MLK,Jr

I woke up this morning thinking about the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Week after next most US workers get the day off to celebrate his birthday. Why do we have a holiday celebrating the birthday of someone who wasn't elected to office; someone who didn't discover a country; someone who didn't accomplish deeds normally celebrated with a designation of a holiday recognizing their birth?

This gave me pause. As I considered Reverend King, I remembered that he might have begun something that even elected officials, founding fathers and others fail to accomplish.

Martin Luther King, Jr asked us to consider a world where people are judged by the content of their hearts not by the color of their skin. His dream was taken to heart by a whole generation of Americans who wanted to do better by mankind. He began something that elected officials cannot legislate, founding fathers cannot constitutionalize. He helped change the way people thought. Changing a heart and mind surely is more difficult than passing a law.

We went through such a brouhaha about Christmas this year, celebrating the birthday of Jesus Christ. I'm not comparing Martin Luther King, Jr to Jesus, but there is a holiday celebrating Jesus' birth because America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. Our country saw fit to celebrate Jesus' birth, someone who managed to change hearts without being a famous politician or lawmaker. No one ever intended to force their beliefs on any other unwilling American, but by golly---don't force believers to feel they are second-class citizens because their faith is the faith of 80 per cent of all Americans. I think we've had enough of this tail wagging the dog business and the Christmas hubub just reminded us that our voices do count and that silence is indeed the same as approval.

Back to Reverend King, it occurs to me that celebrating the birthday of someone who worked to better the lives of all Americans can't be a bad thing. Maybe holidays can celebrate ideas as well as deserving individuals.

The ideas above are my own, however, here's a good link to historic American documents.