Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Although I think it’s a good thing to observe the accomplishments of Mr. MLK the Junior, all I did this weekend was stay inside and watch random anime that Tyler scavenged with our Ethernet access. Unless you consider watching cartoons made by another culture a worthy way of observing the holiday, it seems rather pointless for me to have had the day off.

Not that I’m complaining about my freebie day- I love having a day off from both classes and work. However, I’m still perplexed about the purpose of having classes cancelled when at least 95% of the UW students spent the holiday skiing or doing other selfish and menial things without a thought to the meaning this day is supposed to have. I certainly didn’t spend a second thinking about Martin Luther King Jr. or racial equality today. It wasn’t until I started to write about something else that this idea popped into my head, and even these words were written with less than an hour to spare before the clock struck midnight.

Having this day to serve as a reminder is one thing, but having the day off for observance is yet another. To be blunt, MLK Jr. Day has no meaning or importance to us white folk- the people who need to understand the meaning of this holiday most. It’s like Christmas without the presents; we get the day off for our own selfish desires to be fulfilled.

Comments

  1. Well, The Daily reports that a whole 150-some students volunteered on MLK Day!
    (which means that if we are to believe The Daily, about 0.3% of the UW population actually did something worthwhile on MLK Day. But what number were students that whould've volunteered anyway rather than because it was MLK Day?)