By Larry Craig

June was Pride Month. One full month when we waved flags, held parades, and constantly held in front of the public’s eye our celebration of homosexuality. And that was followed shortly thereafter by Independence DAY.

And I’m thinking: Something’s not right here. No offense to gay people, but if gayness gets a month, then FREEDOM should get six months.

I began thinking that we need to look at and rethink much of our holidays.

We already have Black History Month, as well as the aforementioned Pride Month.

Oklahoma just declared November to be Family Month. Families are the foundation of our society. Nothing benefits our society more than good families. Good families give us good adults.

Ben Franklin had a system where he would focus on a particular virtue for I think a month at a time. As a nation, that would be a good practice to follow.

So I have been working on this. I have not finished. Some months should have two focusses. There are just too many things that need national attention.

So June is Pride Month. It should also be Fathers’ Month. One day (Father’s Day) is just a day for a cookout and a family gathering, but it doesn’t celebrate fatherhood. Too many men are not shouldering the responsibility of being a father. They are fathers, but they are not fathers to their children. We need to honor fathers, but we need also to honor fatherhood and, as a society, encourage fathers to care for their kids and families.

July is Freedom Month. The United States was a new thing in the world, and it has sparked democracies and republics throughout the world. The month would focus on what is America and how it is unique. A lot of people want to focus on problems in our past, but America is still the best country in the history of the world. Let the complainers tell us what country they would rather live in. They want to reinvent America. But to what? Our system has brought untold freedom and prosperity to the world. What is a better alternative?

August I call Christian Heritage Month. The Declaration of Independence says that God created people, He created them equal, and He gave them inalienable rights. These are distinctly Judeo-Christian teachings. Without Christianity, you don’t have inalienable rights, and without inalienable rights, you don’t have the United States of America. We have freedom of religion for all, but our country could not, would not, have even said that if the tenets of Christianity were not in fact the basis of morality in our country. Some religions practice honor killings or a caste system.

Freedom of religion was established because of the frequent religious persecutions of the 16th-18th centuries in Europe. No, the Founders weren’t thinking of a hundred different religions being practiced here, but they did think that through freedom of speech, Christianity would win the public debates.

The Supreme Court wrongly ruled that our government cannot favor one religion over another, that it must be neutral toward religions and treat them all equally. This has been interpreted to mean that public schools cannot even talk about God, because then they would be promoting theism, hence religion, hence the state is promoting religion, one religion over another, atheism.

But our country was based on the FACT that God created humans, and that He created them equal, and that He gave them inalienable rights. Those were not beliefs for our Founders but facts. That First Amendment about establishing religion was talking about state churches like they have in Europe, where the King of England is Head of the Church of England. The Founders wanted the Bible as the principal textbook in public schools.

September is Work Month, where we celebrate the virtue of work. We celebrate all the brave people who have started companies. We celebrate individual responsibility, where we take control of our lives and seek to improve it against whatever apparent odds or obstacles that may appear in our way. We will not blame others for our circumstances or lot in life, no matter the current challenges we face.

We are discovering as a society, I hope, that there is not enough wealth in the world to take of everybody and everything. Work can create wealth. Specifically, things like manufacturing, agriculture, mining, and fishing.

We celebrate the small business owners who work 70 hours a week and who create jobs for the rest of us.

October is already a month given to Halloween: scary movies, decorations, costumes, and candy. But we can also make it Veterans Month. We need to do more and think more about those who have served and fought for our freedoms. This could be combined with Memorial Month in May. One should be enough.

November is Thanksgiving Month. A month devoted to thanksgiving, to God, to our parents, to our family, to our country, to everything. Learn to be appreciative.

December is Christmas. We celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The greatest person who ever lived. We even mark our calendars to mark His birth.

But December is also home to a number of religious celebrations that don’t even mention Jesus. We don’t want to discourage or disparage them. But, yes, the United States has a distinctly Christian heritage, so honoring the birth and life of Christ is proper and fitting. Christmas is still a national holiday, the only religious holiday with that distinction.

January is New Year, the time of new beginnings. Also Children’s Month. We celebrate life. Too often people are fighting for the right to kill our unborn children. That devalues life. We need to yearly look at the things we do in this country that promote or devalue children, that encourage or discourage people to have children. My parents had five kids, and my father worked in a trade. My mom didn’t have to work. What happened to our economy that makes that difficult today?

February is Black History Month. It also has Valentine’s Day. That celebrates romantic love, but as a society we can broaden that. Love Month? Love is a virtue for all. Love your neighbor as yourself. So we used to teach our kids in school. Love is a general word that covers a lot of different things. But at its root, it means to value somebody. We need to learn to value our neighbors, other people, all people.

Our Christian heritage teaches that people are created in the image of God. They are of enormous value to God and should be to each other. The highest virtue our society teaches today is tolerance, which need not mean any more than to ignore. I’m not sure we have any other basis for promoting love in our society beyond a Christian worldview. But we can try.

March I would suggest is Jewish Heritage Month. Blacks and gays get a month because they have been historically disenfranchised and persecuted. Well then, welcome to Jewish history.

No doubt the Holocaust will come up. We like to think that modern humans have evolved to being so much better in every way than our ancestors, and then we have the Holocaust. What a brutal reminder of, a brutal reality check on, the human heart. We must never forget.

And Israel will come up. After the Holocaust, there must be somewhere that the Jewish people can live in peace. If not there, then where?

April we will call Mothers’ Month. May was my first choice for that, but I think we should use that for something else.

Mothers are special and should be celebrated. But motherhood itself should be celebrated. I told the physician’s assistant at my doctor’s office (she was recently married): This is what you do. Being a mother is who you are. Your body is designed to create and nurture new life. Nothing will bring you greater joy and sense of reward than being a mother. Nothing is harder or will give you more pain. Nothing will make you a better person than being a mother. Women are being told they need a career to be happy, fulfilled, and equal to men. Humbug! Being a mother is unique. Nothing can compare to it.

Women and couples debate whether to even have children. Children are our future. They should be encouraged.

May is Memorial Month. It can be joined with Veterans Day. No need for both. Honor those who have given in the past that we might have a present and a future.

So this is my list. It is still in progress.