Martin Gibson said, in part:

Earth Day which is also an invented holiday that is self serving to a special interest group.

Ahh, but every holiday (religious OR secular) is intended by the originators or proponents to focus attention on a subject important to them -- thus, "self serving to a special interest group". Now, that special interest group may, over a few or many years, become the majority of a society, and may even have the sponsorship of government, but every such holiday was invented, designed, or modified for what some might call self-congratulatory or public relations purposes. Nothin' wrong with that.

Now there is what I consider an unfortunate tendency for what I call "commercial holiday raiding"--which we see so plainly in Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Easter--and now, according to some posts above, Kwanzaa. That, to me, is offensive, even though the religious holidays mentioned mean little or nothing to me.

Dave Oesterreich