Rick is on to a good thing with open threads for we OlyBloggettes, dive in and have at it. (Are we OlyBloggers? OlyBloggeratis? OlyBlogginas?)

photos by enpen

This must be the era of dogs smoking cigarettes. Variations of this image will not go away.

There are no official holidays that really make me stop and think. Throughout childhood, one by one, holidays were stripped of their importance either by mass media and overmarketing, or by teachers who lacked the capacity to explain them. Even MLK JR. Day gives me no pause, ruined by years of days off of school and big sales at the markets. The fact that I'm an atheist immediately takes any meaning out of most holidays, and what remains are either sickeningly nationalistic or purely driven by consumerism.

I, and like minded people, are now forced to celebrate "alternative" holidays. May Day is the biggest one of the year. It's when we celebrate our solidarity with humanity and our power as individuals to work together toward the betterment of our lives. It gives us a chance to cut loose, but not for gluttony or for flag, but in order to reassert the inherent strength that we as people are given at birth.

In this spirit, and by the power invested in me by me, I declare August 23rd Sacco and Vanzetti Day throughout the world.

There is no better example in our history of two people made into scapegoats and killed by a government terrified of the collective strength of it's people. We must never forget what these two innocent men, and their families were put through 80 years ago. On August 23rd 1927 at the stroke of midnight Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco were put to death by the State of Massachusetts for crimes they did not commit. Forensic evidence not available at the time now assures us that the prosecution tampered with evidence that lead to their convictions. Several witnesses testified that Vanzetti, a fish peddler, had sold them fish at the time of the robbery. Sacco as well had a strong alibi, he was in Boston at the consulate getting a passport. Despite 115 witnesses testifying to the innocence of the two men, the non-italian jury convicted them, and the judge sentenced them to death. The same judge was put in charge of the appeals, he denied all of them on the same day, and was heard later bragging in public about what he had done "to those anarchists".