Years ago I was staff to a committee with myriad responsibilities. It included everything from legislative ethics (an oxymoron) to veterans, cable television, Native American land claims, pre-ADA, fire codes, sexual orientation et al.
It was a huge committee and I was glad they brought in a Vietnam vet to create his own committee and take that off my back. No, not to take it off me but give veterans more due than I could with my work load. Thank you for your service to our country.
I was also responsible for flag law (raise the flag briskly and lower it ceremoniously) and for naming days of commemoration. We did not try to make these days into holidays, except for Martin Luther King Day when friends from the office drove to DC overnight and we heard Coretta Scott King speak and we all sang “Freedom” in the AME church.
Perusing that law this evening, it shows no bounds. I remember that over six of my years there we designated three: Haym Solomon for funding our Revolutionary War and gaining the USA independence; Raoul Wallenberg for his extraordinary efforts against Hitler’s world domination; and Taddeus Kosckiuzsko who made his mark in Poland and Belarus and came to us to save us during the Revolutionary war.
Many names save me every day, mentor me, try to hurt me or just make me strive to be better, but these names I had engraved in legislative whatever, so that they’re in the books but no one will know them. You can even look them up online now. Imagine that. Back in the day I had to write everything on paper and have it typed.
I hasten to say that during my years there were no women mentioned. Now there seem to be a few, including Susan B. Anthony, go girls! Dee
Cooking with Dee 