Hoping for a fairly quiet start to the work week today. Today is Dr. King Day, the Federal holiday established to commemorate the incredible life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. At the Firm, we honor it in the breach, by which I mean we honor it by not observing it.
The decision regarding which holidays to observe is one made high above my pay grade. I have little doubt that at life's end, if there is indeed an afterlife, mine shall be spent in the company of Sean and his minions in the bad place. I have equally little doubt that poking a finger into the eye of the only Federal holiday that honors the life of an individual African-American will not be an offense for which I am held to account.
Every January, a small group of people in Parsippany, New Jersey get to experience what it felt like to live in late 1980's Arizona, minus the 90+ degree heat and the obnoxious number of turquoise-wearing, transplanted Northeasterners. Instead of honoring the legacy of Dr. King, we honor that of Governor Mecham. If you Google "landing on the wrong side of history", you will find us on the very first page of search results.
To be clear, lest anyone who reads this believes this to be me grinding on not getting a paid day off, as a rule, in the twenty-two-years-plus I have worked at the Firm I have worked on practically every day of the week the ends in "y". It is why I have never failed - not once - in twenty-two years to generate less than 3,000 billable hours. Were we closed today I would nevertheless spend this Monday as I spend every other Monday - working.
For me, it is a matter of respect. Better stated, it is an absence of respect. An absence of respect for the African-American employees of the Firm, including attorneys, paralegals, and secretaries. More so, a galling absence of respect for a singularly great man, for the live he lived, and for the price he paid for living that life.
-AK
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