Martin Luther King, who was born on the third Monday of 1929, gets his own holiday today. That’s quite an honor; not too many people get their own holiday. Sure, Columbus gets one, but that one will probably be retired before I die. Jesus gets one, but he has to share it with Santa. George Washington – who unlike Columbus and Jesus, can actually make a strong claim for deserving one – gets one, too, but thanks to his birthday’s calendar proximity to Lincoln’s, his is being merged into a pan-Presidents’ Day, so we can also honor such luminaries as Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Warren Harding, and Gerald Ford. I once read an article arguing that Martin Luther King Day should be rebranded as Civil Rights Day, do allow for honoring of others who played – and do play – a role in bringing equality and justice to minorities. And I’m all for that.
From first- through ninth-grade, I had the day off of school. My mom said it seemed silly to have a day off school so soon after having a long winter break, but since I hated school I didn’t mind.
In tenth grade, I attended school on Martin Luther King Day for the first time. Several months earlier, my family and I had moved to a new home and a new school district, and since none of the staff of students were black, the lackeys in charge of Rosemount High School decided it should be business as usual. Oh, actually, they charged each teacher to spend the first 10 minutes of second hour talking about King and civil rights. It was worse than doing nothing, really.
In fact, the cover story of the next week’s school paper was an article by a student claiming the school’s sad attempt to honor King was a mockery – if we don’t get the day off, she wrote, fine. But at least let’s have an all-school assembly with local civil rights leaders or scholars talking to us about these issues or guiding us in celebrating how far we’ve come.
In eleventh grade, we got the day off.
By twelfth grade, I had permanently exited Rosemount over a month before mid-January rolled around, but I assume my classmates got the day off then, too.
Now I find myself feeling like my mom. I just had twelve straight days off of work. After less than two weeks, there’s already another holiday? Better, I feel, to save this holiday and give us off the day before or after Easter. Or Election Day. Or even the day after the Super Bowl. None of my coworkers, of those I’ve asked, do anything celebratory for the day. Jennifer and I just used it as a day to get caught up with house work, cleaning, and the kids.