Not Just Another Day

Martin Luther King Day is just another day off work for many people who are too young to remember the reason for the observance.

For those of us who do remember King and pay tribute to his dream it’s disappointing the stench of bigotry still stalks the land, shaven-headed, red-necked and symbolically robed as well as coiffured and clean-shaven in expensive suits.

While it’s often forgotten, King’s work purchased equality and justice for all people and not a single race. Naturally there was a focus on his own race, but he was too great a man not to recognize the unity of all humans.

Prejudice is not always about race, nor has bigotry ever been restricted to one geographic area.

It shames us as a nation that we accept without reprimand those who piously quote the Bible and recite the Pledge of Allegiance while inciting atrocities or heaping disrespect on others they consider to be less equal than them.

As King himself put it, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”