Martin Luther King Day

Today is the day in which we celebrate one of the greatest men in the history of America. He should, in my mind, be held up to the same status of American-hero-greatness as George Washington. If not a higher status. And I think he is, largely. However, I don't want Martin Luther King Jr. to ever become as mythical as, say, a George Washington.

For modern citizens of the U.S., George Washington may as well be a Roman god of some kind. We've made him and people like him almost demigods. Humans who are viewed as larger than life. Even though, realistically, we could all do things as great as a George Washington-type figure, in the ideological sense, we never can. You might say we've over hyped him. The idea of George Washington is so much bigger than the man himself could have been.

But I hope that Martin Luther King Jr. never becomes that. Because the beauty of Martin Luther King's message is that we can all make a difference. We don't have to be larger than life. I can be just like him. You can be just like him.

I think it's dangerous for great men to be given a status which is unattainable by the average man. Because if we can never become like them, why should they be idolized at all?

Here is a quote I heard recently. It is officially my favorite quote of the year.

"It is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man to pick himself up by his own bootstraps."

- Martin Luther King Jr.