Every year Martin Luther King Jr. Day passes by as just another national holiday when the banks are closed but none of the commercial retailers are, another excuse for auto dealerships to slash prices as low as they will go, and for television news stations to remark on the service projects going on in honor of Dr. King during the "human interest" block of news (which happens to be at the end of the newscast). But this year, the inauguration of our 44th president of the United States put Martin Luther King Jr. Day in a new light. Whether you think a lot about the current racial climate in this country or not, it's amazing to think that in less than 50 years, we as a nation went from this:
a man standing up for a group of American citizens asking for the same respect and privileges offered to others becuase of the color of their skin and their heritage, to this:
the swearing in of America's first African-American president. People can argue with me all they want about the semantics of Obama's family tree, or how racial discrimination has evolved since then to include even white people in some opinions, that doesn't make this any less of an historical moment in our nation's history. And a moment in which I am very, very proud to be an American! If you haven't already, please read Dr. King's
"I Have a Dream" speech, and
Barack Obama's inauguration speech.
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