Results Of The YouGov Poll About The Christmas Holiday

 

These charts are from the YouGov Poll -- done between December 1st and 5th of a nationwide sample of 2,236 adults, with about a 4 point margin of error.

Happy Veteran's Day

 

Donald Trump's Rant On June 19th Was Ridiculous (And Racist)!

On June 19th, Trump continued his war against nonwhites in this country. Instead of noting the importance of the holiday marking the end of slavery in this country, Trump inferred that it should not even be a holiday. That was ridiculous - and racist!

Here is part of Helaine Olen's response on MSNBC:

On Thursday evening, the night of Juneteenth, Donald Trump took to Truth Social with a classic “old man yells at cloud” complaint: Americans get too much time off work. . . .

The president is wrong. We need more holidays, not fewer, and we need more time off in general.

That Trump is complaining at all is odd given that during the 2020 campaign, he promised to make Juneteenth a holiday. And he never seems to have a problem taking time off work to play golf at taxpayers’ expense. He has now decided — on a day that celebrates the end of slavery no less — that Americans need to work harder.

True, Trump did not mention Juneteenth in his online rant, but the timing could not be clearer. And it comes as his administration has cracked down on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, targeting universities and federal departments alike, and stopped official celebrations of holidays like Juneteenth and remembrances like Holocaust Remembrance Day and Women’s Equality Day.

We do not have too many federal holidays in the United States; we have, if anything, slightly fewer than many other OECD countries. And the U.S. is alone among its peer countries in not mandating even one paid day off work for workers. That includes not just vacation but federal holidays like Christmas, July 4 and Juneteenth. There’s evidence that Americans now take less vacation from work — not more — than they did as recently as 25 years ago.

We are, contrary to Trump’s assertion, the most overworked nation in the developed world. Surveys regularly show many of us do not take all our vacation time. Higher-paid workers say they fear falling behind on the job, while lower-paid ones say they fear getting the ax if they take too many personal days. . . .

Studies show that vacations — even just a long weekend or an occasional personal day — not only enhance mental and physicalhealth, they improve worker productivity and help combat burnout. Employers, even if they don’t always want to admit it, benefit from our paid time away from the job. We can’t live to work. We need time to recharge our batteries, to take a break and smell the roses.

In a world where many Americans won’t use all their vacation time, paid official holidays are even more important. But, again, employers are not required to give them. No private-sector employer was forced to close their doors for Juneteenth. . . .

To be clear, Juneteenth should be a holiday regardless of Americans’ workload. Slavery is the greatest moral shame of the United States, and we should commemorate its end. But not only does slavery’s end deserve celebration, there are many more reasons for Americans to have many more days off. It’s a shame Trump can’t see that.

Americans (Including Republicans) Say NO To A Trump Holiday

The chart above reflects the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll - done between February 23rd and 25th of a nationwide sample of 1,604 adults (including 1,444 registered voters). The margin of error is 3.4 points.
 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

 

Whether you celebrate it as a religious or secular one, I wish all my readers a very happy and joyous solstice season holiday. And I hope it's filled with food and fun, and you get to spend it with the people you love.

The Real Story Of The First Thanksgiving

The following is from MSN.com: 

Every November, Americans gather around the table to celebrate Thanksgiving in commemoration of the 17th-century partnership between the newly arrived English colonists and the Indigenous Wampanoag people.

Well, at least that's the simplified story kids are taught in school. The truth is more complex. So what really happened on the first Thanksgiving in 1621?

"The missing parts of the story are quite dark and not the stuff of family celebrations," David J. Silverman, a historian who specializes in early American and Native American history at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., told Live Science. He added that its historical relevance was determined retroactively hundreds of years later.

In 1620, about 100 religious Pilgrims left England on the Mayflower for the "New World" and landed in modern-day southeastern Massachusetts, a region inhabited by the Wampanoag people. They'd originally planned to settle in the northern part of the preexisting Virginia Colony, but bad weather led them to seek shelter in Cape Cod, where they then decided to stay, according to the Plimouth Patuxet Museums. The Pilgrims subsequently founded Plymouth Colony and formed an alliance with the Wampanoag.

"The Thanksgiving myth that many Americans have been brought up with would have us believe that the English were lucky enough to stumble upon friendly Indians," Silverman said. He explained that, in reality, the Wampanoag were willing to form a military alliance because disease had recently decimated their populations and made them vulnerable to enemy tribes, such as the Narragansett people. Although scholars don't know what the disease was, it's known that the pathogen arrived on a previous European expedition.

By that point, the Wampanoag had been in contact with Europeans for over a century, including expeditions by the Italian Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524, the English Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602, the English Martin Pring in 1603 and the French Samuel de Champlain in 1605. These encounters "routinely degenerated into violence and even kidnapping" on both sides, Silverman said. Nevertheless, the Wampanoag still chose to form an alliance because of, among other things, the colonists' military technology: metal weaponry and guns.

"The fact that their friendship was also a military alliance against the Narragansetts understandably usually isn't included in the kids versions," Kathleen DuVal, a historian who specializes in early American history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told Live Science in an email.

But the English also benefited greatly from the alliance. The Wampanoag protected them from other Indigenous tribes and taught them how to fish, plant crops and gather shellfish.

In the fall of 1621, the English decided to celebrate their first harvest, but the Wampanoag weren't originally invited. The colonists' celebration included firing guns into the air, which the Wampanoag interpreted as a call for help, Silverman said. Massasoit, the Wampanoag high chief, rushed to the colony with 90 warriors to discover that the English were feasting instead of fighting — so the fighters joined them, Silverman said.

"They ate corn, fish, deer, and local fowl, which probably included wild turkey," DuVal said. The Wampanoag "probably brought corn and meat as well," she added.

Thanksgiving In The United Staes

 

The charts above are from a Pew Research Center survey -- done between November 12th and 17th of a nationwide sample of 9,609 adults, with a 1.3 point margin of error.

Most Want To Avoid Discussing Politics On Thanksgiving

The chart above reflects the results of the Quinnipiac University Poll -- done between November 9th and 13th of a nationwide sample of 1,574 registered voters, with a 2.5 point margin of error.

The Origin And Meaning Of Juneteenth

The following is from the Fort Worth Business Press: 

For generations, Black Americans have recognized the end of one of the darkest chapters in U.S. history with joy, in the form of parades, street festivals, musical performances or cookouts.

The U.S. government was slow to embrace the occasion. It was only in 2021 – thanks in large part to the efforts of Fort Worth educator/activist Opal Lee – that President Joe Biden signed a bill passed by Congress to set aside Juneteenth, or June 19th, as a federal holiday.

And while many Americans are just learning what Juneteenth is all about, the holiday’s traditions are facing new pressures — political rhetoric condemning efforts to teach Americans about the nation’s racial history, companies using the holiday as a marketing event, people partying without understanding why.

Here is a look at the origins of Juneteenth, how it became a federal holiday and more about its history.

HOW DID JUNETEENTH START?

The celebrations began with enslaved people in Galveston, Texas. Although President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in 1863, it could not be enforced in many places in the South until the Civil War ended in 1865. Even then, some white people who had profited from their unpaid labor were reluctant to share the news.

Laura Smalley, freed from a plantation near Bellville, Texas, remembered in a 1941 interview that the man she referred to as “old master” came home from fighting in the Civil War and didn’t tell the people he enslaved what had happened.

“Old master didn’t tell, you know, they was free,” Smalley said. “I think now they say they worked them, six months after that. Six months. And turn them loose on the 19th of June. That’s why, you know, we celebrate that day.”

News that the war had ended and they were free finally reached Galveston when Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger and his troops arrived in the Gulf Coast city on June 19, 1865, more than two months after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia.

Granger delivered General Order No. 3, which said: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.”

Slavery was permanently abolished six months later, when Georgia ratified the 13th Amendment. And the next year, the now-free people of Galveston started celebrating Juneteenth, an observance that has continued and spread around the world. Events include concerts, parades and readings of the Emancipation Proclamation.

WHAT DOES ‘JUNETEENTH’ MEAN?

It’s a blend of the words June and nineteenth. The holiday has also been called Juneteenth Independence Day, Freedom Day, second Independence Day and Emancipation Day.

It began with church picnics and speeches, and spread as Black Texans moved elsewhere.

Most U.S. states now hold celebrations honoring Juneteenth as a holiday or a day of recognition, like Flag Day. Juneteenth is a paid holiday for state employees in Texas, New York, Virginia, Washington, and now Nevada as well. Hundreds of companies give workers the day off.

Opal Lee is largely credited for rallying others behind a campaign to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. The 96-year-old former teacher had vivid memories of celebrating Juneteenth in East Texas as a child with music, food and games. In 2016, the “little old lady in tennis shoes” walked through her home city of Fort Worth and then through other cities before arriving in Washington, D.C. Soon, celebrities and politicians were lending their support.

Lee was one of the people standing next to Biden when he signed Juneteenth into law.

HOW HAVE JUNETEENTH CELEBRATIONS EVOLVED OVER THE YEARS?

The national reckoning over race ignited by the 2020 murder of George Floyd by police helped set the stage for Juneteenth to become the first new federal holiday since 1983, when Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created.

The bill was sponsored by Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and had 60 co-sponsors, a show of bipartisan support as lawmakers struggled to overcome divisions that are still simmering three years later.

Now there is a movement to use the holiday as an opportunity for activism and education, with community service projects aimed at addressing racial disparities and educational panels on topics such health care inequities and the need for parks and green spaces.

Like most holidays, Juneteenth has also seen its fair share of commercialism. Retailers, museums and other venues have capitalized on it by selling Juneteenth-themed T-shirts, party ware and ice cream. Some of the marketing has misfired, provoking a social media backlash.

Supporters of the holiday have also worked to make sure Juneteenth celebrators don’t forget why the day exists.

“In 1776 the country was freed from the British, but the people were not all free,” Dee Evans, national director of communications of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation, said in 2019. “June 19, 1865, was actually when the people and the entire country was actually free.”

There’s also sentiment to use the day to remember the sacrifices that were made for freedom in the United States — especially in these racially and politically charged days.

Said Para LaNell Agboga, museum site coordinator at the George Washington Carver Museum, Cultural and Genealogy Center in Austin, Texas: “Our freedoms are fragile, and it doesn’t take much for things to go backward.”

President Biden's Holiday Message

 From President Biden:

Good afternoon.  “How silently, how silently, the wondrous Gift is given.”

There is a certain stillness at the center of the Christmas story.  A silent night when all the world goes quiet and all the glamour, all the noise, everything that divides us, everything that pits us against one another, everything — everything that seems so important but really isn’t, this all fades away in stillness of the winter’s evening. 

And we look to the sky, to a lone star, shining brighter than all the rest, guiding us to the birth of a child — a child Christians believe to be the son of God; miraculously now, here among us on Earth, bringing hope, love and peace and joy to the world.

Yes, it’s a story that’s 2,000 years old, but it’s still very much alive today.  Just look into the eyes of a child
on Christmas morning, or listen to the laughter of a family together this holiday season after years — after years of being apart.  Just feel the hope rising in your chest as you sing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” even though you’ve sung the countless times before.

Yes, even after 2,000 years, Christmas still has the power to lift us up, to bring us together, to change lives, to change the world.

The Christmas story is at the heart of the Christmas — Christian faith.  But the message of hope, love, peace, and joy, they’re also universal.

It speaks to all of us, whether we’re Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, or any other faith, or no faith at all.  It speaks to all of us as human beings who are here on this Earth to care for one another, to look out for one another, to love one another.

The message of Christmas is always important, but it’s especially important through tough times, like the ones we’ve been through the past few years.

The pandemic has taken so much from us.  We’ve lost so much time with one another.  We’ve lost so many people — people we loved.  Over a million lives lost in America alone.  That’s a million empty chairs breaking hearts in homes all across the country.

Our politics has gotten so angry, so mean, so partisan.  And too often we see each other as enemies, not as neighbors; as Democrats or Republicans, not as fellow Americans.  We’ve become too divided.

But as tough as these times have been, if we look a little closer, we see bright spots all across the country: the strength, the determination, the resilience that’s long defined America.

We’re surely making progress.  Things are getting better.  COVID lon- — no longer controls our lives.  Our kids are back in school.  People are back to work.  In fact, more people are working than ever before.

Americans are building again, innovating again, dreaming again.

So my hope this Christmas season is that we take a few moments of quiet reflection and find that stillness in the heart of Christmas — that’s at the heart of Christmas, and look — really look at each other, not as Democrats or Republicans, not as members of “Team Red” or “Team Blue,” but as who we really are: fellow Americans.  Fellow human beings worthy of being treated with dignity and respect.

I sincerely hope this holiway [sic] se- — this holiday season will drain the poison that has infected our politics and set us against one another.

I hope this Christmas season marks a fresh start for our nation, because there is so much that unites us as Americans, so much more that unites us than divides us.

We’re truly blessed to live in this nation.  And I truly hope we take the time to look out — look out for one another.   Not at one — for one another.

So many people struggle at Christmas.  It can be a time of great pain and terrible loneliness.  I know, like many of you know. 

It was 50 years ago this week that I lost my first wife and my infant daughter in a car accident, and my two sons were badly injured, when they were out shopping for a Christmas tree.  I know how hard this time of year can be.

But here’s what I learned long ago: No one — no one can ever know what someone else is going through, what’s really going on in their life, what they’re struggling with, what they’re trying to overcome.

That’s why sometimes the smallest act of kindness can mean so much.  A simple smile.  A hug.  An unexpected phone call.  A quiet cup of coffee.  Simple acts of kindness that can lift a spirit, provide compo- — comfort, and perhaps maybe even save a life.

So, this Christmas, let’s spread a little kindness.

This Christmas, let’s be that — that helping hand, that strong shoulder, that friendly voice when no one else seems to care for those who are struggling, in trouble, in need.  It just might be the best gift you can ever give.

And let’s be sure to remember the brave women and men in uniform who defend and protect our nation.  Many of them — many of them are away from their families at this time of year.  Let’s keep them in our prayers.

You know, and I believe Christmas is a season of hope.  And throughout the life of this country, it’s been during the weeks of December — even in the midst of some of our toughest days — that some of the best chapters of our story have been written.

It was during these weeks back in 1862 that President Lincoln prepared the Emancipation Proclamation, which he issued on New Year’s Day.

At Christmas 1941, in the week — weeks after Pearl Harbor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt hosted Winston Churchill in this White House.  Together, they planned the Allied strategy to defeat fascism and autocracy.

And it was 1968 that the most terrible year — of years — a year of assassination and riot, of war and chaos — that the astronauts of Apollo 8 circled the Moon and spoke to us here on Earth.

From the silence of space, on a silent night on a Christmas Eve, they read the story of Christmas — Creation from the King James Bible.  It went: “In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth.  And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”

That light is still with us, illuminating our way forward as Americans and as citizens of the world.  A light that burned in the beginning and at Bethlehem.  A light that shines still today in our own time, our own lives.

As we sing “O’ Holy Night” — “His law is love, and His Gospel is peace” — may I wish you and for you, and for our nation, now and always, is that we’ll live in the light — the light of liberty and hope, of love and generosity, of kindness and compassion, of dignity and decency.

So, from the Biden family, we wish you and your family peace, joy, health, and happiness.

Merry Christmas.  Happy Holidays.  And all the best in the New Year.

God bless you all.  And may God protect our troops.  Thank you.

Juneteenth - A Holiday To Be Celebrated By All Americans

On June 19th of 1865, Major-General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas. At that time, he read General Oder #3, which notified Texans of the end of the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery. At that time, Texas was the only state that still had slaves.

Staring the next year, Blacks in Texas began to celebrate June 19th as the day they got their freedom. As Texas blacks moved to other states, the celebration (which came to be called Juneteenth)  began to be celebrated in other states. Eventually, it was celebrated in all states and the District of Columbia.

In 1980, it became an official holiday for the state of Texas. And in 2021, it became an official United States government holiday.

I am a firm believer that Juneteenth (Juneteenth Independence Day) is a holiday that should be celebrated by citizens of all races, colors, and creeds. It celebrates the end of slavery -- one of the darkest periods in United States history. How can anyone not want to celebrate that? 

58% of Adults Don't Consider Valentines To Be A Special Day

 

The chart above is from the YouGov Poll. They questioned about 1500 adults between January 27 and 31st. It turns out that 58% of Americans (including 56% of men and 60% of women) don't consider Valentine's Day to be a special occasion.

Have We Lost The True Spirit Of Christmas?

The Christmas holiday has not always looked like the one we currently celebrate. Lisa Selin Davis at NBC News give us a brief history of this holiday. Here is part of what she has written:

While it’s true that this December holiday has for centuries revolved around gift-giving, loading kids up with presents actually undermines the true Christmas spirit. Instead, we should celebrate those on the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, among them low-wage workers, some immigrants and refugees. And children should buy presents for their parents.

Before you assume this essay is written by the Grinch, let me explain. While Christmas today commemorates Jesus Christ’s birth, Christ likely wasn’t born in December. According to Stephen Nissenbaum’s “The Battle for Christmas,” Christmas traditions are a mash-up of celebrations from a variety of cultures and religions.

In third century Europe, as Christianity’s profile rose, church leaders wanted the masses to honor the nativity, but the Bible doesn’t mention Dec. 25 as Jesus’s birthdate. They chose it because December was already a European party month. It was the time of feasts, when cattle were slaughtered so they didn’t have to be fed during scarce winters. It was when Pagans celebrated the winter solstice, the coming of longer days. That included the Norse, who burned large logs to celebrate Yule, the birth of the sun god, and the Romans who observed Saturnalia, celebrating the Roman god of the harvest, by imbibing and feasting. Businesses temporarily shut down, so workers could partake in the fun. They were served meals and drinks by employers, or given time off.

The celebration of Jesus’s birthday replaced many of those non-Christian celebrations but took on some of their customs. Most importantly, it maintained the tradition of social inversion, making the less fortunate feel more fortunate — at least for a day. In other words, Christmas started as an upside-down day. That’s what the Christmas spirit is really about.

So what happened? In 19th-century America, Christmas transformed from an observance of social inversion to one of familial inversion. That’s because the feeding and watering of workers got out of hand. When Puritans took the reins in 17th-century England, there was so much Christmas drinking that they banned it when they came to power; across the pond, celebrating Christmas was illegal in Massachusetts from 1659 to 1681.

In post-industrial America, things got worse. Bosses didn’t live among workers, or even necessarily know them. Drunken laborers turned into marauding gangs of strangers; the upper crust couldn’t manage crowd control.

And so Christmas as we know it today was rebranded as a family holiday. Seen-but-not-heard kids would be given gifts, and appointed the unlikely stars of that one day.

This new narrative was promoted in the press and propagated by writers like Washington Irving and Charles Dickens. In 1840, the German tradition of decorating evergreen trees was imported to England, then to the states courtesy of a widely publicized1848 image of the royal family before their Christmas tree. Finally, in 1870, Christmas was declared a federal holiday. The full-on commercialism of Christmas soon followed, and manufactured goods began to replace handmade ones. The Santa Claus character we know today — a jolly fellow in a red suit, rather than the European saint who had no relation to Christmas or Jesus — was popularized in a 1931 Coca-Cola ad.

Today, in the age of snowplow parenting, when many parents want to protect kids from discomfort and sadness more than to help them navigate it, American middle-income couples will spend at least $233,610 to raise a child, according to U.S. government estimates. So, and here is the important part, children whose parents are lucky enough to make a living wage do not need more presents; every day is Christmas when everything you ever wanted is on Amazon, for very little, and arrives via next-day delivery. But the nonunionized laborers packing up those toys and delivering them? They could probably use a day when Jeff Bezos serves them a feast (not to mention good benefits and a living wage).

I see two possibilities for rebranding Christmas: keep it as a day of familial inversion, which means that children would buy their parents and extended family gifts, make us meals, sing us to sleep and acquiesce to our demands for creature comforts. Or return it to its original spirit, of social inversion, and make Christmas entirely about lifting up those most squeezed by the brutality of capitalism and income inequality. . . .

It’s not that Americans aren’t generous. We work in soup kitchens and donate to coat and food drives. We gave more than $421 billionto charity in 2018, with an average charitable tax deduction of almost $6,500 per household — about the same amount worth of toys as the average American kid gets in a lifetime. But I think it’s time that Christmas becomes a holiday about service, about laying eyes on the invisible, the oppressed and the struggling, and not about spending more than $1 trillion in holiday consumer purchases, much of that for people who are not in need. I hope someday we return to celebrating the true Christmas spirit.

More Than 4 Out Of 5 People Celebrate Christmas In U.S.

The chart above reflects the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between December 12th and 14th of a nationwide sample of 1,500 adults, with a 2.9 point margin of error. 

Christians like to think Christmas is a religious holiday. But the 82% who say they celebrate the holiday is significantly larger than the percentage of christians in the United States. Obviously, for many the holiday is a secular one.

The Holiday Is Stressful For About 3 Out Of 10 People

 

The charts are from a recent Monmouth University Poll -- done between December 2nd and 6th of a national sample of 808 adults, with a 3.5 point margin of error.

Happy Thanksgiving

I wish all of my readers a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving Day. May your holiday be a joyous one -- filled with food, fun, family, and friends!

Poll On Thanksgiving Foods In The United States

 The charts above are from the YouGov Poll.

The View Of Americans On Halloween

These charts are from the YouGov Poll done between October 8th and 12th of a national sample of 1,000 adults, with a 4 point margin of error. It shows what American adults think about the unofficial holiday of Halloween. Nearly a quarter of them say Halloween is one of their favorite holidays.