Well, I'm sticking by my guns and saying I find the holiday as meaningful as President's Day. That is to say, a superficial holiday to teach an official hagiography to school children and give public employees another day off.

The canonization of King is sad, because it takes away the humanity of what everyone endured to bring about change. The big defenders of the man and the superficial holiday these days are very conservative politically, and are heavily invested in maintaining their delusions that the country's upcoming generations are the least bit interested in "the message". They aren't, because it has precious little to do with their personal lived experiences.

I work in the most segregated urban elementary school in our city--more segregated than even the whitest schools--just over 80% African American students, and 92% of the student population receives free lunches. So I'm in one of three poorest and blackest schools in the district. We had the obligatory assembly on Friday, and the kids did nothing but complain about being forced to do the assembly AGAIN, screwed off, and generally paid no attention to what the nice white lady on the stage was admonishing them to think.

The same social disease exists around here with the thought police (nice try blocking my access again kiddies, but by now you should know if I want to get back in, I will) and censors. It's quite clear there is no room for any posters to speak an opinion that is widespread among young African American (except in the company of their elders of course--gotta maintain the "we love the church" facade, and that's a boundary they rarely cross. But they are sick to death of Martin and Rosa being shoved down their throat, and being guilt tripped by their elders about "the sacrifices made and the people who died".

Nice, well intentioned white AND black teachers, all. But they moved out of this hood a long time ago, and keep the school segregated as a magnet to "keep it real". Except the hood is now 63% Asian, and 20% Latino.

So shoot me for saying the day has become just another meaningless holiday. And that MLK is fairly far down on the list of African American male leaders of the civil rights and black liberation movements I most admire.

But there it is.

Mudcat Censors, please deny my access now, delete the posts from me, etc. so these sheep--oops--I mean flock, won't be offended.

Hey--worshipping at the feet of the MLK legacy is a damn sight easier than learning the history, right?