Posted on 09/10/2005 4:46:12 AM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
Lincoln holiday on its way out
By Phil Kabler Staff writer
A bill to combine state holidays for Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays into a single Presidents’ Day holiday cleared its first legislative committee Wednesday, over objections from Senate Republicans who said it besmirches Abraham Lincoln’s role in helping establish West Virginia as a state.
Senate Government Organization Committee members rejected several attempts to retain Lincoln’s birthday as a state holiday.
State Sen. Russ Weeks, R-Raleigh, introduced an amendment to instead eliminate Columbus Day as a paid state holiday. “Columbus didn’t have anything to do with making West Virginia a state,” he said. “If we have to cut one, let’s cut Christopher Columbus.”
Jim Pitrolo, legislative director for Gov. Joe Manchin, said the proposed merger of the two holidays would bring West Virginia in line with federal holidays, and would effectively save $4.6 million a year — the cost of one day’s pay to state workers.
Government Organization Chairman Ed Bowman, D-Hancock, said the overall savings would be even greater, since by law, county and municipal governments must give their employees the same paid holidays as state government.
“To the taxpayers, the savings will be even larger,” he said.
The bill technically trades the February holiday for a new holiday on the Friday after Thanksgiving. For years, though, governors have given state employees that day off with pay by proclamation.
Sen. Sarah Minear, R-Tucker, who also objected to eliminating Lincoln’s birthday as a holiday, argued that it was misleading to suggest that eliminating the holiday will save the state money.
“It’s not going to save the state a dime,” said Minear, who said she isn’t giving up on retaining the Lincoln holiday.
Committee members also rejected an amendment by Sen. Steve Harrison, R-Kanawha, to recognize the Friday after Thanksgiving as “Lincoln Day.”
“I do believe President Lincoln has a special place in the history of West Virginia,” he said.
Sen. Randy White, D-Webster, said he believed that would create confusion.
“It’s confusing to me,” he said.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, suggested that the state could recognize Lincoln’s proclamation creating West Virginia as part of the June 20 state holiday observance for the state’s birthday.
Proponents of the measure to eliminate a state holiday contend that the numerous paid holidays - as many as 14 in election years — contribute to inefficiencies in state government.
To contact staff writer Phil Kabler, use e-mail or call 348-1220.
President Jackson's exact words were: "If one drop of blood be shed in defiance of the laws of the United States, I will hang the first man of them I can get my hands on to the first treee I can find."
Okay, I get it. Your ancestors, and their practice of chattel slavery and the society upon which it was founded is of much greater consideration in your world view than the ancestors of those whom that hideous society held in bondage.
You say your ancestor lost "everything, including his brother" in the war? Was he sold on the auction block, like those people who made his glorious way of life possible?
The southern way of life was built on a corrupt base of blood and unjustly forced toil, and both of us know that the preservation of that evil was the primary "southern right" and "peculiar institution" that 600,000 died to decide. Southern life was totally underpinned by slavery. That the society was so totally devastated by the removal of its slaves just goes to demonstrate how thoroughly interlaced with this corrupt practice that society was. The gracious white plantation houses, polite mannerisms, and faux aristocracy were just a thin crust over a cesspit of inhumanity of the most basic kind: that one could own another human.
Amen. George Washington was revered by Confederates, after all, he was on our Great Seal.
"UNaltered reproduction and dissemination of this IMPORTANT information is ENCOURAGED."
(Yeah, I'm showing my age....)
It's customary to insert padding between mutually exclusive assertions, in order to maintain a pretense of respect for your readers' intelligence.
While this rule is widely disregarded, you set a new record -- a single left parenthesis -- for inadequacy in this regard.
So your standard is that if someone has a position on a subject other that that held by you, that makes them a 'moron'?
Do you believe that the secession of the colonies from Great Britain was legal and supported by God Almighty? Do you believe the secession of Texas was legal? The secession of West Virginia from Virginia. Do you believe that the secession of former Soviet Sates was legal? The secession of Taiwan from China? A no to the first means you would have us to be colonies still, a no to the second means that much of the West must be returned to Spain. A no to the third destroys a state. A no to the fourth refutes the USSR and subjects the world to the threat of communism and another Cold War. A no to the fifth means that you disagree with the framers and the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.You position on secession puts you in the company of Tories and Communists.
The President that ordered the assassination of President Davis, his cabinet and the populace of Richmond, VA. A northern congress that recognized the Confederate states as states when they ratified an amendment to end slavery, yet declare them non-states and invade them by military force when those same states refuse to ratify the 14th amendment. Then subjected to years of military occupation and destruction. That's NOT republican govenment - that's tyranny!
I agree, he loved his country, as a whole, but I still say he would not have made war on the South
One wonders if Ol' "Honest" Abe might have been a reincarnation of Caligula, the Roman Emporer?
Slavery is and was wrong, I will never say otherwise, but I know that when I read the diary of my ancestor who owned and later freed 50 slaves (before he went to war), He treated his slaves as his own family. One, his personal servant took a bullet for him at Gettysburg, and another was hung by Union soldiers, because he was trying to protect the family property from Sherman's troops. Doesn't sound like these two were mistreated or unhappy. The reality is that most slaves were WORSE off after the war, having to fend for themselves. That doesn't mean I advocate the continuance of that system, but rather that emancipation would have been better if done in a gradual manner.
It is hard to predict WHAT he would have done. Lee loved his country as well, but when forced to choose, he couldn't betray the land of his birth. I wouldn't be so quick to decide.......
It is hard to predict WHAT he would have done. Lee loved his country as well, but when forced to choose, he couldn't betray the land of his birth. I wouldn't be so quick to decide.......
It is hard to predict WHAT he would have done. Lee loved his country as well, but when forced to choose, he couldn't betray the land of his birth. I wouldn't be so quick to decide.......
hehehe! Not likely to happen :)
The Northern ecomomy was built on slavery, from the slaves they brought to the states, on vessels built in New England states, on vessels sailing under the American flag. Northern industries thrived on Southern cotton.
That the society was so totally devastated by the removal of its slaves just goes to demonstrate how thoroughly interlaced with this corrupt practice that society was.
Not so fast. The reason for the devastation was CARPETBAGGER Rule - ex-Confederates could not hold office nor vote - yankees came down to serve as governor/congressmen. The voted themselves largesse while accepting bribes on a massive scale, voted taxes so high as to be unpayable, and them purchased Southern lands on the cheap. Leagalized theft is what laid waste to the Southern economy.
The gracious white plantation houses, polite mannerisms, and faux aristocracy were just a thin crust over a cesspit of inhumanity of the most basic kind: that one could own another human.
Purchased legally from Yankee slavers. From Africa - where they were already slaves - those that survived the Middle Passage, starvation and disease. All under the American flag.
More likely you are the reincarnation of some nameless idiot. No progress was made between incarnations.
Indeed. And if the South had been a fraction as successful at attracting immigrants as the North, they would have had many immigrants serving in Gray. It's the story of America, as you said.
An interesting tidbit I heard on the History CHannel the other day: West Virginia seperated from Virginia because the people there were anti-slavery.
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