Monday, January 21, 2008
Important MLK question of the day
A friend sent me an email today with this question:
When will MLK Day devolve into a big shopping holiday? How long does it take for this process to happen?
I trust my correspondent used the verb "devolve" advisedly. Anyway, does anybody out there have a good answer?
On a more serious note, read Power Line's tribute to Dr. King. Maybe we should wait a while before devolving the day into another mandatory trip to the mall.
5 Comments:
By 
GreenmanTim, at
Mon Jan 21, 04:47:00 PM:
This day is unlikely to become another shopping holiday because it commemorates a dream that is yet to be. It is still too new, and raw, to be taken on its own terms in every community across this nation. The fact that we can still see the archival images and hear the words as they were spoken many decades ago offers those of us who were not then living to make it a part of our own experience in a way that Presidents Day is not.
My young children and I watched the entire "I Have A Dream" speech today. My 7-year-old daugther knew the phase, and that the speech was important because Dr. King's dream was that everyone in America would be free, and that in his time there were different bathrooms for black people than for whites. That is something, and about what they expect 2 graders to comprehend of King's legacy.
But she watched, rivetted, to the old black and white footage and listened to King's oratory on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. She heard the words she repeats every day in school - "My Country 'tis of Thee / Sweet Land of Liberty - with new appreciation as if he spoke them directly to her. When Dr. King said "Let freedom ring" and I with the sad eyes of hindsight felt my heart catch once again in my throat, she felt it too.
By 
, at
Mon Jan 21, 06:42:00 PM:
As it happens, Home Depot is having an "MLK Day Event" the result of which is that I got $5 off my gallon of Behr paint. I appreciate the discount but it struck me as almost sacreligious.
By , at
Mon Jan 21, 09:53:00 PM:
So, I work at a hospital with a pretty typical hospital cafeteria. Wait, there's actually a point to this comment....
The cafeteria had a special MLK-day, er, special. Chicken and biscuits, corn on the cob, black-eyed peas, sweet potatoes, and chicken-fried steak. I have no idea what that means.
Oh, I liked your comment, greenmantim. It does hold some real emotional power, doesn't it? All those old black and white images.
By , at
Tue Jan 22, 07:50:00 AM:
It's already a big Atlantic City day.
By , at
Tue Jan 22, 05:08:00 PM:
Probably, never. The sad death of Dr. King or, at least, the "celebration" of it falls less than two weeks before the beginning of "Black History Month." A sad event before and even sadder month. There is very little room for any cheerfulness, nor for any commercialism.
We go from the death of Dr. King to the terrible loss in BHM of an even brighter light. Black History Month will always be known as the terrible month when we lost Anna Nicole Smith.
