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More thoughts on MLK Day
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Posted on Jan 27 2005
This is in response to Dr. Camacho’s comments to my letter. I know this topic has gone on long enough, but I’d like to clarify some of the half-truths stated. Although Dr. Camacho has never seen public schools refute federal holidays, that does not mean it doesn’t happen. His experience does not dictate fact. Like I had mentioned in my first letter, a quick research of public school calendars will prove otherwise.
My initial statement did not need clarification, because I was talking from actual experience. I have worked on federal holidays in a “public” school district, which obviously was not bounded by law, or one would assume, as they would have risked forfeiting federal and impact aid provided by the federal government.
There was so much backlash after MLK Jr. Day that I simply wanted people to know that CNMI students are not the only ones going to school on that day. Since there are other government entities in the U.S. mainland that fail to honor MLK Jr. Day and Presidents’ Day, I don’t understand how it negatively impacts the CNMI’s relationship with Washington D.C. As far as teaching our children respect, stop and consider what lessons were covered and what our children learned on that day at school. It makes no sense at all to say that a day off (watching TV and playing outside) would teach those children the importance of respect and honor for Martin Luther King Jr. I, for one, would enjoy another day off, but to say that a holiday is the ultimate act of respect is absurd.
With all that said, I do agree the lack of ceremony on some of our local holidays have made them meaningless and require some thought and reconsideration. Until elected officials decide how to rectify our local holidays to include another federal holiday (without cost to taxpayers or by substituting junkets), you of all people can agree that education is a powerful tool, which can be used to enlighten our youth and foster respect for icons in American history.
C. Cepeda
Columbia, SC
