santa cruz wharf

18 February 2007

Manic Monday with Mo ~ Celebrating…Honoring



I am “Celebrating” a couple of the men whose contribution resulted in me living a very good life.



Not only is my little corner of the blogging world celebrating “morgEpalooza” (Yo Mo…Happy Four-Oh!) a significant number of Americans are celebrating “Presidents’ Day”. I started thinking about the men we celebrate…and about the four men for whom the United States actually celebrates with a Federal Holiday.

Columbus ~ Washington ~ Lincoln ~ King

Men of passion and conviction. Men who sacrificed a great deal in their personal life. Two actually had their lives taken from them. I don’t have time to scan the net for research on Columbus, but I know the other three were truly men of God. Their Christian faith guided and sustained them in their calling. I am honored to honor their lives.

I know there are ongoing debates over WHOM to honor and celebrate…and why or why not.

I could personally name half a dozen Americans….men and women….whose lives I would want to establish recognition for.

There is no way we can have Federal Holidays for each and every man and woman whose lives have contributed to the greatness of our Nation.

Unless of course….we went to a three day work week.

However….here’s an idea….

How about Honor Days instead of Holidays? What if there was a list …it could be pages and pages. Each person could select three (or four?) from the list. At the beginning of each year…they would submit in advance to their employer…who they were going to honor. Sure some people would work it out to just have them all in a row like an extra week of vacation. Some would tack them on to Christmas or Thanksgiving. People would select their own birthday. Some people would choose to honor individuals who we think are evil and atrocious. So what? Each person could choose what or who to celebrate. If they had no conviction for another individual…well then…that is their right as well.

Every great plan has its draw backs….not sure how we would deal with the schools. Not sure we can have the students picking their holidays. Mine would pick test days. (smile) But then again testing is gonna be on the internet soon anyway. Maybe they could be required to write an essay about the individual they were recognizing. I also realize companies save money by closing down operations. And small business owners can’t always give up an employee or two. It may cause some interesting conversations at the dinner table if family members disagree with other’s choices. But still. It’s a thought…don’t ya think?

As for today….

Celebrate that with the contribution of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln….among others….we can write on these blogs whatever we want. That we can throw out TO THE WORLD our thoughts, opinions, rants, raves, and ramblings….with freedom. Thanks guys.

From the depths of my heart….

I celebrate Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.

12 comments:

Travis Cody said...

Thanks for stopping by my place. I just posted my Manic Monday.

Yours is a thought-provoker. Very interesting. I'll have to think about my Honor Days.

Happy Manic Monday!

Empress Bee (of the high sea) said...

great idea! and happy birthday mo!

smiles, bee

Durward Discussion said...

Thanks for stopping by. Love the view of the Santa Cruz wharf. It's been a while since I've been there.

Nice thought provoking idea. At one point I suggested a "National Heroes Day". Anyone of importance to any group could be nominated and they could celebrate locally for their particular hero whoever that might be, but it would be a National holiday. March, April, and August don't have "day off" type holidays yet so would be good locations for a three day weekend.

Barb said...

Great Manic Monday!

Anonymous said...

Great post - I learned a few things too! (Being Canadian and all!)

Neila said...

Great celebratory post! I always celebrate Presidents Day because my husband is off so I have help for a day of child wrangling. But you have a nice spin on it, too! :-)

Happy Manic Monday and Morgepalooza!!

Crazy Working Mom said...

Awesome idea! :)
I'm in.

Great Celebration.
Thanks for stopping by and

Happy Birthday, Mo!

Claire said...

I learnt something to! We have nowhere near enough public holidays here in the UK, not even on St Georges day and he is the patron saint of England (killed dragons apparently!)
Great Manic Monday and thanks for the visit.

Mo and The Purries said...

Yes, great men - thanks for including humble old mo in a post with Washington & Lincoln!
And thanks for the birthday shout out!
~ Manic Mo

Mel said...

Happy Birthday Mo.

And what a grand idea--if only folks would get along long enough to implement it....

Happy Monday!

Unknown said...

what a nice entry and I am also thankful for my freedom

Unknown said...

You did a great job on this celebration - very interesting for me, too (being from Germany I learnt a lot. Thanks!)