Happy MLK Day

Well, here it is, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the only federal holiday I'm aware of that we still celebrate an individual. My other favorite holiday as a child, Washington's Birthday, is now lumped in with the sometimes tyrannical Henry Clay disciple, Abraham Lincoln in the generic President's Day.

Don't get me wrong. What MLK Jr. is remembered for, the fight to finally get people to ignore skin color/race and focus on the individual's quality, the content of their character to borrow from his words, is a very worthwhile and important thing. Although his cause provided us with just a few more statutory rights, in other words, rights granted (and just as easily taken away) by the government, he led a significant portion of a movement that helped heal a lot of the wounds of Reconstruction. For those who slept through that part of history class (I was almost with you on that one), Reconstruction covered the period in which a vengeful Congress treated the states as subjugated territory that had to ratify the oft-misued Fourteenth Amendment before being allowed back in the Union. That's a story for another post, though.

Those who didn't fight the war for the right to retain slaves in the South, which was a considerable majority, became resentful and hateful of the North and the federal government. Fueling the fire of southern racists, this led to the rise of the KKK and Jim Crow laws. So, King did us all a world of good in stepping forward to lead a large part of this movement and for that he should be recognized, perhaps as part of a "Civil Rights Day", more than just for himself.

If the first and perhaps best President of our country no longer is deemed worthy of honoring with his own holiday, then how do we justify anyone else, including Martin Luther King Jr.? Again, I have no qualms with the man, but I do have a quarrel with how the federal government portrays his memory. Is remembering rights granted to us by the government in a turbulent time more important than remembering our Founders and where we came from? If you've read my blog from the beginning, you'll already know the government's answer to that is a resounding yes.

So...enjoy the day. It's good to relfect on good men and women and the sacrifices they made to get us here. It's equally good to reflect on how our government in all its bureaucratic glory capitalizes on the work of those same people. You can't fight city hall, the old saying goes, but you can certainly be exploited by them after you're in the ground.