Martin Luther King Jr Day is an American federal holiday marking the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. King was the chief spokesperson for nonviolent activism in the Civil Rights Movement. The campaign for a federal holiday in his honor began soon after his assassination in 1968. A bill to make King’s birthday a national holiday was introduced by US Representative John Conyers and US Senator Edward Brooke. The bill first came to a vote in the House in 1979. However, it fell five votes short of the number needed for passage. Two of the main arguments were that a paid holiday for federal employees would be too expensive , and that a holiday to honor a private citizen would be contrary to a longstanding tradition. Only two other figures have national holidays in the US honoring them: George Washington and Christopher Columbus.
On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill, proposed by Representative Katie Hall, to create a federal holiday honoring King. The bill passed the house by a vote of 338 to 90. The holiday was observed for the first time on January 20, 1986. At first, some states resisted observing the holiday. It was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000.
As I am sure many of you know, we are now in the throes of the professional football playoffs. While watching the games, a thought occurred to me (no it wasn’t that I should get more snacks). I watched the antics that players went through when they did something like catch a pass or make a tackle. Some of the things they do is amazingly choreographed. It struck me as interesting that they do all of this for doing their job. Yes, you caught a pass and scored a touchdown. You should be proud of yourself, but that is what you are being paid for. You don’t need to dance and scream and shout.
I used to work in the call center of a credit union with nine other representatives. Can you imagine what it would have like there if, each time we solved a problem and hung up the phone, we got up and went through a special routine that included whooping and hollering? Imagine what schools would sound like if teachers did a whole dance routine each time they finished a lesson. Picture a secretary pulling a copy of the letter she just finished out of the printer and throwing it on the floor, screaming “Yeah!” Come on, guys. You do your job and you get paid for that. Settle down and go do it again. If a receiver got fined each time he didn’t catch a ball, I could see him being excited when he does, but unless it was the catch that won the game …
I was at the supermarket the other day and was amazed by the audacity of a person in the checkout line. The store has self-checkout lanes and three of them are designated as 20 items or less. Now there are times when interpretation of the word “items” comes into question. Let’s say a person is buying cat food. They are purchasing 10 cans of it. Some people feel that this is ten items. The person buying it feels that, since it is all the same thing, it is one item. I am of the opinion that an item is an item, so ten cans is ten items … but I digress.
So, there I am standing there with my four items waiting. There is a person with a full cart running his order through and because of the size of the load, it is taking some time. The other people waiting are grumbling about how many items the person has, but not really saying anything. Just as I was about to, a person ahead of me calls the issue to the attention of the store employee who is supposed to be monitoring the area, but is conveniently studying something on a clipboard. The employee was forced to go speak to the customer and point out the restriction.
This is where it got good. The customer felt that he was okay because he was only running 20 items at a time. He would scan the items, pay for them and then scan the next 20 items. The employee took some time to explain that the sign referred to the total size of the order, not the number of items on the receipt. The customer shrugged his shoulders, said “Oh” and went back to running his order. Finally someone on line told him to just get done and get out of the way.
The customer took exception and appeared to slow down. At this point, I was at the station next to him taking care of my order. I leaned over to him and suggested that he stop being an a—hole, speed it up and get out of there before someone hurts him. He looked at me and I told him the thought had crossed my mind and that I heard others grumbling, too. I don’t know how it all ended because I got done and got out. I didn’t hear any sirens as I drove away, so I will just watch the papers to see if anything else developed.
This week our fact tells us that in Lefors, Texas it is illegal to take more than three swallows of beer at any time while standing. You have to wonder what happened to cause this law to be passed. I did some research, but was unable to come up with anything. The only thing I can think is that on the fourth swallow, someone splashed beer on a councilman or woman and annoyed them. If I find out anything I will let you know.
Now put on your hat and go get some strawberry ice cream.
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