For the longest time, MLK jr day has been just another day off. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, I have always had a day to sleep in on the monday closest to January 15th. Also, because my brother shares the same birthday as King, we were more inclinded to spend it doing something he enjoyed instead of going to a parade in King's honor.
If I had not had an experience concerning Martin Luther King jr two weeks ago, this post would not be written and my blog would remain dormant, but an article in today's Express-Times greatly annoyed me.
The president of the Bethlehem NAACP has been pushing for all of the Bethlehem Area School District employee's to have off. All students and teachers have off, but 23% of employee's had to come into work on the federal holiday.
In my humble opinion, this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Can anyone tell me that what the Rev. King wanted was for the country to take a day off from work? If someone can successfully argue to me that it is better to honor the birth of one of America's greatest men by having a day off from school instead of going to school and actually learning something important on that day about King's civil right's movement, then I will shut up forever about the subject.
Instead of giving students the day off so a handfull of them can attend a parade of poor quality, why are they not in school, spending the day being educated about King and what he stood for?
That's what the NAACP should be fighting for, for more education, not for less. That's what Rev. King was about. Education. He let the world know about what atrocities were being committed against people of color.
Everyone complains that the fight is still going on. We all need to work harder to make the civil right's movement, the equality of all humanity, a reality, but fighting for a day off from work and school just will not cut it.
All organizations that believe in what King stood for need to embrace the idea that a day off for students and teachers to honor such a man is wrong. When they realize this, maybe, just maybe, people will begin to see what the holiday is all about.
