when i was on the school board, in the beginning it was not an official holiday. one year it came up for discussion. i spoke in favor of it. interestingly although few of the other six board members really supported it they all voted to take it as a holiday. they didn't want to be considered a bigot.

so we took the day off.

it was on tv that i had supported it. i was shown speaking for it. one guy who i know very very well gave me a raft of $hit about it at lunch. i let him blow on about it for a few minutes and finally said "so, you're telling me i just lost the bigot vote?"

another fellow who is married to my BIL's niece attacked me verbally at a my nieces (his wife's first cous) wedding. it seems he is half american indian. and so he feels that the native americans had it a lot worse than blacks so he gets hot everytime something nice happens to african americans. (my take).

i told him that i agreed but the fact was that afik we had NO native americans in our school system but we do have a significant number of black kids.

personally, i think that black folks have not a very large number of positive role models and MLK was an effective one who undoubtably prevented a lot of blood being spilled because of his non violent example.

and now MLK day is an official holiday every year here.

Good by me.

tom w

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.