Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 308 posts

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#11

Post by threatofrain »

paxys wrote: post #7

What does making it a public holiday mean? I assume federal government offices will be shut on that day. What about state offices? Banks, other services? Private companies?

Companies and schools tend to echo federal holidays, so this will have some small effect but on a very big scale.

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#14

Post by JMTQp8lwXL »

hanniabu wrote: post #3

It bothers me when they're quick to make empty efforts like this yet when it comes to doing anything that actually matters an overwhelming majority of them (on both sides) will vote against it.

Election reform seems like a meaningful issue to tackle: what could be more fundamental to our Democracy? Democrats seem poised to make their best effort, but it's extremely difficult to do with 50+1 votes in the Senate. I wouldn't characterize D's as not doing anything on this specific issue.

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#15

Post by CGamesPlay »

baggy_trough wrote: post #5

"Republican legislation to limit teaching a historically accurate picture of U.S. history in public institutions has advanced in some half a dozen states." Mind-boggling propaganda.

It's a bit strange to throw this sentence in at the end--it's vague to the point of being useless and seems to throw the 50 Republican senators who didn't oppose in a generic "bad guys" light.

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#16

Post by eganist »

This is a good symbolic gesture, but making election day a federal holiday equivalent in standing with Christmas would have real and positive impact.

But the latter never draws the votes in congress, so that should tell us how meaningless this vote truly was.

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#17

Post by andy_ppp »

standardUser wrote: post #10
chadlavi wrote: post #4

Honestly very surprised this was unanimous. Maybe a lot of the people I would have thought would vote nay were conveniently absent for the vote?

It wasn't a roll call vote. It's a maneuver wherein the measure passes as long as no one present chooses to object.

To say it is Unanimously Approved is a rather big stretch then.

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#18

Post by jolux »

seneca wrote: post #8
hanniabu wrote: post #3

It bothers me when they're quick to make empty efforts like this yet when it comes to doing anything that actually matters an overwhelming majority of them (on both sides) will vote against it.

That's a feature, not a bug. No one cares about Juneteenth just like no one cares about Kwanza, so there's no disagreement, so it sails through. When people care, there's disagreement and deadlock. Change to things that actually matter is supposed to be slow and difficult in Government. Otherwise there would be constant change as either side managed to seize power, and our legal system would be completely unpredictab…

> Change to things that actually matter is supposed to be slow and difficult in Government

This is mostly only true of presidential systems, and a particular affliction of ours. Parliamentary systems are not like this, nor is there constant instability from too much change.

Re: Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

#20

Post by vgel »

hanniabu wrote: post #3

It bothers me when they're quick to make empty efforts like this yet when it comes to doing anything that actually matters an overwhelming majority of them (on both sides) will vote against it.

I agree that it's frustrating that other efforts aren't being made, and this is easier, but I disagree it's an empty effort. Holidays, statues, rituals -- they're how we define ourselves as a society. They're important. Imagine how people would react if we tried to get rid of MLK day, or President's day, or the extreme negative reaction to proposals to cede Mt. Rushmore? They're symbols of the American national identity, for better or worse.

If you're interested, I highly recommend the youtube channel Religion for Breakfast's series on American Civic Religion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x49n90lWi0s .

Post reply on HN