Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a Patriotic Holiday
On my way home from a hike on one of those post-rain California postcard days, I stopped in at a local bakery for a cookie. They make themed cookies for most large holidays like Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day, the 4th of July, and some lesser known holidays like a day honoring Star Wars (“May the 4th be with you” reads the slip of paper clipped above the cookie tray of Jabba and Ewok faces in cookie form). I was curious how they would commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. What shape would best bring to mind the great civil rights leader? I walked into the bakery and surveyed the case. The daily cakes and pies were laid out as usual beneath the glass. Towards the register, I spotted the cookies of the day. Emojis. Emoji cat face and emoji winkie face cookies. The cookie equivalent of “We’re not touching this holiday with a ten foot pole.” I wasn’t surprised the bakery stuck to a very innocuous cookie for a day devoted to honoring the civil rights leader, but I did realize in that moment how strange it is that a man who advocated for equality for Americans is celebrated not with a patriotic holiday, but with a somber day off.
If Martin Luther King Jr. was not a patriot, what was he? As we begin our sign making and protest marching against Donald Trump, isn’t it time we recapture the flag of the United States as a symbol of the just nation it can be and has, over its long history, been in patches and pieces. If we give up the flag to white nationalists, we in some sense, turn against the belief that this country is what we make it. We give up the faith that we can change it. The country cannot be stolen from its people, but if we behave as if Martin Luther King Day Jr. is a holiday that needs to be treated like an exception to all other patriotic holidays, we pretend that the struggle for equality is somehow not patriotic. How could the desire to have equality in America be unpatriotic? How is Martin Luther King Jr. not a symbol of how far a patriot will go, that he will sacrifice his life, to change his country? Is that not exactly the same price paid by Abraham Lincoln who we do celebrate and revere by displaying the flag on President’s Day? If Americans who try to change America for the better are not treated as patriots, who are patriots? As we march on the 21st, let us remember we are the ones who decide what kind of America we want. If we stay engaged, we decide the course of this country. Not any one of us, not any one group of us, but all of us who participate decide.
And next year, no matter what anyone else does, I’ll be the one making American flag cookies on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
