Lee-Jackson-King Day

Recently my sister posed this question: "So how about that Confederate History Month for Virginia?" and I had a response... and then The Daily Show did ten minutes on it.

ROT IN HELL STEWART!!!

So Jon Stewart beat me to the comedic punch and did it much better. Well he didn't beat me to the punch on this... LEE-JACKSON-KING DAY.

You see the Commonwealth of Virginia enacting a Confederate History Month does not surprise me. I lived in Richmond Virginia when I was in high school, and up until about 10 years ago, The South most of my life. I was born in Pensacola Florida, the City of Five Flags. One of those flags is the Confederate. I'm just saying when people in the North joke about how the South is the still fighting the Civil War... well its kinda not a joke.

So Lee -Jackson-King Day was a State holiday celebrated on January 15 until 2000. This was the day that Virginia chose to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr, who fought and died for Civil Rights and Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, who fought to keep black people slaves.

"Whuh?" You say? "How did that happen?" Here is how it happened.

"Lee Day" created in 1889, and it celebrated Robert E. Lee's birthday on January 19. In 1904 Stonewall Jackson's name was added, creating Lee-Jackson Day. Then in 1983 that dirty liberal President RONALD REAGAN, approved an Act of Congress declaring January 15 to be a national holiday in honor of Martin Luther King. So the Virginia legislature simply combined King's celebration with the existing Lee-Jackson holiday, creating LEE-JACKSON-KING DAY. See how Ronald Reagan screwed up everything?

So yeah, instead of having two holidays, The Commonwealth thought it better to combine a day to celebrate two CONFEDERATE GENERALS with MARTIN LUTHER KING. And the best part? The whole time I lived in Virgina, most people I talked to NEVER SAW THE IRONY IN THAT.

I would say "Isn't it weird we celebrate Martin Luther King Day with Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson?" And the response usually was "No.. Oh... Yeah?" I guess people were just happy to have the day off and didn't really care. I was too, but I did giggle a bit when I was reminded we didn't have to go to school on Monday because it was "Lee-Jackson-King Day."

So that you don't think the Commonwealth is completely in the dark ages, in 2000 Governor Jim Gilmore proposed splitting Lee-Jackson-King Day into two separate holidays. The measure was approved and the two holidays are now celebrated separately. Lee-Jackson Day is celebrated on the Friday before, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and only the state offices are closed. Then on Monday, Virgina celebrates Martin Luther King Day with the rest of us who work for companies that consider it a real holiday and give us the day off. So if you work for the DMV in Virginia, you get a 4 day weekend. But if you work in an office in say... Chicago... you don't get it off.

With that history I am not surprised that Virginia's current Governor McDonnell has enacted Confederate History Month. I mean this is the same state that celebrated Lee-Jackson-King day for 17 years. And normally I would write the state off like Texas or South Carolina (there may be no hope for them). But Virgina can be very progressive. Virgina elected the first black governor in the United States, Douglas Wilder in 1989, back when Barack Obama was still in college. Virgina actually went blue for Obama in the 2008 Election. And then George Allen while running for Senate calls some guy a "macaca" and everything is back up in the air again.

So to answer my sister's question: "So how about that Confederate History Month for Virginia?" I think its a bad idea. I think it is cynical and the Governor is pandering to a group of people who were already upset that Martin Luther King gets a holiday, anyway. People who already proudly display a Confederate flag behind the gun rack of their pick up trucks. You know the people Sarah Palin calls "The Real Americans", the ones who think Obama is from Kenya and that he is going to take away their God given right to FISH.

And I kinda don't get the point. I mean, why would "Real Americans" want a month to celebrate soldiers who fought AGAINST the United States. I don't see a huge want for The British History Month and Virgina was part of England much longer than it was part of the Confederacy. But Governor McDonnell will probably never sign off on a month to celebrate the sacrifices soldiers made in the French and Indian War. Or the brave British soldiers who died fighting AGAINST America in the War of 1812.

Nope this just a cynical Governor pandering for votes after his one term limit is up, and he tries to run for Senator or for Congress. I'd tell these people to wake up, because they are being used. But they wouldn't listen to me, and honestly, I don't care.

Besides who am I to talk, Illinois let former Governor Rod Blagojevich go before he could enact "Prohibition Era Gangster Appreciation Month".

Jason