Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
About MLK Day
If I could I’d swap out a Day of Service on MLK Day for a Day of Organizing or a Day of Disruption or even just a plain and simple Day of Voter Registration, I’d do it in a flash.
Yes, it’s great and wonderful that a company’s employees truck on down to a community center to paint a mural and even greater and more wonderful for groups to run donation drives because, Lord knows, people need stuff, they need a lot of stuff, and you can never have too much stuff for people who need stuff.
I know that. I spend time in that world. The world of collecting up serviceable winter coats to give to people who are homeless and living outside, the world of figuring out how to barbecue enough chicken for a hundred people and how to get it to them while it’s still hot, worrying all the while that Styrofoam is terrible for the environment but good for keeping things hot. It’s all good. All important.
Dr. King would have done those things, I guess, and applauded people who paint walls and gather stuff to honor his legacy. I think he would be gracious with those folks and their good intentions and then I think he’d let loose with an analysis of what is wrong with our foundation, what needs to be dismantled and reconfigured, hammered together anew, made fair for everyone. And he’d tell us that it won’t be easy or fast but that we have to stick with it for better or worse until things are truly better. Not better. As they should be. Just.
I have my nerve pretending to know what Martin Luther King, Jr. would say to us all, here in 2023. But I figure I have as much right to opine as the dozens of memes that portray King’s work and legacy as one of passivity and good works. The Dr. King I knew of as a young adult was resolute and fierce, a heavy moral anchor, and undeniably the most important leader of my generation. He was a warrior. Mixed in with the mural painting and the winter coat drives, I hope we remember that. If we’re to emulate Dr. King, we can’t let ourselves off the hook with a few brush strokes with our friends. We have to step up for the harder work.
One Comment on “About MLK Day”
Leave a Reply
Recent Comments
Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
Well said, Jan. I like your reference to MLK, Jr. as a warrior. Here’s a recent quote I found: The essence of spirituality is about developing the mystic (the lover who says YES to life) and the prophet (the warrior who says No to lies and injustice in the many enactments.)
Matthew Fox