As I’ve written before (here, here and here), Martin Luther King Day is one of my favorite holidays.
In part, that’s because there always seems to be pressure in the work environment not to take the holiday, and instead work right through it. In a certain sense, you must make an affirmative statement to take the holiday. In a way, celebrating the holiday requires that you think about and act on the principles being honored by the holiday. There’s still much work to do, as this unsettling article suggests.
I’ve said:
Over the years, I’ve noticed that law firms and lawyers are reluctant to celebrate Martin Luther King Day as a holiday. It often seems that they grudgingly allow lawyers and staff to take the day off, if they must, but firms do not encourage anyone to do so.
As I’ve been reading blog posts about the holiday and the man today, it strikes me that Martin Luther King, Jr.’s writings, including the letter from Birmingham city jail, would make for excellent blog posts (and it still does), and have brought the urgency and discussion that the best blog posts bring to an even wider audience. I don’t mean to trivialize the writings, but to point to the potential and power of the medium of blogging and how it might be used in the spirit of the tradition saluted by this holiday. Think about it.
One of the great things about today’s Internet is the way you can find audio and video of King’s speeches and sermons. I encourage you to set aside some time today to think about the principles celebrated by this holiday, and to take a few minutes to track down an audio or video and watch or listen to it. I guarantee it will be well worth the effort.
You can also follow and participate in the Blawg Review MLK Day post/celebration from the Public Defender Investigator Network here.
MLK quote for the day:
Let us. all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]
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