Today is Martin Luther King, Jr day in the United States. It is a day that commemorates one of the greatest Civil Rights leaders the US has ever had. It is also a company holiday where I work for the US locations. I can only assume that this is a company holiday for all US employees at my company because someone would cry "RACISM!" if only blacks were allowed to take the day off (seeing how blacks in America would appreciate this holiday more than most whites, this makes some degree of sense). Now since I get 11 company holidays and MLK day is one of them, and we just came off of a week long holiday at the end of December / first of January, this almost feels like a wasted holiday on someone who is white, middle class and not old enough to really remember the Civil Rights marches of the 60's. I do not celebrate it (however I do recognise and respect it), so taking this day off feels like I am cheating. If I do not take it off, I lose it, sort of a catch 22 so to speak.
As a Christian who is growing more in my faith everyday, I would much rather have "Good Friday" (Crucifixion Friday) as a day off than MLK day or even my next company holiday on February 21st, President's Day. I guess I cannot complain, since this is the first I time I have ever been able to utilize so many holidays in my life. Mostly, I have been able to enjoy Thanksgiving, Ressurection Sunday (Easter to all you churched folks), Independance Day, and Christmas. The idea of having MLK Day, President's Day, Memorial Day, and Labor Day is still rather new to me.
I guess that this holiday politically correct stuff is to be expected. Constantine did it 1700 years ago to make all the holidays coincide with each other and you can see how much fun that is now. I could give all the examples but that is for another time.
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