Known in some parts of our country by the name Martin Luther King, Jr.\u00a0 As I\u2019ve said before, I have no problem with MLK.\u00a0 He did great things.\u00a0 He stood up against gross injustices, and did so in a way that resulted in at least the elimination of the legal barriers to equality that existed then.\u00a0 And he did it in a way consistent with the finer parts of the Christian ethical tradition.\u00a0\u00a0Since he was assassinated, we\u2019ll never know if he might have been able to help avoid the decent into cultural hell that has followed so much of the American black community since the Civil Rights era.\u00a0 I would like to think so.\u00a0 But we know so little of the man right now since any and all studies must be exercises in celebration.\u00a0 When my boys were in elementary school, they began at the beginning of January drawing posters, making signs, singing songs, learning lessons, composing bulletin boards, and having specials all focused on MLK.\u00a0 They celebrated him like I never celebrated anything in school, apart from Christmastime in the earliest years of my memory.\u00a0 For a liberal movement that once mocked an unenlightened and unhip nation\u2019s tendency to obsess over old, dead, guys, they have since pole vaulted over anything we have ever done for any other person in our history in terms of outright veneration, if not downright god-worship.\u00a0 In the words of the immortal film Spaceballs<\/em>, when it comes to\u00a0how we treat Martin Luther King, Jr., we\u2019ve gone to plaid.\u00a0The idea that the most important thing in our nation right now is our kids\u2019 education, up until it interferes with the only sacred and purely holy day of the American calendar, is a good example of what I mean<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Known in some parts of our country by the name Martin Luther King, Jr.\u00a0 As I\u2019ve said before, I have no problem with MLK.\u00a0 He did great things.\u00a0 He stood up against gross injustices, and did so in a way that resulted in at least the elimination of the legal barriers to equality that existed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n