Creation of Iraqi Freedom Day Could Bring National Healing
Most of the events marking the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War are taking the form of angry anti-war protests. But several national business groups are hoping the celebrations will lay the groundwork for a new national holiday.
“One the the biggest mistakes that American businesses made back in the 1970s was failing to capitalize on the evacuation from Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War by turning that into a national holiday,” said Howard Cathart, execuctive director of the National Alliance of Progressive Business Leaders. “This time, we want to be proactive and start now to create a new national holiday — Iraqi Freedom Day.”
The Washington-based group, which normally lobbies Congress and the Bush Administration on such matters as lower taxes and less regulation, is a fervent booster for the idea of at least one national holiday for every month of the year.
“March is wide open for a national holiday like Iraqi Freedom Day, which would be celebrated on the first Monday after March 19th,” Cathart said. “It is a perfect national holiday to mark the spread American-style democracy around the world and it would give shoppers an opportunity to celebrate the arrival of spring.”
Cathart said he is busy rounding up other Washington business lobbying groups to support creation of Iraqi Freedom Day.
“Combining Iraqi Freedom Day with the new earlier start of daylight savings time would be a home run in terms of helping Americans and businesses greet the arrival of spring,” Cathart said. “On Sunday you turn your clocks forward an hour and gain all that new daylight time and then the next day — Iraqi Freedom Day — you don’t have to go to work and can enjoy all that new sunshine and get in some serious shopping and play.”
Creating a national holiday associated with a war can help a nation heal its physic war wounds, said a prominent historian who has studied American wars.
“There has long been a feeling among historians and psychologists who study the effect of war on a nation’s psyche that a national holiday can help with healing,” said Regina Philogin, professor of history at North Central Cincinnati University. “In my research on Vietnam, I think a national holiday that marked the fall of Saigon would have help us enormously to come to terms with the war and reach closure.”
Cathart said that in addition to lobbying for creation of Iraqi Freedom Day, he has also been asking national retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, McDonald’s, Home Depot and Lowes to press for the new holiday.
“It’s not much of a stretch to think of McDonald’s offering an Iraqi Big Mac or Home Depot pushing a ‘paint your spare bedroom’ program on Iraqi Freedom Day,” Cathart said.