Martin Luther King day

Martin Luther King day has a rather dual nature. It rings of heroism and dreams and justice and freedom. Yet, it also reminds us of the variety of phenomena in our culture it stands for: pandering in place of heroism, entitlement rather than dreams, the injustice of affirmative action, political correctness and censorship which crowd freedom.

We were sitting in a beautiful garden setting at the patio of a local Olive Garden. 

"You know, Alex," I said to my four-year-old, "tomorrow is a very special holiday. Once upon a time there was a great hero."  I looked at my husband - did he see where I was going with it? Or would he cringe at the mention?  He smiled. I knew, we were on the same wavelength.

"One day, he looked at the world around him and saw, something was terribly wrong. He lived a while ago in our very country. At that time, people had a strange and rather unbelievable notion that the color of your skin determined how good you were and what you could do." Alex looked unsure. "Imagine, " I continued, "at that time, people wouldn't like your coach because he is black! He would be unable to get a job at your school! And your teacher, Ms. Gregoria, has dark skin, so she wouldn't be as good as Ms. Gabi, whose face is white!"  Now I could see I was making my point. The notion was clearly ridiculous!

"So our hero, his name was Martin Luther King, decided, he had to change the world. He told everyone he could find how wrong and silly this idea was. Many people agreed. So he invited everyone who cared and thought there was a better way to come with him to have a great gathering, so they would be noticed and other people would stop and think.

"Imagine how surprised he was when he got there and there were people as far as the eye could see! They came from near and far, to celebrate a better way of life, to stand up to bad ideas and make the world a place in which they could be happy."

That was the end of my story. Its purpose, to show the world as it should be and tell a story of hero that could. There will be plenty of time for an adolescent whose sense of life is built on this foundation to discover and question what's wrong with our culture. For now, we focus on celebrating the good that we can find.