Campus Has a Dream, Sleeps Through MLK Day Events
Thompson was one of the estimated 29,500 students who failed to attend a single King-related activity Monday. There are no classes on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day so that students can attend lectures, participate in debates, and view some of the many films about the great pacifist.
A few students scattered across campus still retain some vague memory of King. "I'd have to say he was one of the most influential and perhaps one of the greatest men of the 20th century," said first-year student Ellen Sandsman. "I'm proud to take advantage of this day to continue passively resisting my Orgo lab. I've only attended once this semester."
However, many students once again chose to celebrate the holiday by sleeping until mid-afternoon after getting unhealthily inebriated the evening before. Most then awoke to spend the greater portion of the day playing Techmo Bowl, consuming several dollars worth of chocolate snacks, watching television, and ultimately falling asleep on their couches, all while still wearing the clothes they put on Sunday morning.
Steven Kelly, an LS&A sophomore, claims that his MLK day-though unconventional-in fact nicely paralleled that which Dr. King envisioned. "After watching the football games, I sat down at the table of brotherhood and reveled in the banter of my multi-cultural friends," he said. "We then stepped outside and continued our celebration. It was there that police officers, sons of both former slaves and former slave-owners, joined together in arresting us when we defecated on private property. As we were being carted off to jail and charged, were judged not by the color of our skin, but by the alcohol content of our bloodstreams."
This form of celebration differs from what organizers had hoped for-many feel that it is a "shameless travesty" to "waste a day dedicated to peace and understanding by sleeping, loafing, and partying." However, others argue that what some might consider "wasting and loafing" is actually done in the spirit of Dr. King, keeping his dream alive.
"We're just emulating the example set by Dr. King himself back in the 1600s," said Business junior James Baxter. "He must have had that-there dream of his when he was taking like a really long nap. Have you heard that dream? It's at least a nine or ten hour dream, and you don't dream when you're, like, listening to people yell at each other."
"King was a man who tried to achieve peace," Baxter continued. "I started honoring him as early as last night when I tried to get a 'piece' of my own over at Rick's." Baxter later described how he couldn't wait until "That X Guy From That Spike Lee Movie Day" so that he can raise "James Baxter awareness" with the cute waitress at Coney Island "by any means necessary."
The wonder of MLK day has inspired an activist spirit in Baxter that he feels would best be used during other one-day holidays spread throughout the school year. "I think we should honor other great men, too," said Baxter. "A Kissinger day and a coupla Ghandi fests right before midterms would do wonders for my golf swing and um ... my ... social awareness of um ... stuff."
Back