Elizabeth Williams-Riley DASH Consulting

Monday Madness Alert
You know it's Monday when:
🔹Your coffee needs coffee.
🔹Your calendar looks like it lost a fight with Crayola.
🔹You open your inbox and suddenly understand why possums play dead.
🔹Your computer decides today is the perfect day for an update on every app.
🤦🏽‍♀️ Three people from the same department send "URGENT” emails, and none of them are talking about the same thing.
By 10:00 a.m., you're already wondering how many days, hours, and minutes remain until Friday.

Sound familiar?

Here's the challenge: Many of us joke about surviving Mondays, but what if our "Monday Madness" isn't really about Monday at all?

What if it is BURNOUT wearing a name tag?

Burnout often disguises itself as:
🔹 Constant exhaustion before the week even begins
🔹 Feeling overwhelmed by routine tasks
🔹 Cynicism and frustration that seem to show up overnight
🔹 Counting down to the weekend before the workweek has started

The truth is that a workday shouldn't feel like something we have to survive.
A healthy workplace creates energy, purpose, connection, and enough psychological safety for people to say, "I'm overwhelmed" before they reach a breaking point.
So, before we blame Monday, it might be worth asking:
Am I tired of Mondays... or am I just tired?
There's a difference.
And one requires more than a stronger cup of coffee. You may need a coaching session Elizabeth Williams-Riley D.A.S.H. Consulting.

Now excuse me while I go answer a email from last Thursday that was marked "Urgent". 😜

Thanks for being a top engager and making it on to my weekly engagement list! 🎉 Odera Kimmons Williams, Samuel Taggy Riley, Lurline Smith

Work for a cause, not applause. Live Life to express, not to impress. Don't strive to make your presence noticed. Just make your absence felt. Capital Region Minority Chamber of Commerce Urban Bush Women

Is it just me or do American holiday celebrations seem more complex now than ever before? As this nation celebrates 250 years it's disturbing how little is known about the TRUTH. In order celebrate this country we must accept the good with the bad. Until we are brave enough to own all aspects of the contributions of its people, we are not celebrating we are denying our liberation.
"IF YOU HAVE COME TO HELP ME, YOU ARE WASTING YOUR TIME. BUT IF YOU HAVE COME BECAUSE YOUR LIBERATION IS BOUND UP WITH MINE, THEN LET US WORK TOGETHER."Lilla Watson
BLACKNJ Capital Region Minority Chamber of Commerce Chris T. Pernell National Pan-Hellenic Council, Inc. Human Rights Watch NAACP Human Rights Campaign Urban Bush Women NAACP New Jersey State Conference Gail Johnson Stephanie Bridges Occupy Democrats Samuel Taggy Riley New Jersey Council for the Humanities Josef Levy

Memorial Day carries layers for our community.

Today, we honor the lives lost and the families who carry that weight. We recognize the legacy of Black courage that has always moved this nation forward... even when the nation didn’t always move for us.

Their sacrifice is part of our story. Their courage is part of our legacy! 🖤

Happy Decoration Day!
Here's the history of how Decoration Day created by formerly enslaved Africans became Memorial Day. Happy Decoration Day!!! Pass it on!

The transition of Decoration Day into what we now know as Memorial Day is a profound piece of American history, deeply rooted in the aftermath of the Civil War. While several towns claim to be the birthplace of the holiday, historians have uncovered that the earliest, largest recorded precursor was organized by newly freed African Americans.

sdarj.org

Here is a brief history of how Decoration Day originated and evolved:

1. The True Roots: Charleston, SC (May 1, 1865)

In the final months of the Civil War, the Confederate military turned the Washington Race Course and Jockey Club in Charleston into an outdoor prison camp. More than 250 Union soldiers died there from disease and exposure and were buried in a chaotic mass grave behind the grandstands.

chicagocrusader.com

When the city fell and white residents fled, a group of about 28 formerly enslaved Black workmen went to the site, exhumed the bodies, and gave them proper, individual burials. They built a tall fence around the new cemetery and erected an archway at the entrance inscribed with the words: "Martyrs of the Race Course."

chsasalh.com

On May 1, 1865, a crowd of nearly 10,000 people—mostly freed slaves, alongside Black Union regiments and white missionaries—gathered to dedicate the cemetery.

science.nasa.gov

The Parade: The procession was led by 3,000 Black schoolchildren carrying armloads of fresh flowers and singing "John Brown’s Body."

www.zinnedproject.org

The Honor: They were followed by Black women with baskets of wreaths, Black men marching in cadence, and Union infantry units (including the famous 54th Massachusetts Colored Regiment).

The Meaning: The crowd decorated the graves with flowers, listened to scripture, and held picnics. As historian David Blight notes, this was the very first informal "Decoration Day"—an act by newly freed people to declare exactly what the war had been fought for.

www.zinnedproject.org

2. The Official Declaration (May 1868)

As informal springtime "decoration days" continued to pop up in both Northern and Southern communities to honor the staggering 700,000 Civil War dead, a formal movement took shape.

science.nasa.gov

In May 1868, Major General John A. Logan, the commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (an organization of Northern Union veterans), issued General Order No. 11. This order officially designated May 30, 1868, as "Decoration Day"—a national day specifically set aside for "strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country." May 30th was chosen carefully because it was a time when flowers would be in full bloom across the entire nation.

www.cem.va.gov

3. Keeping the Tradition Alive

Throughout the Reconstruction era and into the early 20th century, African Americans and Black veteran posts remained the primary caretakers and celebrants of Decoration Day in the South, keeping the memory of the Union sacrifice alive even as white Southern communities heavily policed or ignored it. Concurrently, Southern white communities practiced their own distinct "Confederate Memorial Days" on separate spring dates.

www.nps.gov

4. Evolution into Memorial Day



chicagocrusader.com

Over the decades, the name "Memorial Day" gradually became more common than "Decoration Day".

www.cem.va.gov

Post-World War I: The scope of the holiday expanded. It was no longer just about the Civil War; it was broadened to honor all American soldiers who had died in any military conflict.

www.cem.va.gov

The Uniform Monday Holiday Act (1968/1971): To create a convenient three-day weekend for federal employees, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act in 1968. When it officially took effect in 1971, it legally changed the name to Memorial Day and moved its observation from the traditional May 30th to the last Monday in May.

science.nasa.gov

What started as a localized, deeply emotional tribute by newly freed citizens to honor the soldiers who died for their emancipation ultimately transformed into the national day of remembrance observed today.

science.nasa.gov

Source: Gemini AI