Dr. King holiday

A charge, to remember the past and have a wonderful future.

Well I get a day off going to school at his alma mater and all that, but in Chicago, Illinois someone's got the day off. This is is a federal holiday after all. You can look at the holiday closings here.

Oh and please watch this holiday themed treat from My Urban Report.

ADDITION: here's another Dr. King related story but it's about a statue in the state capital, Springfield. The state Secretary of State doesn't like the statue of Dr. King...

Twenty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. found a home inside the Illinois Statehouse. But not for long.

Even as the state unveiled a then-new statue of King in the Capitol rotunda back in 1988, plans were afoot to move it to a less conspicuous location. After a year inside, the statue was moved to an out-of-the-way spot near the Illinois State Museum and State Archives.

Not until 1993 did the statue finally move to Second Street and Capitol Avenue, a place now dubbed “Freedom Corner.”

Fifteen years later, one of the most powerful politicians in the state says he doesn’t like the statue and wants to replace it with a different version of King.

Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White says he knew Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the King statue at Second Street and Capitol Avenue isn’t the King he met in college.

“I knew him, and I knew him well,” said White. “This fellow looks like a sharecropper, with his coat slung over his shoulder. I’d never seen him like that.”

Other black leaders in Springfield say the statue is fine, although some said they’re open to other ideas.

Michael Pittman, a developer and publisher of the Capital City Courier, said the statue can be interpreted in different ways.

“I look at it and think, the guy’s tired, but he’s still going on,” Pittman said. “It works for me.”