By Mickey Dunaway

The end of slavery should be recognized. No question about it. However, others need recognition, too. Other sacrificed lives—sometimes taken cruelly and unwillingly and others given freely and graciously.  Others whose toil brought forth our great land. Therefore, I propose the following additional national holidays and invite readers to add to the list.

• American Indian Day:  We only recognized the American Indians as American Citizens on June 2, 1924.  This recognition is way overdue. Please don’t combine it with Thanksgiving. 

• Hawai’i Day:  The Hawaiian people bring a unique spirit and goodness to our country that is undeniable.  One trip to any of the Islands will demonstrate my premise. But I warn you, one trip will result in more.

• National Immigrants Day: After all, except for the American Indians and the Indigenous Hawaiians, aren’t we all immigrants?

• Pearl Harbor Day: There is not another event of any war that holds our national attention like Pearl Harbor. 

• Battlefield Parks Day: Make one visit to Gettysburg National Military Park, and you will leave changed. 
  
•  Battlefield Parks recognize the ultimate and honorable sacrifices made by combatants on both sides. It is essential to save our national memory of sacrifices made on our behalf by people we never knew but cared enough to make the ultimate sacrifice for our future.

• Teddy Roosevelt/National Parks Day: Universally recognized as the person with the foresight to declare parts of our country as National Parks. We need to do this. Besides, it would be the perfect time to visit a National Park near you!

• National Police Day: It is time. Of course, the only people who would have to work on this day will be THE POLICE! And they’d do it graciously.

• National Farmers’ Day: They feed us and the world, too. And, like the police, they will be the ones working on their holiday! 

• George Washington’s Birthday: It is a disgrace that we do not celebrate his birthday individually.

• Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday: OK, now I will say it and not apologize for it. Martin Luther King deserves to have a holiday, but no more than Washington and certainly no more than Lincoln. Think of this: there would not be an MLK holiday without Lincoln. And yet, we demote the memory of both Washington and Lincoln by failing to recognize them each individually. 

• Forgive our Enemy Day: As a Southerner, this is one I can become peevishly pissed off about. Seems that our country has forgiven every enemy of every war except the South in the Civil War. What gives? 

We recognize that there are people of honor among our enemies not every enemy soldier or commander of those soldiers was a fatally blemished semi-human being. 

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Change is inevitable, and the Forgive My Enemy Day is the day to recognize the potential for positive change in every generation and in every person.