Monday, January 16, 2006

In which David Seeks a New National Ritual

Today is a holiday, it's Martin Luther King Day. It ought to be a very positive national holiday. There are no pagan or religiously inspired ideas. No commemoration of armed conflict or adulation of violent death. And it wasn't created to keep peace between labor and management.

But how to celebrate it? Other holidays all have standard, traditional, regimented things to do in the house, the backyard or the neighborhood. Things like Thanksgiving dinner, trick or treating, or barbecuing meat. King Day needs a family-oriented home-based behavior that all Americans will look forward to. One that allows for major merchandising. And over-consumption.

Part of the problem, of course, is that the third biggest holiday in the US (the Super Bowl) is only a few weeks away. Could anything we do on the King holiday possibly compete with watching armored men doing ritual combat while eating junk food. And don't forget the commercials.

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