To the Editor:
In his column, "College Should not Cancel Classes in Honor of Martin Luther King" [Jan. 15] Dave Hemmer argues that the Martin Luther King Holiday has been the beneficiary of some sort of college affirmative action policy for Holidays. In essence, Hemmer argues that by giving a day off from classes, the college deems King more worthy than presidents, veterans, or perhaps Columbus. While I would defend strongly Dr. King's worthiness in having a holiday declared in his name (one which I remind everyone, our own state has yet to see fit to recognize), my purpose here is not to defend the College's choice of one holiday over another.
Instead, I wanted to point out a fact of college holidays ignored by Hemmer. While he cites "only Independence Day and MLK day" as "worthy of the the honor [of having a college holiday]", there are two others he missed. The first is before Harvard weekend (officially, a half day, but a day off in practice), and the second is before carnival weekend. Given Hemmer's reasoning that the granting of a day off is a way of noting special status and importance, what do these days off mean? Are we to understand that football, and a cold drunken party are more important than our presidents, our veterans, or even Columbus?
When viewed in this context it makes sense that a person like Dr. King is honored with a day off from classes. He left a legacy which should be a part of the daily life of every thoughtful person here. Perhaps part of the problem is that for too many people, their daily life is too much influenced by football and beer and not enough by Dr. King. Hemmer decries the fact that neither President's Day nor Veteran's Day is celebrated by the College. Rather than refusing to honor Dr. King, maybe a better solution is replace our current football/beer holidays with the two Hemmer mentions, and allow Dr. King the honor he deserves.
