Lincoln freed the slaves, as the saying goes. (I used that line on my Mom one Saturday morning as an oblique reference to her use of my child labor to do household chores. Let's just say it did not work!)
Lincoln freed the slaves, but Martin Luther King, Jr. made it relevant. His stated purpose, his dream, now extends to every overlooked and underrepresented citizen of this country. It is really owing to the Reverend Doctor King that minorities have voice and opportunity, whether that minority is racial, gender, religious, age, or relates to sexual preference or physical or mental ability. King's campaign has brought light and ammunition to the cause of all the overlooked and oppressed.
You would think that his stature in this nation, this sweet land of liberty, would be enough to mandate the closure of schools. We do it for President's Day. And in that we honor every president from Lincoln to Harding, from Jefferson to Nixon. We do it for Veterans. But we don't do it for the man who single handedly impacted the life and liberty of every man, woman, and child resident in these United States and lost his life in the process.
Most schools are closed in honor of that man, but not every. Not here in my overwhelmingly white county in Mid-Michigan. Corunna school district is open for business, and I'm guessing there are others. Whether it's intended or not, the message is wrong. And, frankly, it's hard to believe the message for the students, in those districts that choose to remain in session, is anything less than clear as intended. The struggle continues.
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