Sharing the Day With MLK and Robert E. Lee

YOU MAY FIND THIS HARD TO BELIEVE, but believe it, because its true. In the great American state of Arkansas, Martin Luther King Day is also Robert E. Lee Day. I shit you not. You read right. How this came to be is a bit murky, but probably goes something like this: back in the day, when the U.S. fed gov decided to make the third Monday in January MLK Day, there was a considerable amount of opposition to it, especially among conservatives, not surprisingly. Some states, like Arizona, simply chose to ignore the new holiday. Others, like Arkansas, decided on a more creative approach. Simply force the black civil rights leader to share his day with the great general of the black enslaved Confederate States of America. (In Arkansas, the confederate flag is often flown). And why, in particular, Robert E. Lee, of all people? Do King and Lee happen to share a birthday, or anything else? Or, were the conservatives just trying to take a dig at King's protesting on behalf of black Americans, by selecting the hero of the movement which resisted, to say the least, equality for black people? Understandably, quite a few people are offended by this, and to this very day the debate rages on, with the anti Robert E. Lee people enjoying very limited success in trying to get MLK alone. So, together they remain, for the time being But for how much longer? What's happening now is that with each passing year MLK is growing in popular stature, and those who resent his holiday are slowly vanishing, like the passenger pigeon. But, like all entrenched conservatism, vestiges stubbornly cling to life. Both Martin Luther King and Robert E. Lee were great men, trapped in tragic circumstances. They both probably deserve a separate Day.