I am at home with my family enjoying this wonderful, hard-won Federal holiday celebrating Dr. King, one of the greatest Americans.  I've been to memorial church services and listening to his speeches on the radio, as I do every year at this time of year.  As for Greenpeace, we borrowed much from King's non-violent civil disobedience in our own tactics that we use in 40 countries around the world.  Fortunately, there was no patent on this technique as King and the Civil Rights Movement took the concept of non-violent civil disobedience from Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian Independence Movement.  Beyond all that, I love MLK, Jr. Day for two reasons.

 1.  The three greatest Americans: Washington, Lincoln and King. Washington, landed gentry and owner of slaves, takes America from subject of the king to "by the people and for the people." His massive land holdings and gentleman's pedigree made it possible to lead us from monarchy to democracy.   Next is Lincoln.  The first "man of the people,"  self-taught, won the Civil War and expanded Washington's experiment by freeing the slaves.  And then there's King.  Working even outside the official tracks open to a poor white boy like Lincoln.  He takes a Biblical interpretation of love and turns it into the most powerful force on earth, the Civil Rights Movement.  These may be the three greatest Americans of all time.

2.   The second reason is that the capitalists haven't taken over MLK Day just yet.  No big sales.  I don't have to worry about getting people the right gifts.  Just a day off to think about what happened in the 1950s and 1960s and what we still need to do.  So I think about this holiday as one that will become a really big one with our growing population of pro-Civil Rights hispanics in this country. Sure we drink beer and shoot off fireworks on July 4, but MLK Day?  Could grow to be much bigger.  Count on it.

Rave on,

John Passacantando