Commuters board a train at Washington's Union Station. For $14,000, you can target Congress for aOne of the country's best advertising locations for advocacy groups is a grungy corridor leading to a pair of escalators at Union Station in Washington.
Roughly 30,500 people pass by the billboards each weekday, but it's not the quantity that matters.
Because the Metro station is a short walk from the Capitol, it is frequented by many of the Congressional staffers that activists target. month.
The History of Federal Holidays is written through Congress
This week was Columbus Day, so everyone from your mail carrier to your U.S. senator had the day off.
Although bank employees are also enjoying a vacation, much of the rest of the country still has to go to work. (And some retail stores may be working overtime for sales.)
So how did Christopher Columbus get his own day?
Federal holidays must be designated by both chambers of Congress and approved by the president. There are currently 10, including Labor Day, President's Day and Veterans Day. When the president is inaugurated every four years, Jan. 20 is added to the mix.
The U.S. government must recognize a federal holiday, but it does not have to be celebrated by states, cities, small business owners, large business owners, or anyone, for that matter.
Once a federal holiday has been signed into law, all federal employees are given that day as a paid vacation day. If the holiday falls on a weekend, the holiday is usually observed on the following Monday.
In addition, federal employees are also given 13 sick days and up to 26 days of vacation, depending on how many years they have been employed. That's comparable to the 15 days of paid vacation and 10 paid holidays the average American worker gets.
Only three other holidays recognized specific individuals: Christmas, Washington's birthday and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the newest federal holiday.
The movement to designate the civil rights icon's birthday (actually the third Monday in January) as a federal holiday began after his assassination, but was not signed into law until 1983.
Still, many states chose not recognize the holiday or gave it a different name. In Utah, the third Monday in January was called "Human Rights Day," and in Virginia it was called "Lee-Jackson-King Day," to commemorate two Confederate generals along with King.
In 2000, both states changed the names to honor just King.
The arguments against designating King's birthday included the expense to the federal government and the timing of it so close to Christmas and New Year's.
Recently, some have argued that Sept. 11 should be recognized in some way.
Congress designated the anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as "Patriot Day" and urged people to treat it as a national day of service and remembrance.
It is not, however, a federal holiday.
(From Congress.org)
If you were a Congressperson, what Day would you consider worthy of a Federal Holiday?
12 comments:
This ad was simply genius and I hope some more congressmen decide to pick up on it. The best part is how the billboard makes the idea seem fool proof and if somebody doesn't agree with it, it basically antagonizes them
I understand billboards are an effective advertising tool (or no one would buy them) but I don't know anyone personally who has decided to buy a product or anything like that based on what they saw on a billboard. I guess though if you have thousands of people passing through a certain highway, corridor, train station, etc., some of them are bound to buy the product or support the cause on the billboard.
I don't think Christmas should be considered a national holiday due to the diversity of religions within America today. Maybe we could designate an all-purpose "religion day" or something like that so other religions don't feel like they got gypped on a holiday. That way we could celebrate our cultural diversity like we celebrate other progressive aspects of our culture on other national holidays.
Regardez-vous billboards: the purpose thereof is not to guarantee sales, rather to create awareness of a product. If I'm a manufacturer of cookies and I put my product on a billboard, then people become aware of my cookies. When the time comes to buy cookies, they think "hmmm! I've heard of THESE cookies somewhere" and buy mine. That's billboard theory, anyway.
On the second comment, I agree most wholeheartedly. Speaking as one with Christian friends, I still don't feel that they deserve a holiday off. It's too much of a slippery slope - which religions are worthy of a day off? Can I declare next Tuesday "The Feast of Nyarlathotep" just to miss a test? There's too much that could go wrong.
By the same token, I have a problem with the fact that we get the Christian ritual-sacrifice festival date off as a "local holiday" on "Good Friday." It's just inappropriate, and highly insensitive to other faiths.
Thus I propose the following: the Government shall designate the Solstices and Equinoxes as holidays, rescinding the holiday status of religious occasions. Dates of national significance (veteran's day, Sept 11th) could gain holiday staus at presidential discretion.
Realistically, America remains a predominately Christian nation. Christmas has extended beyond its original religious basis to become a more secular event, with many other religions participating in the festivities. Christmas is not going away anytime soon, at least not because of any federal regulation. But I do believe that there has been a shift towards making it a break designated for winter or for general holidays, rather than solely Christmas. I think this represents a positive trend of individual Americans become more respectful and aware of other religions in America.
Although I am not a Christian, I believe that Christmas should still be considered a national holiday. Almost 80% of Americans are Christian, making it the dominant religion in our American culture. I understand that other prominat religious holidays could also be observed; however, if you travel to another nation, they celebrate different national holidays. If a Christian went to India (for example), they would not demand to have Christmas as a National Holiday. National Holidays seem to be more about the culture of the society than political correctness.
I think 911 should be considered a National Holiday because that was arguably the #1 event that changed this decade. Since we all lived through this event, we know what happened on September 11th, 2001. But what about when we are older and younger generations are running the country? Honestly, ask around Waubonsie now and see if they know when Pearl Harbor day is...its kinda sad...
I think the last thing I would do as a legislator would be to make up some new holidays and give myself another day off. By the late days of the Roman Empire, the number of holidays in their 354-day year actually outnumbered the rest of the days. There's a slippery slope here, and we have work to do.
Going back to what Darkside DM had said, I disagree with the fact that he states religious holidays should not be recognized by the government. The United States of America is predominantly Christian and will almost always remain that way, recognizing these holidays are important in order to keep the majority of the country happy. In addition many of the religious holidays have become into a cultural thing rather than a religious one. Even though I am not christian my family still puts up a Christmas tree every year and still decorates the house. These holidays have become apart of the American culture and most people in the country have learned to accept them so recognizing them as national holidays is important.
There is a big difference between legal holidays and legislatively recognized days. Events such as Pearl Harbor and the day slaves were freed are all days recognized by the government but are not legal holidays. I believe that it should be in the hearts of people who want to remember these days to practice it, but it should not be enforced by the government to have a day off. The same goes for 9/11; it should be motivated by the individual and not pushed by the government. But holidays such as Christmas affect people on such a large scale (people would take the days off even if they were required to work) that it is necessary to declare a holiday and give a day off.
Especially since I have lived through the 911 tragedy and seen how it has effected American citizens, I believe it is an event that must be made into a national holiday. I agree with Ryan and feel that other generations need to understand and remember 911 in the same way that we do.
9/11 should be recognized as a federal holiday to honor those that lost their lives on that day. The federal holiday should serve as a holiday to remember the victims of 9/11 and a day for individual reflection. The holdiay would affect Americans throughout the country since family member and relatives of the 9/11 victims are not concentrated in one area.
I think a 9/11 holiday is unnecessary and actually counter productive to its proposed purpose. Why would we want to officially, and annually recognize the day thousands of citizens were killed on American Soil. Rather, I think we should carry the backlashed inspiration from the 9/11 response to our future generations in a more individualized, personalized, non-official manner. I'd rather tell my son or my nephew about it and what it meant for my family than to have him go through patriotic motions at school 20 years from now on a holiday he doesn't fully understand.
Post a Comment