Did you know that both Mother's and Father's Days are national holidays? Of course they are always celebrated on Sundays, so they are not a federal holiday. President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation in 1914 designating Mother's Day as the second Sunday in May. Of course motherhood has long been cherished, and the ancient Greeks and Romans held festivals in honor of mother godesses Rhea and Cybele.
Mind you, the Greeks and Romans also honored fathers, and in Catholic Europe, St. Joseph's Day (March 19) is a feast day dedicated to Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus. But Father's Day in the USA had a rather startling beginning that few know.
- First, Father's Day did not become a national holiday until 1972.
- The reason why has everything to do with civil rights movements in the 1960s.
- The story starts in 1964 when a middle-aged father and mid-level federal appointee, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, dreamt a solution to America's racial conflict in his sleep.
- Following the passage of the Civil Rights Act earlier that year, the sense was that laws weren't enough to end racial discrimination.
- Moynihan woke up at 4 AM with a thought that racial unrest would be minimized if Black fathers stay with their families.
- Daniel Patrick, then working for the Department of Labor, published in the spring of 1965 a study titled, The Negro Family: The Case for National Action. It became known as The Moynihan Report.
- Watch these PBS videos of how he single-handedly pursued his goal, going on to become President Richard Nixon's domestic advisor.
- Nixon went on to in 1972 designate the third Sunday in June to observe Father's Day. In this article, Moynihan is not even mentioned to have played any role.
Of course, most of you know that Daniel Moynihan became the Senator from New York in 1977 and served until 2001. I worked in the U.S. Senate from 1979 to 1982 and only today learned about the important part he played in creating Father's Day.
Every so often on Sunday, I try to reconcile religion with science. So let me start with some familiar beliefs, such as Heaven and Hell, from the Pew Research Center:
Also, two-thirds of U.S. adults believe they will be reunited with loved ones in Heaven.
So what about some other science beliefs:
- Belief in the Big Bang = 20%
- The earth is around 4.5 billion years old = 27%
- Here is something that defies common sense. Especially today. Incredibly, one in four Americans believes that the Sun orbits the Earth. With the state of education today, why isn't this much, much higher?
- I once worked for the NASA Ames Research Center in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Here is another Pew poll.
This survey indicates that more Americans today believe that UFOs are alien ships or alien life forms. My sense of those scientists working in the field of SETI, is that essentially 100% of them DON'T believe in flying saucers as linked to aliens.
- No religion 76%
- Jewish 67%
- Black Protestant 59%
- White Catholic 56%
- Latter-day Saint 48%
- White evangelical Protestant 31%
One advantage we have at 15 Craigside is that we have a Father's Day dinner:
By, the way, it did not actually rain on Trump's parade in DC yesterday. However, if you went, according to HuffPost, Trump Made His Supporters Endure Misery to Attend His Military Parade. He further, and surprisingly, did not give his usual political tirade.
Oh, are Donald and Melania still married? Yes. Still living together? No. So is their marriage now mostly faked? Maybe.
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