Since today is MLK Day, it seems good - particularly in a state and town almost 90% Caucasian - to pause to reflect on Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1960s.
While a federal holiday, MLK Day does not seem all that big a deal here in Montana. True, Montana State University is canceling classes and their Diversity Awareness Office is sponsoring a reception and art display in King's honor, but even Bozeman Public Schools are in class today with this calendar caveat:
"With the approval of this calendar, the Board of Trustees, in commemoration of Martin Luther King Day (January 16, 2017), is directing that all teachers (K-5) and all social studies teachers (6-12) take action in the classroom to recognize and celebrate the principles for which Martin Luther King stood."
Petra has never taken MLK Day off, and there's rationale for that decision: a majority of parents (at least those not employed by the government) have to work anyway, and - for better or for worse - most students are probably not going to participate (with or without parents) in MLK receptions or services on their own when there are ski slopes and sledding hills in the vicinity.
Thus, we have landed where Bozeman Public Schools has in leaving MLK Day to teachers to include as it makes sense within their curriculum and day. Thankfully, because of presentations like the one 7th grade Humanities teacher Libby Kueneke gave to our entire Secondary at Lyceum last week, we do as good a job as anyone.
But is it enough? I could easily share a few thoughts lamenting the past summer's spree of shootings and the continued racial tension in our country, but those are just words, just as anything we teach would be. And yet, because we still believe in words and the power they can hold, I find myself here again asking us to engage with our children today in discussing Dr. King and his work. God used this particular man (and others) to bring about needed change in our country, and our kids - especially our Montana kids - need to know and understand more about the awful and angry discrimination then and there in the South, so they can apply solutions to situations like the one happening in Whitefish here and now in the North.
Dr. King knew and built upon the Christian foundation of reconciliation; in fact, he would have had no message without it (it's definitely there in King's “I Have a Dream” speech, but for an even more pronounced biblical dependence, listen to “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” and try to imagine it having the same impact without its Scriptural references).
The point is, it's good to honor Dr. King with this day in January, and the best way we can do so is by honoring the Gospel he appealed to as the foundation of any freedom, equality, and unity we could have. Start with yourself and your kids, then reach out, befriend, and care for those who look different from you and see what God does.
It just may be enough.