Right now I ‘m in El Paso, TX getting my drive tires changed and waiting for freight. Although today is a Federal holiday – initially opposed by Reagan, Jesse Helms and John McCain - it seems it’s business as usual here. Approximately 35% of US employers give workers the day off. My wife, a teacher, has the day off with pay.
Why do we have these 1/2 “fake” holidays? Our troops are fighting overseas and nobody seems to pay much attention to Memorial Day – another 1/2 holiday. What about Presidents Day? Is that to “honor” Washington and Lincoln or all past Presidents? I don’t have a clue, because that’s not even a 1/2 holiday, but another paid day off for Federal workers, who seem, are the only folks in this country who actually observe these 1/2 “fake” holiday’s.
Originally, there was some question as to whether or not Dr. King was “important” enough to get a “holiday” named after him. Why do I find that absurd, not just in light of tomorrow’s inauguration of the first African-American President, but because of the everlasting words of Dr. King and the respect I’ve always had for what, despite terrible odds, he did.
A long time ago my parents, brother and I were driving around downtown Miami. This was long before the renaissance of Miami and the beach and the popularity of South Beach. Miami was, and is still is in many parts, terribly poor. I don’t remember what we, a white upper middle class family, were doing there, but there we were.
We stopped at an intersection. There was a large “bunch” of folks beginning to cross the street off to our left. The light turned green. A large man put his hand on the hood of our car telling us without saying anything not to move, even though the light was now green.
And I sat there in the back seat of our large Chrysler station wagon as Dr.King, Jesse Jackson, Ralph Abernathy and other leaders of the civil right movement walked in front of our automobile looking very serious and determined. When they got to the other side of the intersection the large man took his hand off the hood and followed them.
We drove on. Nothing was said. It wasn’t necessary. My parents were liberal Democrats living in New York City. Believing and supporting human beings civil rights was never an issue.
My father ran a business that employed many African-Americans, in fact, a man named LD Harper, an African-American, was VP of Sales. I don’t recall seeing many African-Americans working as managers of businesses at that time. Again, as a matter of fact, I still, to this day, don’t.
So, I’m going to “celebrate” and “honor” Dr. Martin Luther King in my own personal way, which is perhaps irrelevant in the broad scheme of things. But, in lieu of not working today and doing something more pertinent to what Dr.King was trying to accomplish for the “cause” - I’ll do my own small “thing.” It is the least I can do to honor the man.
Photo credit is: http://www.africawithin.com/mlking/mlking.htm
