Erin here–when I worked in Virginia for several years, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was sullenly wedged into another existing holiday: General Robert E. Lee Day. General Lee (before the term was taken for the brother’s car in Dukes of Hazzard) was a Confederate general who fought for the South in the Civil War.
You can see my dilemma.
(Photo credit: Gray Lensman QX!)
Trying to choke out “Happy Lee-King Day!” seemed super creepy when we’re talking about the nation’s foremost civil rights leader being forced to share his day of honor with a leader from the Old South. But Dr. King would likely have shrugged the whole irony of it all off. One of my favorite quotes from him is this:
“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us, and some bad in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”
I think to celebrate Dr. King’s day, The Todd and I will take our twins Zachie and MacLean to see “Selma.” The Academy Awards ignored the movie, but it’s a fascinating story of the Civil Rights March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965. How will you celebrate?
(Cover photo credit:
