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

111–120 of 308 posts

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

#111

Post by mikedilger »

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.

[I was going to post this independently, but as I've found your comment down the page I'll post this in reply to your comment.]

NPR is usually a more balanced news source, but that last paragraph takes a definite one-sided stance in the phrase "a historically accurate picture" in reference to critical race theory. Critical race theory is not about historic accuracy (non-normative fact), it's a very normative activist perspective.

That being said, I'm strongly against any form of the law restricting what ideas can be taught, even wildly wrong and dangerous ones.

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

#112

Post by skissane »

dtnewman wrote: post #105
eganist wrote: post #16

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.

No. Make early voting widely available and mail ballots available to anyone who requests one. Stop thinking of elections as a single day. That’ll be much healthier for democracy.

In Australia we always have elections on Saturday. Works well for most people. Of course, there is a minority of people it doesn't work well for, such as people who have to work on Saturdays, and observant Jews.

And for those people we have early voting and postal voting too.

I never quite understand why voting is such a controversial topic in the US. In many countries (I'm sure Australia is not alone in this) it is a boring thing that just works. You might not always like the outcome, but the process itself rarely becomes the topic of discussion.

I think one thing that helps in Australia is that federal elections are completely controlled and run by the federal government. For federal elections, we don't have each state doing its own thing. Local government has no role to play in elections either. (Even local government elections are actually run by the state governments.)

Addendum: I must point out when I say "controlled and run by the federal government", they are run by an independent and non-partisan federal agency, politicians don't have direct control over them. Likewise, each state has an independent and non-partisan agency to run state and local elections

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

#113

Post by eganist »

kej wrote: post #109
SonicSoul wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there are like 10 federal holidays. most of them are not door-buster sales. what's leading you to believe election day would definitely be one?

That's just it, though. The working class doesn't get Memorial Day off. Businesses don't close for Flag Day. The people who have the hardest time voting on election day are the same people whose employers would still be open for business that day. Things like early or mail in voting are far more effective ways to enable those people to vote.

The working class does get Christmas off, though. With limited exceptions.

Which is my point.

And the idea of making election day a national holiday is a baby step, one capable of getting the ball rolling on real change, like extended voting windows and unrestricted mailed ballots.

Gotta start somewhere.

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

#114

Post by spywaregorilla »

Covzire wrote: post #106
spywaregorilla wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... Are they though? That doesn't match my experience at all. People shop on the days after thanksgiving and before Christmas.

What's happening during Thanksgiving and Christmas? A lot of travel, which I suspect is about the only reason some stores like Costco are closed, not that they're necessarily just being nice to employees but because a lot of their employees are going to be out of town and people would definitely shop there on those days if they could.

I'm not following you. Your main point seemed to be that all holidays are major shopping days, citing Thanksgiving and Christmas. But Thanksgiving and Christmas are not actually major shopping days. And now you're pivoting to say its because employees are traveling? That doesn't make sense...

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

#115

Post by listenallyall »

root_axis wrote: post #96
eganist wrote: post #16

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.

Service workers still have to work on national holidays.

Stop whining. Nobody has to work on any day, holiday or not. But if you choose a career in hospitality, pretty much the whole point of the job is to be at work during the general public's leisure time, like weekends, nights and yes, typically holidays too.

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

#116

Post by crummy »

redis_mlc wrote: post #33
CGamesPlay wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They're hoping you click on the link in that paragraph, which is full-on Marxist propaganda. Also, it's not 6 states banning CRT, it's 20 states now. (CRT is calling white children oppressors, and black children victims. Neither is accurate or helpful. CRT is derived from Marxist Critical Theory. Since the US doesn't have a class struggle, racism has been inserted to make it a racism struggle.)

Are there some example texts being given to kids on CRT I could look at?

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

#117

Post by ecshafer »

redis_mlc wrote: post #33
CGamesPlay wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They're hoping you click on the link in that paragraph, which is full-on Marxist propaganda. Also, it's not 6 states banning CRT, it's 20 states now. (CRT is calling white children oppressors, and black children victims. Neither is accurate or helpful. CRT is derived from Marxist Critical Theory. Since the US doesn't have a class struggle, racism has been inserted to make it a racism struggle.)

Marxism has nothing to do with Critical Race Theory, which is an explicitly non-marxist idea. Marx theory is that all of history is a history of class warfare, so any racism is a result of class warfare. Marx was unconcerned with race.

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

#118

Post by ILMostro7 »

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?

I've always wondered why many other countries shut down for Christmas entirely yet have relatively low or no compulsory religious language in public institutions, or purity tests in politics and government. It might be too easy to blame capitalism for a moral decline in the general public, were it not unpatriotic and therefore not aligned with the political party that most religious people tend to associate with.

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

#119

Post by Covzire »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #114
Covzire wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's happening during Thanksgiving and Christmas? A lot of travel, which I suspect is about the only reason some stores like Costco are closed, not that they're necessarily just being nice to employees but because a lot of their employees are going to be out of town and people would definitely shop there on those days if they could.

I'm not following you. Your main point seemed to be that all holidays are major shopping days, citing Thanksgiving and Christmas. But Thanksgiving and Christmas are not actually major shopping days. And now you're pivoting to say its because employees are traveling? That doesn't make sense...

You correctly pointed out two exceptions to US holidays where businesses tend to make their money before or after, but I'm pointing out they're the exception (because of travel) and I see no reason why Voting Day as a holiday would be like Thanksgiving/Christmas i.e. high amounts of travel, most likely it would result in an increase in local commerce and potentially be a way that would hurt the very people it's meant to help.

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

#120

Post by nielsbot »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #14
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.

Their "best effort" would be to change the filibuster and get it done. You're talking about the current voting reform bill(s)?

Manchin is taking the heat for holding this up, but the problem is broader than that: There are a handful of Dems (at least) whose sponsors also don't want this bill to pass, so I'm not holding my breath for any reform happening in this area.

And where are Biden and Schumer? They are pretty quiet on this whole situation.

Post reply on HN