Is Calendar Date Unconstitutional?

* If indeed our process for numbering years derives from a particular religion’s specific event, then, considering the notional separation of church and state, if cities shouldn’t erect nativity scenes at Christmas, how can they spend money on Y2K celebrations?

JOHN R. HARRIS

Huntington Beach

* Calendar observance days keep changing with the times and with the whim or agenda of those who print the daily life guides for Americans.

The commercial, widely available scheduling calendars now list as many as 23 foreign holidays in addition to our own patriotic days, fun days and a growing number of religious observances. Will some of us be jumping through hoops, for example, on Feb. 6 to celebrate New Zealand’s Waitangi Day?

Heading the new year on these calendars, after Scotland’s New Year Bank Holiday, is the recently established Martin Luther King Jr. Day, this year set for Monday, Jan. 18. This observance was declared a national holiday at great cost to our nation’s employers.

Nevertheless, in the spirit of fair play, balance and affirmative action, another “day” might reasonably be proposed to honor another so-called minority--women--who were disenfranchised until 1920.

Our new minority recognition day might be called Susan B. Anthony Day, or Betty Friedan Day, maybe Sue and Bet Day, honoring ladies who clamored about some unreasonable inequities and lifestyle preferences.

Better yet, we can have one all-encompassing Minorities Day, a “Minnies Day,” where all minorities can at last be formally recognized and duly embraced by all. In this way we can belatedly pay homage to all minority sectors, women, Native Americans, gays, lesbians, Communists, deadbeat dads, various religious groups, adulterers, perjurers, abortionists, spies against America, polygamists, the back-to-nature folks, pornographers, addicts and gurus of all persuasions.

Adding a “Minnies Day” to recognize all minority groups, and removing most of the observances foreign to the great majority of Americans, will give all of us more space on those scheduling calendars for celebrations and activities of our own choice.

MARILYN J. SKINNER

Brea