Monday Morning Musings

On Sunday, Mallard Fillmore, in his inimitable way had this commentary  about the significance of today: "As most of you know tomorrow's Inauguration Day holiday Martin Luther King Day and Squirrel Appreciation Day all fall on the very same day. This phenomenon won't occur again in our lifetime... And it's significance is already being felt by federal employees across the nation."

Then a federal employee chimes in, "Three holidays but only one day off?"

And Mallard signs off with, "More on this as it develops."

When we finished chuckling over the strip, my husband said, "Maybe we can get the squirrels to dance at the inauguration ball."

Photo Courtesy National Geographic

Which made me wonder why we have to have another huge inauguration with all the parties. Why not just have a swearing in ceremony and a nice quiet dinner at the White House? Why do we have to spend thousands of taxpayer dollars for basically an instant replay of four years ago?

Granted, it is important to honor our president, but we don't have to do it to such an extreme. And it is too bad that the media coverage will be such that it will dwarf the other significance of today - honoring one of the great men of history.

Some people don't think any more of Martin Luther King Day than the fact that it is a holiday and a day off work. Thank goodness, there are many more who recognize the importance of what he did and the need to celebrate and honor that.

And thank goodness that we teach our children and grandchildren the legacy that King left us. I was proud to be active in the Civil Rights Movement, and we have made strides in acceptance and equality. Yet prejudice and bigotry still impact our society way too much. Dr. King's mission will not be complete until that no longer happens.

Dr. King left us a lot of memorable quotes and this is one of my favorites, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

Wonderful words, but only wonderful if we take them to heart and act on them.

Photo Courtesy of the Nobel Peace Organization

Book Review - A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines

A Lesson Before Dying 
Ernest J. Gaines
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Vintage; 1 edition (September 28, 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0375702709
ISBN-13: 978-0375702709

A Lesson Before Dying, is set in a small Cajun community in the late 1940s.  Jefferson, a young black man, is present at a liquor store shoot out that leaves three men dead, including the white store owner. Because the two robbers are dead, Jefferson alone must pay for the crime. He is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins, the teacher at the plantation school, is not-so-gently persuaded by his aunt to visit Jefferson and help him find some pride. Miss Emma, Jefferson's godmother heard a white man refer to Jefferson as a hog, and she wants him to "be a man."

Grant has little faith in the white justice system, and little faith in a God who allows some people to be trapped in years of prejudice and bigotry, and he has no idea how to impart any wisdom on a man who is about to die. As he tries to fulfill the promise to Miss Emma to help Jefferson "walk like a man," Grant wrestles with his own demons.

Some reviewers have compared this book to To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee's classic, and that is a fair comparison. Both stories have a number of lessons for the reader, especially readers far removed from the years when a black man had to stand for hours just to speak to a white man in authority.  

The cast of characters in this story are very realistic and well-drawn, and Gaines did not hold back in portraying what life was like for people in the deep south in the 40s. The story is powerful and for the most part very well-written. I did, however, find the use of vernacular overdone. There were places I had to read sentences over and over to decipher the fractured English. Granted, that is the way uneducated people speak, but I have been told by writing instructors not to use vernacular to the point of confusing a reader.

Still, this is a book well worth the read.