Martin Luther King Day

President Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983, and it was first observed on January 20, 1986. At first, some states resisted observing the holiday as such, giving it alternative names or combining it with other holidays. It was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000.

I can't say that I remember what I was doing the day MLK was assassinated, as I was in the third grade and couldn't fully comprehend the significance of what had happened.  This abhorrent act and the riots which followed in major urban areas, first Washington, DC, then Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, and LA appeared to me on our black and white TV. It didn't make sense to me at the time for people to trash their own neighborhoods. Now I understand that this is only true if the neighborhoods and the institutions are worth saving. Obviously, the people who were confronting armed police and national guardsmen and were chanting "Burn Baby Burn" didn't hold these places in such high esteem. I had never been to these places so I was left to wonder.

There had been riots before in American cities during the 1960s, notably New York City and Paterson in 1964 and Newark in 1967. Years later I would drive through and around these cities and the blight was still apparent. Truth be told the scars are still apparent in most every city in the country where riots took place and will be for quite some time. The lesson here is that it doesn't take long for a neighborhood to go up in flames, but it takes a very long time to clean up and rebuild afterward.

Hope you all have a nice day off if your calendar allows. Maybe we can all reflect for a moment on how this holiday came into being and all the work that still needs to be done cleaning up the cities which were shattered by riots so many decades ago.

Peace.