MLK: Are we remembering or relaxing?

Monday marks an important day in the JMU spring semester — the first semester holiday. Not only is it the first semester holiday, though, but it is the second time JMU has had an entire day off of school for Martin Luther King Day.

Students crusaded hard to get Martin Luther King Jr. Day off. Rallying behind the cause, students signed petitions, spoke to administrators and even protested during JMU President Linwood Rose's inauguration on Sept. 17, 1999, a day that students had off of school.

An article in the Sept. 13, 1999 issue of The Breeze said, "In addition to the mixed thoughts and feelings over the inauguration event itself, several members of the JMU community said they think other holidays, namely Martin Luther King Jr. Day warrant the same kind of respect and observant."

In Spring 2000, JMU canceled afternoon classes on MLK Day, and more than 100 students gathered outside of Zane Showker Hall to honor King and participate in a Peace March that concluded at Grafton Stovall Theatre with between 350 and 400 people, according to the Jan. 20, 2000 issue of The Breeze. And now the university is regularly closed for the day.

The question remains, however: Will people take advantage of the day to remember King's message and the impact he had on the country? This is why classes have been canceled, haven't they?

In January 1998, the Student Government Association sponsored a bill of opinion to make MLK Day an official university holiday and a day off from classes. Commuter Sen. Tim Emry said the bill wasn't an attempt to give students extra vacation. "I want people to stay on campus to recognize Martin Luther King as a community," he said. "Each student needs to recognize the sacrifices Dr. King made."

Next week will be chock full of events to honor King, such as a presentation by former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder on Monday, a multicultural workshop on Wednesday and a march and speak out on Thursday.

While there will be participants in the multitude of activities the university has planned in honor of the day, many will party hard on Sunday, sleep the day away on Monday and then scramble to do homework they should have done earlier in the weekend on Monday night. Not exactly reminiscent of the power of King's dream. Speaking of tolerance and equality, King crusaded for a society where all races would come together with a sense of unity and humanity. We celebrate the day in hopes that this community and all Americans will appreciate those efforts and acknowledge the effects in our small JMU world.

JMU, and other universities around the nation, should have off on this day. Hopefully, students, faculty and staff will appreciate the day for more than just a three-day weekend and will concentrate, at least for a little while, on why we have the day off.