Holidays and Holy Days
I’d like to thank the governor, the honorable Sarah Huckabee Sanders, for giving my colleagues in Arkansas state government and me Friday off, well, outside of first-responders and the like.
Holiday? Actually, that was Thursday, Christmas, making this 26th of December similar to the day after Thanksgiving. That’s Black Friday, not a holiday but a nickname. Today is Boxing Day in the United Kingdom and some other countries but, as the U.S. broke with Britain 249 years ago, not ours.
Winter holiday periods at a state-run university are further spread, as it’s also between semesters. Between campus and university system policies, tradition and yes a touch of gubernatorial fiat, the University of Arkansas generally closes end of day Dec. 23 and reopens Jan. 2, depending on how the span’s one or two weekends break in a given year.
The last time Boxing Day was on a Friday was 2014. Records indicate then-Gov. Mike Beebe declared it a holiday, not a holy day. Sanders though places this Boxing Day as Jesus’s first full day on Earth:
“NOW, THEREFORE, I, SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, Governor of the State of Arkansas, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the laws of the State of Arkansas, do hereby proclaim December 25, 2025, as ‘CHRISTMAS DAY’ in the State of Arkansas, and in order that state employees may spend this holiday with their families giving thanks for Christ’s birth, I further declare the State Capitol and state offices will be closed on Friday, December 26, 2025, as well.”
There’s been no word from her office on renaming New Year’s Day to the Child’s Bris.
As an American, as an Arkansawyer and as a non-Christian, I question why she can’t follow generations of local, state and national leaders granting days of leave while genially wishing us Happy Holidays?
Sanders should’ve ecumenically expanded her order to also dub Dec. 26, as it falls this year, as the 12th day of Hanukkah. (Nobody squeal that it’s just eight.)
News reports Friday showed Trump administration leaders now clothing the religiously neutral by law United States in blessings. Cabinet members always have been welcome to personally declare how piety informs their leadership, but through their offices?
“‘Today we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. May His light bring peace, hope, and joy to you and your families,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on social media, The New York Times reported (gift link).
The Washington Post reported Friday (gift link) social media messages posted from the Department of Homeland Security included “Christ is Born!” and “We are blessed to share a nation and a Savior.”
Such religious messages were conveyed by the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education, Homeland Security, Justice, Labor and State, the Times and Post reported. “The joyous message of Christmas is the hope of Eternal Life through Christ,” Secretary of State Mark Rubio tweeted.
I am not speaking just on principles or ideals. I am an employee of the state of Arkansas, savoring Friday’s paid time off. My employment is compensated by the taxpayers as well as tuition. Every winter here, my Fayetteville co-workers and I share the same eight or so days off with pay (again, length depending on how those weekends break), so we could celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Mithra, Yule, Festivus or nothing particularly spiritual at all.
There is no democratic-republic reason to make religion overt when with the Declaration 249 1/2 years ago and explicitly a few years later in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights both sets of Signers — who otherwise disagreed on other key clauses — saw from history that no good comes from mingling church and state, even a little bit.
That remains true 2 1/2 centuries later.
A new problem has sprouted this year. Do I have to state that my opinion mocking Sanders magisterially sanctifying a secular day is not also the opinon of the University of Arkansas? It’s obvious; neither it nor I need a disclaimer.
Apparently, the tremors of the times dictate that even institutional leaders feel they have to CYA with disclaimers (System policy 100.7 3(B)3) from subordinates that extend past reasonable assumptions.
Brian Raines, dean of UA’s Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, wrote in July 2025 to Shirin Saeidi, the now former director of the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies and an associate professor of political science:
“I understand that you have a disclaimer on your Twitter account that indicates you are not speaking on behalf of the University, but you are widely known as the director of the program, and in fact, if you Google your name, it comes up together with your role as Director.”
“Instructor Ousted from Director Post,” Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Dec. 18, 2025 (alternate link)
Saeidi’s circumstances are complex: Public university faculty have wide freedom of expression, and her opinions have been public for years, so why does it come up now, while we also could be bewildered by this American scholar defending the government of Iran, which has been religiously managed since 1979. (That she’s anti-Israel seems to be their focus.)
What should bring concern and even paranoia is that essentially all higher ed workers are Googleable, so if administration executives agree with Dean Raines, then the job security for any of us has just weakened, should we exercise our Freedom of Speech franchise anywhere.
©2025 Ben S. Pollock
