Below is a reprise of my post on May 1, 2003.
May 1st, known as May Day,
also called Beltane (Bright Fire) by the Anglo-Saxons, was considered the first day of summer. May Day was symbolic of a return to life, of the defeat of the hard winter, with new hopes for good planting and rich harvests. Beltane was the time of milk and honey, the primary time of pleasure, of blossoming and blooming, of desire and satisfaction.
More modern times co-opted May Day into a Workers Day, born in the struggle for the eight-hour day.
Both meanings of this day reflect the importance of celebrating the very human need to see the future as holding hope — for everything from better weather for planting and partying to better conditions for working and earning.
But maybe most appropriate for this particular May Day is the meaning that is the widely recognized distress call MAYDAY! MAYDAY!, which is really from the French m’aidez, meaning ‘help me.’
With his well-established American chauvinism and arrogance, our pretentious president preempts and ignores the significance of May Day to most of the people on this planet and makes the following proclamation:
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 1, 2003, as Loyalty Day.
Loyalty Day? Loyalty to national chauvinism and arrogance? Loyalty to a nation led by lying, conniving, despots? I don’t think so.
Mayday! Mayday! Help us all!
So, here it is, four years later and another May Day, and Dumbya is still doing his best to undo whatever strengths this country has left.