The federal vacation we name President’s Day, celebrated this yr on February 19, technically does not exist. It is formally George Washington’s birthday and has been a federal vacation since 1879, although it was moved to the third Monday in February in 1971 so People may take pleasure in a three-day weekend in his honor.
President’s Day additionally has nothing to do with Abraham Lincoln or the opposite two presidents born in February – Ronald Reagan and William Henry Harrison. The true which means of this vacation—honoring the legacy of the nation’s first president—appears to have been forgotten. As an alternative of nice presidents, we’re extra possible to consider this as a three-day gross sales occasion on furnishings and home equipment.
Whereas Washington might need understood the necessity for an excellent promote (his mattress at Mount Vernon was made of costly wooden and contained mattresses stuffed with horsehair), he would absolutely agree that the vacation has misplaced its which means within the twenty first century.
If we simply use the day to commerce in previous mattresses for brand new ones, how about we additionally substitute what has develop into a lackluster trip with what may very well be significant? Election day.
If ever there was a patriotic motive for a time off, it is to take part in democracy by voting in a neighborhood, state or federal election.
I bear in mind reporting from a polling place in South Los Angeles on Election Day in 2008. Lower than half an hour earlier than the polls closed, a younger lady walked in together with her father. He labored at a rustic membership restaurant and had come to vote after an extended day at work. I admired that he didn’t name off this final however deeply essential process of the day. His bosses had let him go away early to vote. California and lots of different states require employers to provide their employees paid break day to vote. However what about different employees who cannot go away early? Would not or not it’s nice to let everybody have the liberty to vote?
In the present day, voting in California is simple. All registered voters obtain a poll paper within the put up – which might be returned, delivered to a polling station or positioned in a poll field. In Los Angeles County, polling facilities are open 10 days earlier than Election Day.
However voting guidelines are totally different and sometimes extra restrictive in different states. Though most US states and the District of Columbia additionally provide early voting, solely seven states apart from California enable all elections to be performed totally by mail. One other 15 states enable mail-in voting for some elections. And solely 28 states and the District of Columbia can help you request an absentee poll with none excuse.
For many who should vote in particular person, it may be troublesome to get to a polling station. The Management Convention on Civil and Human Rights discovered that 1,688 polling locations in 13 states closed between 2012 and 2018, most of them because the Supreme Court docket struck down the Voting Rights Act in 2013. Many states additionally enacted different restrictive guidelines that made it more durable to vote, that overwhelmingly affected black and Latino communities.
For working folks and people with kids and little time to spare, a full time off to seek out and get to the polls would most likely be welcome. However making a vacation out of Election Day can even assist these of us with out obstacles to casting a vote apart from a way of ennui and insignificance that some folks really feel about elections — as in, “my vote does not actually matter.”
I believe Washington would have authorized of changing a vacation that honored him with one that really honors the voters. His farewell handle targeted on nationwide unity and threats to the younger nation, nevertheless it urged People to do all they may to guard their union, saying that “it’s a endless second that you must correctly assess the large worth of your nationwide union to your collective and particular person happiness.”
What higher justification may there be for an official vacation to vote?