Monday, January 19, 2009

MLK Day

Ok, so I am home on a Monday with both of my boys. A five-year old, a ten-year old, and I are sitting watching the movie Madagascar. This is the joy of remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Really? This is what our government wanted when they set aside the third Monday of January as a national holiday? They wanted us to have more opportunities to watch TV with our kids?

I wonder, "Is this what Dr. King would want?" Would a man who gave his life to justice, to education, and to hope want all the children of this great land missing a day of school to remember him? This was a man who worked in the kitchen to attend college. This is a man who wanted better for our children. So now, the best way to honor him, to remember him, is to sit at home and watch a movie on DVD.

Dr. King, I am sorry that even as we have come so far since you lead the movements of your day, your great speeches of passion and vision, and your tragic death, that we have not come as far as you would have hoped for you children and mine.