Next Monday is Martin Luther King Day. Back home, this day is important. It’s considered to be a day of service, a day on instead of a day off. Up here, we don’t even get Martin Luther King day as a holiday. I’m using half a day of personal time to attend a Martin Luther King Day breakfast in Framingham. I got the tickets through the Black Affinity Group at work. I was able to go last year, and I am going this year too. I’m so excited, it energized me so much last year. It reminded me of being home, of the importance of race and class in our society.
Tuesday is the Innagaration of President Obama. Brian and I will be going to an Inauguration Ball in Boston.
I’m thinking I’ll blog, or at least twitter, during both events. 
It’s important to remember how the world was before Martin Luther King. It’s important to remember that some people, even in the US, are affected by the color of their skin or the class to which they belong.
My favorite speech of Dr. King has to be the mountaintop speech. Listen to it here, read it here. Realize if you have never felt oppression due to race or class how lucky you are.
I know times are bad, but let’s hope things will change. It’s been a long time coming, but I know change is gonna come.
Out of the mouths of babes…. My daughter came home from first grade on Friday and casually asked me, “Mamma, do we have white skin or black skin?” I was taken back by the question – not because she didn’t know – but wondering what prompted her to ask the question (a crash course in the history of MLK at the grade school was no doubt the catalyst for the question).
So when you talk about “the importance of race and class in our society.” and how lucky I am to “have never felt oppression due to race or class” I would respond that I am lucky to have been raised by a family where race and class didn’t measure one’s worth – and so far – with my daughter’s question – I feel that I am passing those values on to my children.