Confederate Memorial Day, Small Towns Festivals and Beer!

I've seen this before, in person, at Stone Mountain Park. Stone Mountain, GA

Confederate Memorial Day, small town summer festivals, and the health benefits of beer have nothing to do with each other at first glance. However, on closer inspection, you will see a clear and definite connection.

Read on.

Confederate Memorial Day is the fourth Tuesday in April in various Southern States.

I discovered this holiday while living in Montgomery, Alabama and working as a State employee. One year, we had 22 state holidays. Two of those came the same week, Monday and Tuesday. I seem to recall Monday before Confederate Memorial Day was General Lee's birthday.

A State worker looks forward to any holiday. It could be Groundhog's Day; nobody would care.

Today I live in another southern state: Georgia, my home state. In this state I learned that Confederate Memorial Day has been erased from the list of official State holidays. Those are the holidays given to State of Georgia employees.

It seems that Governor Nathan Deal [BigDaddyDeal] decided that he's tired of hearing the conversation and the debate about this holiday. What that means to me is that BigDaddyDeal decided that we don't need to talk about things that make him uncomfortable.

Said Deal:

“It’s hopefully a good faith effort on the part of state government to lower the degree of debate and discussion, and to show that we are a state that has come a very long way. We are tolerant of a lot of things. But we will also protect our heritage. But this was not one of those areas area where I thought it was necessary to keep those labels associated with the holiday.” August 20, 2015 – AJC.COM  Read more, if you're interested. 

BigDaddyDeal [like all politicians] has no idea what he's doing. I don't think politicians are required to know history. I know they don't have any idea of the intelligence, intellect or awareness of the people for whom they speak--often speak so erroneously.

They just don’t relate...

Changing the name of a holiday won’t change history.

Changing the name of a holiday won’t make me feel differently.

Why don’t we all just embrace our Confederate Heritage.
Every American has a Confederate DNA.

For the Record: I am not offended by Confederate Memorial Day. I am not offended by the Confederate Flag. I am offended by police brutality. I am offended by racism and ignorance. If BigDaddyDeal can erase these things, tell him I said right own! 

NOTE: I am speaking about this issue only from my perspective [of what I know about it; my experiences with it and what I think about it]. I have done no research--except to learn that Confederate Memorial Day came into being one year after National Memorial Day [186]. The occasion was to commemorate the Confederate military dead.

CORRECTION: I reported on my local radio show that it was the other way around. I was wrong. I stand corrected.There are a few things I don’t like and there are a few things I can tolerate. But one thing I ab-so-lut-ly hate, detest, and despise is someone thinking and making decisions for me without any idea of what I want for myself.

That is known as Paternalism and yawl know how I feel about isms.

Now, it wouldn’t be so bad if BidDaddyDeal had tried to see how we felt about it; or if he had done an internet/AJC poll, or even if he’d called a few of us down to the State House to talk it over.

If he did any of these things, I never heard of it.

So, instead of asking me how I felt about it, he just decided he was tired of all the debate and discussion and there went the holiday. Oh, people still have the day off. The name just changed to a generic state holiday. Remember, he did it hopefully.

Now that it’s spring, people all over the world are having festivals.

My hometown, Cornelia, Georgia, we are having a festival this very weekend, Friday and Saturday, April 15 and 16. You won’t believe it: there’s going to be beer sold at the festival! I don't think I have ever been to a festival in my hometown where beer was available. Not only that, we now have a brewery right downtown.

Besides that, Beer Drinking Season officially begins on Confederate Memorial Day [I know because I said so.].

If you start this weekend with us you have a few days’ head start when the holiday comes.

This is just the coolest thing. Okay, so now you want to know about where the health benefits come in, right?

Here we go:

If you have ever heard my name or seen my website or read any of my blogs, you realize that I TheHealthReverend. I am a seminary-educated, ordained minister. That means my job is to look for health benefits in everything [food, drinks, herbs, oils, lotions, potions].

So it turns out that beer actually does have health benefits.

• Beer relieves insomnia--everybody knows that.
• Beer relieves indigestion.
• Beer helps to strengthen kidneys.

That's just a beginning but there's a whole lot more.

My point: Attend beer festivals this summer. Don't wait for Memorial Day!

He's friendly but I didn't get his name.