MLK Day!

Sure it's a Monday holiday, and sure it means something. There's even a parade, but it's not on TV. If I were to make my kids go to the parade, then MAKE is the right word. We would stick out in a Nordic kind of way. So why do we care? and what does this day mean to us?

As an adult, I know what Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King meant when he said that he had a dream for his children that they would be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I imagine that somewhere in a father's heart he even meant that they would be loved- not judged- by the content of their hearts and minds. Don't you? When I see my children work through problems, I want that for them. I want time for them to grow and solve the difficulties of their lives, and not be judged by a single moment or mistake. I hear their voices learning to speak their minds and find their voices- whispers of reconciliation and shouts of rebellion. They rejoice in the future. Isn't that what Dr. King might have wanted for his children, an opportunity to rejoice in what might be around the corner?

After the moniker doctor is reverend, MLK was a minister famous for saying I may not get there with you, more famous for being right about that. Believing that God had called him to lead people into the land of bounty. Isn't that also what we want? Isn't that why we remember a man who changed history? All of us remember. So what are we doing? I rented some movies, so that our children could at least- maybe- grasp some of what the world was like before MLK. We'll be we watching "To Kill A Mockingbird", "Mississippi Burning", and "Lilies of the Field". So maybe that is an attempt to recreate something for children that is impossible, but the history books don't capture it either. "Milk" may not get it right either, but the history books don't even try to remember Stonewall. What do I want for my children? The opportunity to rejoice in their talents and not be remembered for their mothers' memories, or mistakes. Perhaps I am not courageous, but I hope to watch my children make their mistakes and pick them up. Success might require more, but I wwant to be in their futures, and teavh them about the children who lost their parents and the Monday holidays we have for it.