MLK

Children of a lesser holiday:

Protesters in Charlotte say county schools shouldn't have used Martin Luther King Day as a makeup day for last week's winter weather. About 100 people marched in the city Monday, criticizing the decision by Charlotte Mecklenburg schools to schedule classes on the holiday.

School officials say the makeup day was chosen to keep spring break intact.

Oh, well, in that case...

This Time/CNN story got me thinking.

There's a lot to feel down about this month: the subprime mortgage crisis, stormy, unpredictable weather, rising gas prices, presidential primary free-for-alls. So, it would be easy to believe the theory set forth by Dr. Cliff Arnall, a researcher from Cardiff University, that the third Monday of the month (Jan. 21, this year) — a day he calls Blue Monday — will be our most depressing day of the year. Arnall bases his yearly prediction on a formula he developed, which factors in the weather, consumer debt from holiday spending and failed New Year's resolutions and arrives at that conclusion that we'll hit rock bottom on Monday the 21st.

From a Democratic perspective, if this is rock bottom, imagine the view from the cheap seats in the Grand Old Party. I wholeheartedly disagree with the good Doctor's theory of today being the most depressing day of the year, and in fact draw hope from it.

As I've shared before, it's those words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that helped keep me from the bitterness of such a narrow loss for Congress in 2006. With our entirely grassroots campaign coming up less than 330 votes short of defeating an entrenched multi-millionaire Republican with virtually no help from the national party, bitterness was a temptation.

Dr. King's words, however, helped remind me and those closest to me that bitterness and regret were wasteful when there was so much to be thankful for and so much work left to do. We moved on and I hope we have honored his memory, and more importantly his spirit, with our people powered movement made up of working folks here in North Carolina.