Please allow me to rant concerning the MLK holiday.

[Minimus]

Living in the South, aarrgh!

I work for an insurance brokerage firm, and we deal with agent's all over the state of NC. I have never laid eyes on the majority of them. The work we do together is usually over the phone.

For some dumb reason my office did not have today as a holiday even though most of the Insurance Carriers we deal with did. So we really could not accomplish much today.

Anyway, one of the agents phoned in today and said "I wasn't sure y'all would be working. I never observe the MLK holiday either, after all we don't celebrate Robert E. Lee's birthday so why do we have a MLK holiday?"

I was flabbergasted. For starters the whole Lee reference was ridiculous. As if Lee is even in the same league as MLK. Also, this man does not know my race or my family background so how ignorant can he be to say something like that to someone he has never met?

I responded with something like - "I think it's a shame more companies do not observe the holiday, and I wish my employer did" and quickly ended our conversation. I really wanted to yell into the phone and tell him what I really thought but my boss probably would not have liked that.

There are many good southerners but then an idiot like this opens his racist mouth and seems to wipe away the little ground we have gained in promoting diversity.

End of rant, thanks for listening.

[DrWeird]

1. Isn't it officially Lee/King/Jackson Day somewhere?

nt

[LostinVA]

3. Yup....

I live in VA, and I THINK it still is that here... I know it was a few years ago.

[DrWeird]

4. What a bunch of racist bullshit.

nt

[yankeedem]

5. Until 2000 in VA

http://www.ravnwood.com/archives/002645.shtml

Not for nothing, but I don't know any other country where the victor in war allows the vanquished to have holidays for the losing side. I mean there is no Saddam day in Iraq or Shah day in Iran, or Mussolini day in Italy.

If Iraqis wanted to have a Saddam day, do you think we would allow it? I can just see Fox News now.

Not to mention the insult of Dr. King having to share a day with Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, who fought to keep his people in chains. At least that has been rectified.

Guess I just don't get the "Southern Way of Life".

[me b zola]

6. Just heard on KO

that the recorded message for the Mississippi IRS states that they are closed to honor the birthdays of Robert E. Lee & Martin Luther King Jr, in that order--as it would be any better with MLK placed first.

Racists never go away, they just reinvent themselves.:puke:

[candy331]

2. You did good, some idiots prefer it that way and only jaysus will

be able to straighten out their hateful blood lust hearts.

[Lefty48197]

7. One bad apple...

We have people up north that feel the same way as that idiot.

[DemBones DemBones]

8. Did you know that January 17 is Lee's birthday, and used to be

celebrated as such? It was a state holiday in many Southern states. A lot of people objected to it being changed to a federal holiday to honor MLK, leaving Lee off the holiday list. Southerners still look at Lee as a great leader, like Washington.

I probably can't explain it so you'll understand, but consider all the conquered peoples you know about and how they cling to stories of past glories and past heroes, annually remembering events of centuries ago. In the U.S., Southerners were a conquered people less than 150 years ago and today their heroes, their battle flag, their song, are all branded racist by the people who conquered them. There's still a lot of resentment among the lower socio-economic groups, but they're told to "get over it."

You'd think DUers would understand why no one likes being told "get over it." ;-)

[420inTN]

9. That's better than what I've heard in the past...

"James Earl Ray Appreciation Day" *shudder*