Editorial
Leave July 4 Where It Is

Today, for the second time in this decade, July 4 has fallen on a Wednesday. The interruption of the business week for a one-day holiday has some people calling for moving Independence Day to a Monday, thereby giving most of the American workforce a three-day weekend, as is the case with other federal holidays.

This should not be allowed to happen.

In spite of the disruption in our production schedules occasioned by several federal holidays having been moved to Monday, like everyone else who has these days off, we enjoy them. (The national holiday of Thanksgiving Day approaches the long weekend from another direction: it occurs on a Thursday and some fortunate souls, sometimes including ourselves, get the next day, Friday, off as well.) Of course, in this business, a holiday means only that there will be two days worth of work waiting for us when we get back to the office, but all the same, time off is time off and we appreciate it.

There seems to us, however, not the slightest justification for moving Independence Day, the day that celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the founding of this nation, to the Monday that falls closest to July 4. The willingness of the members of the Continental Congress, representing the free citizens of the 13 original colonies, to pledge "our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor" to the cause of throwing off the yoke of British economic and military oppression and founding a new nation is far too significant to be moved around on the calendar willy-nilly. If July 4 falls on a Wednesday, so be it. We can suffer the mild inconvenience of a midsummer day's vacation from whatever we're doing to celebrate the birth of this nation.

We've said it before: take a few moments in the course of your leisure time activities today, whatever they may be, to appreciate the significance of the sacrifices the Founding Fathers were willing to make and the legacy they bequeathed us. There is a Free World for other nations to admire and emulate because they were willing to risk their lives. We should not diminish their achievements by moving Independence Day to suit our alleged convenience.