It seems to me that a number of our "patriotic" legal holidays emphasize US wars of foreign aggression and those who have volunteered to be individual aggressors in the same.

Since many of us who are not self-employed have, perforce, the same days off from work, a reasoned and reasonable response to these holidays would be to recast them in a more libertarian light -- to use them to educate the public, to rally around libertarian ideas and, if appropriate to the time of year, to support Libertarian candidates for office.

Some ideas to get the conversation started:

• Presidents' Day -- while this started out as a way to condense Washington's Birthday and Lincoln's Birthday and fit them into the Monday Holiday Bill, I see no reason why we could not focus more on those US Presidents who had more libertarian viewpoints and ideas
• Memorial Day -- without detracting from those true Patriots who fought to preserve our freedoms, and those who fought to preserve our land against foreign aggressors, we can also list and commemoriate those freedoms we have lost through excessive government and through popular indifference
• Independence Day -- I'd consider this pretty straightforward... but then, when have we ever seen a public reading of the Declaration of Independence, or a public reading of the Intolerable Acts, or a public reading of the Bill of Rights, on this day?

The list is not complete. Do non-militaristic holidays such as Labor Day (in honor of labor unions) and Columbus Day need recasting? What about Armistice Day (Veterans' Day)? I'd like to see your viewpoints on this.

I cannot agree with your idea. I donnot see any reason to change holidays on a whim.This will never happen any way .The american public will never support such a radical idea.

Personally I don't think think most Americans even know what the holidays are for now anyway. It's just another day off of work and an extra day of drinking for some people. I think that your view on the subject is libertarian, especially about the reading of our most pertinent founding documents on Independence Day. Definately something the NJLP officers should think about promoting in the future. I try to educate those around me about our holidays and the truths of them (I love telling my Italian relatives that Columbus might have been a Spaniard or my Irish relatives that St. Patrick was an Italian, or all of them that Thanksgiving represents the beginning of the end for Amerindian people) if for nothing else then something intriguing to talk about.

You say you try to educate them about the truth but then you tell them things that are untrue. How does that educate them? If someone said that the lp was made up of nerds and dope fiends would that be educational? Of course not. I think you would take offense at that, and you would have every right to be offended.If you are going to educate someone one you should stick to the truthand not embellish for the sake of getting a rise out of someone.

Columbus might have been a Spaniard (and he surely didn't discover America), St. Patrick wasn't a native of Ireland and the Indians hate Thanksgiving. They hold counter parades in New England every year. Check out the facts before you try to discredit someone claiming to speak truth.

Columbus from Spain? : http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12871458/

St. Patrick : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick

Native American National Day of Mourning:
http://www.pilgrimhall.org/daymourn.htm

I think one of the points here is that Thanksgiving, although based on the conceit of settler/native cooperation, was instituted fairly recently (I'm thinking Great Depression era or WWII?) and, like many of our legal holidays, had its origins more in social engineering than in history.