******************************************************************** SHOULD COLUMBUS DAY BE-A NATIONAL HOLIDAY? Yesterday morning the phone rang and a voice says, "I went to the bank and the postoffice and both of them are closed, What is going on?" Well I was not sure myself so I asked my wife, Thema, and she said that it was Columbus Day, So the caller accepted that information, by saying, "Oh I see." It sort of blows my mind as to why all Federal and many State employees are paid by us taxpayers for a holiday that observes Christopher Columbus's arrival in the West Indies back in 1492. First maybe Congress should review, ALL HOLIDAYS, which are holidays only set aside for PAID DAYS OFF for Federal and State employees and where the rest of the nation continues to work in order to pay those state and federal employees that are given that DAY OFF WITH PAY. But that is another subject in itself. What we are talking about to-day is the fact that we as a nation have proclaimed a certain day in October to be Columbus Day, falsely we call it a, NATIONAL HOLIDAY. But unlike Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, or Labor Day there is not full participation by the majority of peoples of this Nation. This is a SPECIAL HOLIDAY FOR FEDERAL AND SOME STATE WORKERS. This type of discriminatory Holiday, does not take into consideration the needs of the majority of the nations people but is tied to only the selfish interest of those employees who feel they are entitled to a free handout from the taxpayers, while denying those same taxpayers, required to work the services they should be afforded. There is even a national discussion going on of whether we should in, all good conscience, even observe Columbus Day. I have two WEB sites listed that give opposing positions: This first one supports the observance: http://www.aynrand.org/objectivism/columbus.html This one opposes the observance: http://128.241.163.212/welker/columbu1.htm As you can see by those that oppose the observance there are a number of articles. I read all of them but if you are in a hurry I recommend you go to the above site and click on and read at least: Why AIM opposes Columbus Day Speech by Thor Heyerdahl Go to my WEB page at: http://www.geocities.com/~billweber/ In closing I am for eliminating all "PAID HOLIDAYS" but perhaps we should start with those that seem to have been created by the bureaucrats of our federal government to have the majority of the taxpayers pay them for a holiday where the majority of taxpayers in the rest of the nation do not have that time off. Article by Bill Weber - WEB Host