(no subject)
This time of year it feels like we get it from both sides. There's "wah, I can't buy alcohol for 24 hours" and "but I wanna open my garden centre" from one side and "it doesn't make sense for non-christians to want a day off" from the other.
I think it's really important that we have a few days each year where everything just stops. Days when most people, those who work in retail and hospitality as well as professionals and students, are highly likely to have a day off at the same time as their loved ones do. Because I believe that these days are important I also believe that those who have to work on these days, be they a surgeon or a rubbish collector, should be very well compensated.
It doesn't matter to me whether these days off occur on days which are important in the Christian calendar or not but my suspicion is that, because Christmas and Good Friday have been holidays for so long, most families in New Zealand, christian and otherwise, have traditions around those holidays and disrupting those for the sake of secularising a public holiday could harm more than it helps.
I really resent the implication that, because I don't share a spiritual belief, I don't have family or cultural traditions around a holiday (not that you should assume that someone does either). Implying that my atheism makes me somehow less deserving of celebrations is pretty damn offensive really.
I think it's really important that we have a few days each year where everything just stops. Days when most people, those who work in retail and hospitality as well as professionals and students, are highly likely to have a day off at the same time as their loved ones do. Because I believe that these days are important I also believe that those who have to work on these days, be they a surgeon or a rubbish collector, should be very well compensated.
It doesn't matter to me whether these days off occur on days which are important in the Christian calendar or not but my suspicion is that, because Christmas and Good Friday have been holidays for so long, most families in New Zealand, christian and otherwise, have traditions around those holidays and disrupting those for the sake of secularising a public holiday could harm more than it helps.
I really resent the implication that, because I don't share a spiritual belief, I don't have family or cultural traditions around a holiday (not that you should assume that someone does either). Implying that my atheism makes me somehow less deserving of celebrations is pretty damn offensive really.