People don’t show right amount of reverence for King’s birthday
COMMENTARY
Patrick Jennings

Every year, third Monday of January, things shut down to observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Beyond sitting on your keister for an extra day, not much is made of this holiday.

There are 10 official national holidays, and few can match the apathy the majority of Americans feel toward the observation of King’s birthday. Columbus Day at least has a parade or two. There are President’s Day sales left and right, but no “Martin Luther ‘King of savings’!” sales. Labor Day is allowed to be a slack off day, that’s the entire idea behind it, really. Thanksgiving and Christmas are important family times. New Year’s Day and Independence Day have loads of revelry. Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day are solemn, but still mostly understood observances of those who were ready to, and did, sacrifice all to protect American freedom.

So why do we have the extra day off so close to New Year’s Day and Christmas?
=Ostensibly, it’s to honor the almost unarguably greatest civil rights leader in the past 50 years. However, last year, the sum observance I saw was a five minute piece on CNN while flipping through the channels. It was the fifth story on the local news that night.

This is veneration?

It’s sad, but true, that the holiday came about as a political ploy so senators could improve their polling numbers with minorities. On the reverse side, Black activists went on the attack when some states refused to recognize the holiday.

Arizona was the last to capitulate. They never said Martin Luther King was a bad person, they say they just valued corporate income more than an empty tribute to a great man. Yet, they were the subject of great controversy and ridicule for that position.

It has become a sad indicator of political correctness gone mad. Any argument against the holiday is met with a cry of “foul” and the insinuation of rampant racism. The university conducts class on both Veteran’s Day and President’s Day, but doesn’t dare hold class on Dr. King’s Birthday.

In my hometown of Melbourne, Fla. , they wanted to rename a street, University drive, in a predominantly black section of town. Martin Luther King boulevard. Of course, King had never been to Melbourne, and the local university is on the other end of that road. One of the elderly female town council members questioned the impact of King on the town, and was nearly run out of it. I mention this as an illustration of the way King’s name seems to blur common sense in some peoples minds while they attempt to show their adulation.

I'd rather not see King's legacy a day with no substance and reverence bordering on paranoia. Perhaps the problem is associating the entire civil rights crusade with one man. That’s why I say the holiday needs tweaking. I’d like to see it as an opportunity to promote unity, something the third week of January seems to lack right now.

Patrick Jennings is a freshman economics major from Melbourne, Fla.
He can be reached at (p.a.jennings@tcu.edu).