Many of the same people who shouted loudly to remove the Confederate Monument in Travis Park last summer, and supported the North East ISD's decision to change the name of 'Robert E. Lee High School' will quietly take the day off work today, in honor of Confederate Heroes Day, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Today is a 'voluntary' state holiday, meaning that state employees who want can take the day off, although state offices will remain open, and state employees who work today will get a paid 'comp day' off later on.
The Legislature is aware of the irony of celebrating 'Confederate Heroes Day' at a time when people are actively campaigning to stamp out all memory of the Confederacy, and the fact that Texas was a willing part of it. But efforts in the last two Legislative sessions to eliminate 'Confederate Heroes Day' as a state holiday have been defeated, mainly by labor unions and state employee organizations who don't want to give up their paid holiday.
Today is Robert E. Lee's birthday, and today is actually the combination of what used to be two state holidays, one honoring Lee and the other honoring Confederate soldiers.
They were combined into 'Confederate Heroes Day' back in the 1970s.