School's out on Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday (or so I thought)

For the past 20 years, I have not worked on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. In Arizona where I worked, we had the day off even before the holiday became official. In a state university where I have worked for 15 years, of course the day is going to be honored. Same for the public schools. The South Bend Community School Corporation has always recognized the day, as did Veritas Academy, where Anna went for Kindergarten and First Grade.

So, I just assumed that as a student in the John Glenn School Corporation in North Liberty, Indiana, she would have the day off. Evidently not. We talked to family friend in the corporation on Saturday who confirmed that yes, no day off for this corporation on MLK. I was totally dumbfounded. I had just assumed that this was a day that all school corporations would want to take off and would truly want to honor King's legacy.

But that's not the case here. I am not sure why. I'm sure they have their reasons and that there are some powerful community leaders who are likely very critical of Dr. King and how he wasn't all that people say he was, yada yada yada. But, that's not the point. I've heard the arguments about how "white people" don't get a holiday, which is a load of you know what. We get the other 360+ days of the year. I think we can afford one day to honor an African-American leader.

No, we didn't pull Anna out of school that day. I'd never use my kid as a pawn in something her parents are trying to have changed. Plus, we didn't attend any MLK events that day, so we couldn't use that as an excuse. I was pleased to hear that her teacher was using the movie "Ruby Bridges" as a teaching tool that day (very good t.v. movie about a little girl desegrating a school in the south). In addition, it could be that many teachers want the holiday, but it's an adminstrative issue.

If anyone is ever unsure what the civil rights movement was all about, I highly recommend the documentary "Eyes on the Prize" and it's follow-up, "Eyes on the Prize II." This gives a very comprehensive overview of the movement and is excellent.

One thing that has always fascinated me is just how recent it really is that we officially treated blacks as second class citizens, even though the civil rights movement is often treated as ancient history. But, had Martin Luther King, Jr. not been assassinated, he wouldn't even be 80 years old yet.