Comments on: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

By: tpartridge1

tpartridge1 — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 16:02:13 +0000

interesting on many different levels, Grant! Thanks for making us all think!

By: Grant

Grant — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 18:16:07 +0000

Unfortunately, there is an error here; however, it is just a typo. I have several references to both Indria and Mahatma throughout my site–with their proper pronouns.

That being said…I don’t want to confuse those that don’t know, so thank you for bringing this error to my attention so that I can fix it!

By: Renee Tantala

Renee Tantala — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:45:19 +0000

Thanks for bringing this issue of dual/triple holidays to our attention. But you need to make a small correction because Indira Gandhi was the daughter of Nehru and not related to Mahatma Gandhi. So put her full name in the sentence introducing the quote–and change “he” to “she.” This mistake, I suspect, reflects your youth but sends up a red flag to us foggies who were alive during the Civil Rights era and while Indira Gandhi was prime minister of India.

By: Grant

Grant — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:36:45 +0000

I am glad that there is someone out there that vividly remembers the establishment of the holiday due to “resentment.”

Good luck on the documentary. Just a heads ups, make sure you check with the National Civil Rights Museum about their construction at The Lorraine Motel. You’d hate to get down there and be stuck shooting a construction site…

By: John Murphy

John Murphy — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 14:46:44 +0000

While I currently reside in upstate NY, I was in Arkansas when the legislature debated and passed the Robert E. Lee day. As an elementary school student we even met Orville Faubus on a school trip and talked with him about whether his oil painting on the conference room wall really looked enough like him. If I had the time I would love to research whether the Little Rock black community leaders (a strong and vocal group of leaders) have made any effort to repeal the silly idea of having a day to offset King. It is my clear memory that the Lee honor was more about resentment of being forced to honor King. I am working now to produce a documentary about race relations. If I raise enough funds through crowd funding I will budget to travel back to Little Rock and also budget to shoot at The Lorraine Motel. My question is not so much about what happened in ’57 or when they stupidly honored Lee… but who is doing what about it now.

By: roturner

roturner — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 17:38:52 +0000

As someone who sees the world through rose-colored glasses, I can see both sides of this. On one hand it is logical to combine them since the birthdays are close, but as you say, it’s “oil & water.” Still, what the holidays are for is to acknowledge our history and recognize it as important and part of what we have become because it IS our history. All those leaders and what they represent show our complex and connected past. We have to share all sides of our story to understand our past.