ANOTHER DAMNED FEDERAL HOLIDAY!

By Carl F. Worden    

Today is Presidents' Day, originally a celebration of George Washington's Birthday, but Congress changed it to a combined federal holiday celebrating both Washington and Lincoln so they could create another federal holiday for Martin Luther King.  Federal, state and local offices are closed along with banks and the U.S. Post Office.  All of the government employees get the day off with full pay, while those in the private sector are hampered getting anything done because the federal offices are closed.  We can't get our mail and we can't do any banking business, and if we do business with any government agency as private contractors, we'll just have to wait until Tuesday and do business with the private sector businesses that remain open.

I'm bitching because when all those employees get their day off with pay, those of us in the private sector get nothing to compensate us for their absence!  We are usually working with the impediment and it costs us potential income, so how come we don't get compensated even $100.00?  We know all about how we are all constitutionally entitled to equal protection, but when it comes down to actual practice we in the private sector are discriminated against by the government ruling class.

We are told there is a separation between church and state, but that is only because the Supreme Court adulterated the plainly written words of the Framers in favor of a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists who were concerned that the newly formed U.S. Government would create a state religion.  In his letter, Jefferson assured the Baptists that the Constitution had created a wall between church and state -- but those are not the words used in Article 1 of the Bill of Rights which reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free expression thereof".  So while the Framers made it clear there would be no government establishment of religion, the Hugo Black liberal Supreme Court used Jefferson's letter, which was never part of the Federalist Papers or the Bill of Rights, as an excuse to claim original intent!  As a result, God and his Laws were ushered out of our public schools even though Article 1 clearly states the government cannot prohibit the free expression of religion anywhere, including schools where such free expression is currently prohibited.

But let's accept the Supreme Court's obvious and deliberate misinterpretation for a moment and return to the subject of federal holidays.  If a wall of separation exists between church and state, how come government employees get Christmas and Easter off with full pay?  Aren't those both Christian holidays? Isn't that direct conflict with the Hugo Black Supreme Court's ruling?  Of course it is!