I made the mistake of asking moms on my Momslikeme.com, if they celebrate the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. And if they celebrate what they do? One mom's answer upset me. Her reply was that she used that "three-day break" to spend time with her children because she works too much. While I understood her answer as a mom; I wasn't happy. I bit my tongue.
It had happened. It was what Mrs. King had worried about when the holiday was enacted. This mom just looked at it as another day off. This "holiday" isn't that. No parties. No special sales. It's supposed to be a time of remembrance. To look back and see what we have left to do? How far we've come?
Typically, my daughters and I watch movies. Last year, we talked about and saw the films, The Great Debate and The Rosa Parks Story. I tried to get them to attend the MLK Service in our community, but that didn't work. Instead, we visited an exhibit on MLK at our museum. The weekend before, we saw a play about Frederick Douglass and Harper's Ferry. My girls began to understand the horrors of slavery and asked me a lot of questions about that time period.
I don't know what we'll do this year. We will do something though. What do you? If you do anything. Support a black business. Buy black. I know I'll be listening to our city's black-owned radio station for starters and may go around the corner to Jim Brown's Restaurant. The MLK IS NOT another day off. At least, not to me.
Posted By: Marsha Jones
Monday, January 10th 2011 at 1:52PM
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