Each year, in, around, or at the time of the convening of the Commonwealth's
General Assembly, I make an attempt to convince my representatives to
introduce a bill that would establish March 17th as an official Virginia
holiday in honor of Pocahontas. This is not a new idea and has been made, on
and off, over the several past decades. My motives for pursuing this are
quite narrow and direct and are not borne out of any special insight as to
the worth of this maid to our history or any great understanding of or a
special admiration for Virginia history. I simply want to position my
adopted state such that when a certain action comes to past, she will be
leading the "pack" and have a good shot at capturing the prize for herself.

It is my belief that some day, probably not in my time, this Nation will
want to honor a woman with a National Holiday (as costly as they are to our
productivity and how narrowly they reward mostly and nearly only the
bureaucracy in time off at the expense to the real wealth-makers --- private
enterprise).

What better candidate than Pocahontas -- woman, native American, and martyr?
What better date? March the month she died. It has no National holiday.

It has been remarked that Jamestown failed. Obviously the idea of a new life
in the New World did not. How much Pocahontas and those others that were
paraded before the Court of Saint James had to do with keeping that idea
alive? -- I don't know and don't much care. I'm sure there can be a whole
series of arguments floated in this matter. In this particular exercise,
it's just important to me that she died trying to complete her voyage back
to her
native land after touring England for New World promotional purposes -- she
died in March -- she was a woman -- and she was, I presume, a complete,
authentic, full blooded, native North American.

I invite those that see merit in seeking approval from the General Assembly
of this to do what they can to influence the passage of legislation to enact
a Virginia holiday in honor of Pocahontas.










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