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Show let's Eliminate Some Holidays Some day, when the world quits worrying about space ships and hydrogen bombs, we ought to sit down and get our national and local holidays straightened out. - The way things are we have several all out, full fledged holidays and half a dozen which some people observe and others do not. An example was provided this week. Monday was Armistice Armis-tice Day. The name has recently been changed to Veterans Day. But the half-hearted observance didn't change with the name. Banks, government offices and liquor stores closed. But almost nothing else did. Business went on as usual except for the inconvenience caused by the aforementioned closings. Banks, liquor stores and government offices close at the , drop of a calendar. We wonder if there shouldn't be a re-examination of this policy. With most of the people working on a holiday such as Veterans Day it is a distinct disservice to them that these offices should remain closed. We should review all of our holidays from Arbor Day to Christmas and decide which ones we want to continue. These might be observed in all-out manner. The others might be observed in the press and in speeches but not with closedown of important offices. Many of the holidays we now half-heartedly observe have outlived their usefulness. They were created at a time when public attntion needed to be directed on a specific need or event. The events have long since passed into deep history, the need has been met. A number of our holidays tend to overlap. Thus we have Memorial Day, Decoration Day, Flag Day, Veterans Day, all of them mor or less dedicated to patriotism in varying degrees. Couldn't we drop all but Decoration Day and be none the worse for it? Of course, nothing is likely to be done along these suggested sug-gested lines. In the end the public, by its disinterest, will whittle down the number of holidays. Armistice Day, or Veterans Day is a good example of the working of this process. The only danger is that the public might also create some new one in the process. rxfn |