Today is the 28th year of observance of this type of floating Monday Holiday as established by the "Uniform Monday Holiday Act". The Holiday, honoring Martin Luther King Jr was 1st observed in 1986 after President Reagan signed it into law in 1983.
As all know, King was a V.I.P. in the civil rights movement.
Years back, Reagan kept Trestles from development. I appreciate that. We're still fighting the toll road that they want to build.
I would change MLK Day to the day after the Super Bowl. That needs to be a national holiday!
I agree that the day after the Super Bowl should be a holiday. I ain't losing MLK Day for it. Add it.
It was 1961. I was 10 and navigating the car for my Mom who was driving us to Miami Beach, where we were going to meet my Dad, who at the last moment had to stay to sort out problems with a new product (after he was done, the company prez paid for a first class ticket to Miami).
We were in South Carolina and stopped for gas. I needed to use the restroom so I went in and was faced with two signs not the Men and Women ones I expected, but Whites Only and Coloreds Only. I had always thought segregation was stupid on an intellectual level but now it hit me like a brick to my 10 year old white face. Lesson 1: this was the ugly reality of the South back then.
I was instantly pissed of about this injustice, and started to use the CO restroom as an act of defiance. Then, an unwanted thought hit me. If I was in the CO restroom and a person of color came in, he or she would be stuck waiting for me. Lesson 2: racial segregation impacted people like me as well as "people of color". That day, I became a fan of MLK and the NAACP!
Excellent thoughts ATACdawg. I can see how the personal experience shaped your feelings.
According biographers, Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first Black on the U.S. Supreme Court, during a closed judicial conference on a pending desegregation case, told his fellow justices what it felt like, as a practicing lawyer in Baltimore, MD, to have to "hold it" until he could find a "colored" restroom to use to avoid being arrested for using the wrong restroom. His effort was to move his fellow justices to an understanding of how segregation effected real people in real situations.
As a little boy in Birmingham, Alabama, I met Jackie Robinson. Yes, "42" is sentimental movie and it got to me. In college I attended a small dinner with Dr. King at a church in Hartford, CT.
I realize that the backlash against Pres. Obama proves we still have a long way to go. It's one thing to oppose his polices. That's fair game. It's another thing for a U.S. Representative from Michigan to state publically that he "couldn't stand to be in the same room with him." Or Speaker Boehner to routinely refuse social invitations to the White House in order to put the President in his place. We'll see how this plays out in history 25-30 years from now.
Yes, President Reagan overcome his initial reluctance and signe the King Holiday Bill. In the movie "Storm Warning," Reagan played a crusading prosecuting attorney who took on the KKK.
@SuperDude-When my Dad's family moved to the US from Argentina, they went through the South. They had no idea about segregation and couldn't speak English. My Gramma was kicked out of a white only restroom even though she looks like Estelle Getty. It was an eye opening experience for them.
Reagan sucks. This is probably the only good thing he has done.
I will agree to disagree, with that being Reagan was a good but not great president
Was restroom discrimination the only discrimination your parents endured in the South SlickSpic?
They only journeyed through the South to get to California. I don't know all that they went through. I remember a couple stories.
Superdude.... Some of the stuff you say about president Obama is because they are making a stand against his policy. I doubt much of it is due to racial tension or racial reasons. They are making a stand like he would hold "closed door meetings", President Obama himself didn't go to things he was invited too by republicans, he also would only meet with Democrats and not invite republicans. He also would be holding parties and events when the republicans wanted to work and get a deal done....so they didn't go to the "party", they worked. It is all political posturing BS done by both sides.
Now back on topic.... MLK did many great things and it is great that he is getting honored for that for a day.
MLK may he rest in peace
I somehow doubt that this will be the last time republicans and democrats can't stand to be in the same room again and hopefully next time, no one will claiming it was race related. However if it's Hillary, I can imagine someone saying they are sexist. Sometimes when someone is completely opposed to all your policies and beliefs, you just can't stand to be around them and that has nothing to do with race or sex.
Maybe one day we can all have this holiday off from work. I have absolutely no memory of seeing white or black or colored bathrooms except from my High School history books. Apparently guys in their 50's remember. I routinely talk to people at work and often never even think, hey he's a different race than me. I find more often than not, when everyone is in the same boat getting the same crappy changes to their health care or whatever, people have the same opinion regardless of race or sex. It's only because a few people who claim something is about race or sex, that I try to remember some people think it's almost always about that. It could be but in my opinion, it's not. Maybe it is among the 50 plus group who remember segregation and everything I never saw except in High School History class.
I expect whenever we get a female president and some guy says he can't stand to be in the same room as her, someone will say he is sexist. I do believe MLK's dream is alive and well. If I had a choice for president between Colin Powell or Hillary, I would hope for Powell big time. It's a difference of policies.
One national holiday named after a human being in America and its a disgrace that its not Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, or Roosevelt.
MLK was killed because he promoted equality and harmony not special treatment and quotas. Malcome X was killed because he promoted black self sufficiency and black men taking care of black women and children and said "how can black men be respected but the white men when we do not respect ourselves and our families". The current black "leadership" only promotes "whitey owes us" and "black oppression" as a way to maintain control. World dictators have taught the world that the way to maintain control is to dumb down the people you want to control so they will swallow the big lie. That is what the current liberal leadership is doing by sabotaging the schools. The big lie is that there is massive discrimination in the US whereas the truth is there is less discrimination here than in virtually any other country in the world. Africa has more discrimination than we do here but it is based in tribal hatreds that date back hundreds of years and are not easily removed. I am weary of being told that I am a bigot because I did not vote for a Chicago machine thug presidential candidate. I voted for Herman Cain and was very upset when his candidacy was torpedoed by the liberal media and his own party. The only way to rid ourselves of this type of behavior is prosperity. Only prosperous countries can afford to be Green, upwardly mobile, and nondiscriminatory. The government is enslaving us through debt and economic weakness that will only extend the class and race warfare being promoted by all governments. One such program is the "student loan program" the places our young people into indentured servitude for a large portion of their lives paying a debt that cripples their ability to excel and keeps them in virtual poverty. All governments want subjects not citizens.
You're incorrect skibum, haven't you heard something called President's Day?
There's also Columbus Day, skibum609. Named after Christopher Columbus.
Speaking on Columbus Day, have you ever noticed that banks still get this day off but nobody else does? I smell something fishy...
I. Racial segregation may seem to be old shaggy history to people below a certain age. Those of us old enough to remember know that voting, housing, public transportation, restrooms, restaurants, water fountains, movie theaters, drive-ins, cemetaries, the U.S. military, professional sports, college admissions, public education and professional organizations such as the ABA, AMA and ADA at one time or another reflected racial segregation that was the norm in the South and quietly accepted in the North. II. MLK always reminded Black Americans of the debt we owed to those White Americans who marched and stood with us. Too much of that contribution is forgotten. III. When the MLK holiday bill was being debated the question of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt was raised, but not resolved. Columbus Day was kept, but closing everything is optional.
Voter suppression is STILL much in evidence as demonstrated by the restrictive laws being passed.
Props to SuperDude's comments. It is hard to imagine that 50 years ago America had a group of people that were 2nd class citizens in every way. I think that we can stop worshipping our found fathers one day a year and reflect on that change for the better.
Or take in a 20% off sale. Your choice. Personally I prefer the reflecting on the fact that the country is better, but if you dig the sale thing does it really matter whether it is a MLK day sale or a Washington's Birthday sale?
But things aren't perfect. Alucard tells the truth when he cites voter suppression efforts.
And Tiredtraveller, unless you voted against Obama BECAUSE he is black your vote doesn't make you racist. I voted for him both times because, well, consider the alternatives. If you really think McCain or Romney would have done better all I can say is I'm certain you're wrong. Lesser of two evils, doncha know.
But voting for Cain? Dude, the "liberal media" didn't run him off. The fact that he was a class A-1 NUTJOB cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs KA-RAY-ZEE dude got him kicked off the campaign trail. Couldn't even pay off the chicks he sexually harassed properly.. I'd sooner vote for a Juice/Crazy Joe ticket than Herman Cain.
Fuck man...Juice's platform could be "I wanna dose the water supply with molly and acid once a year and make it a holiday -- CALL IT CARROUSEL (sic) " and that would STILL be saner than ANYTHING Cain proposed.
Plus, we'd get MDMA and LSD in our water once a year. Now that's gummint I can believe in!
JUICE 2016!!! JUICE 2016!!! JUICE 2016!!! CARROUSEL!!! CARROUSEL!!! CARROUSEL!!!
Yes we can! Yes we can! Yes we can!
Republicans have run some of the worse campaigns ever in my opinion as far as appealing to most voters. I didn't vote Republican in the last two elections because I thought they were incompetent. I voted for a third party. The vote wasn't even close so my opinion mattered zilch to the final count. I disagreed with the policies of Obama, well many of them, not all, and I thought McCain was like a wizard if OZ candidate searching for his brain. Especially when he admitted he didn't know much about economics.
Did economics matter in the last election? Well we just almost had our entire financial system collapse and people were losing jobs by the hundreds of thousands every month and the Republicans choose a candidate who says he doesn't know anything about economics. uuuhhhh, why even run for President? Just for kicks? Is it a joke for them? Are they all idiots? I think most saw no better choice. I think Ron Paul might have caused a temporary recession cutting thousands of government jobs but have us well on a path to prosperity cutting out wasteful spending if he could get it past congress.
A poster with HONOR quite unlike certain current posters!!!
RIP good man. You have returned to the STARDUST!!!
See what a great man President Reagan was? MLK day is good.