Resentful

All right. Let’s get this straight. I am grateful to be employed. Nobody owes me a living or, for that matter, the observance of a national holiday.

Having said that, I resent having to work today. It is, after all, a National Holiday.

Either observe it as such, or let’s have an open discussion of just what constitutes a national holiday.

Let’s see … where do we draw the line? Oh, that whole Civil Rights Movement? Just a footnote in history, right?

Martin Luther King, Jr. represents the figurehead for whom this holiday is acknowledged (at least in academia and government), yet this particular day really is in recognition of the struggle for civil rights in this country.

There was a day, not so long ago, when the fathers and mothers of my friends and neighbors of color were referred to either as “nigger” or “colored.” Hopefully, those days are gone, forever, in no small part because of the civil rights movement.

It's just my opinion, but the Civil Rights Movement does, indeed, merit a day of reflection.

All I'm saying is, let’s remember what this particular holiday signifies.

Many American companies, however, including the one for whom I work, require their employees to work today. It's as if the day ... and the Civil Rights Movement ... doesn't count. Not in the grand scheme of American commerce.

I suppose what drove it home for me was that one of my clients, a British company with offices in the United States, is observing this day as the American holiday that is. Officially.

Frankly, I feel badly for my friends and co-workers of color who, like me, have to work today.

It is, after all, a national holiday.