So who cares if it’s Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday?
I didn’t send a card, but neither did everyone. We were all too busy making plans for an extra long weekend we did nothing to earn, to get out of town, party longer, harder or just get stuff done. Ask the younger crowd and most don’t even remember the guy. Fewer will actually spend no moments celebrating the life of one who refused injustice, abhorred inequality and remains the outspoken icon from a world and a time when virtue and purpose were more important than life itself. He was a black man in a white world, making his battle even more unthinkable, and a quick and easy target…which tragically it became.
Fortunately, our society has evolved, but at a snail’s pace. Injustice and inequality are still our social issues, outspokenness is just the unnecessary rocking of a boat for those whose ignorance means another paid day off on the calendar or an extra night to drink away what remains of our deep social ills.
To actually remember the achievements of a dead black guy and the world today had he not stood up and spoke out might be a buzzkill for the plans of most. But I do hope some will wake up Monday morning with prayers, dreams and hopes for which they still might willingly die, or at the very least, a pause to send up a thank you for one who did.