It’s Martin Luther King Day here in the U.S.. To this day, it remains a somewhat controversial holiday; while Ronald Reagan signed it into law in 1983 and first observed as a federal holiday in 1986, many states resisted the idea until 2000. Some refused to mark the holiday, and Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi prefer to throw in Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s name into the mix, which is kind of like declaring the Fourth of July “Al-Qaeda Day / Independence Day”.
Over at The Root, Felice Leon looks at what’s been gained and lost over the thirty years since MLK day became a federal holiday. Among the losses, there are:
For gains, she lists:
Yes, not all of the gains are just about black people, but civil rights in general, and that’s a key part of Dr. King’s legacy, for which I, as a force of darkness (my preferred replacement phrase for “person of color”) living in the U.S., am grateful.
Happy MLK Day!
Tropical Storm Helene is now Hurricane Helene, and its closest approach to Tampa Bay happens…
Once again, I’m hoping that the vibes from the clown cemetery that’s been protecting Tampa…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl8zhYA0BHU Definitely not anything I would’ve predicted.
Oh, my sweet summer child, do you not know about the “Loofah Code” in The…
...and by that, I mean, being completely ignorant of the larger world outside the U.S.…