For some people, here and there, this will be an extended weekend. Not for me, and in the vision of most of the employers I've had in my working career.
I do consider Martin Luther King Day an important holiday. It is, to me, the most quintessentially American of all the holidays. It is a celebration not just of Martin Luther King (which is reason enough), but also of the American quest for civil rights and equality of opportunity. It is time to remember the very best impulses of American culture, the struggle to gain our rights, to vanquish the color of one's skin as a barrier to progress, to celebrate the power of non-violence as a form of civil disobedience and as a way to improve our society. So, yeah, Martin Luther King is an important day to me.
Yet I have had only one employer who took the holiday, and that is when I worked at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Some of my employers even had open disdain for the day, and would deride it's very existence.
Currently I'm in a profession that does not acknowledge it. But then again, they don't really recognize any holidays from January 2nd through April 15th. Not Martin Luther King Day, not President's Day, not nothing. Easter is barely acknowledged. If it wasn't tax season that it fell in, would they recognize it? I don't know. That's hard to say with certainty, but I suspect not.
Alison and Benjamin get both Monday and Tuesday off. It seems like they just had a two week plus break, but what can I say? It is an important holiday, and the second day is a furlough day. Georgia state government refuses to properly fund public schools, so the school systems have to scramble to find ways to make up the shortfall.
As for myself, I will celebrate as I usually do. Quietly, to myself, in between accounting assignments.
May the power of non-violent change continue to be a positive influence on the shape and progress of our great country!
Your last statement says it all!
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