated on
Election Day instead of on November 11th? Now, before you start sending me nastygrams
for daring to mess with Veteran's Day, answer this question: Why is Veteran's Day on November 11th? M any of us know that hostilities officially ceased on the 11th
hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, ending "The
War to End All Wars." President Woodrow Wilson
proudly proclaimed "Armistice Day" on November 11, 1919. In 1954, acknowledging that "Armistice Day"
did not actually signify the end of all war and as a way to honor all American
veterans, Congress changed "Armistice Day" to "Veterans Day." Interestingly, from 1971 to 1978, Federal
observance of Veterans Day was on the fourth Monday in October. I have no idea what day future generations
will label as the day mankind ended all war, and that day does decidedly deserve
a national holiday, but I can guarantee you it won't be November 11, 1918. My point is this: Is it more important to celebrate
the date, November 11th as the day fighting stopped in one of our
nation's many, many wars, or should our focus be more on honoring all American
veterans? By the way, are you observing
Veteran's Day today, November 12th?
As a
veteran, I feel there can be no greater honor bestowed upon those who served to
keep our great republic free, than to remember and honor them by observing
Veteran's Day as we Americans exercise our greatest freedom, on Election
Day. In a very real way, our former
servicemen and women would again be actively fighting to help ensure Americans
are able to freely cast their ballots. And,
I hope, by using Election Day to recognize the tremendous sacrifice given by
our veterans to keep America free, millions more citizens would be inspired to
make that very small effort required to vote. I think Congress should make Election Day, Veteran's
Day, so we Americans can honor our veterans the best way possible, by voting. What do you think?
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