MLK what?

so our university rescheduled all of our classes today in order for us to be able to observe martin luther king day. this meant a break between 11 am and 2 pm with choir ensemble performances, a speech from the mayor and a keynote from Kweisi Mfume (a former house representative, baltimore politician, NAACP president and CEO among many other things).

I thought it was great that if we aren't going to get the day off, at least the school was making a concerted effort to observe the holiday. rearranging class schedules for professors and 1200 students is no easy task.

the ceremonies took place in a concert hall on campus and was also video streamed into one of the major auditoriums in my building as the business school part of the university. what disappointed me the most was that while the concert hall was fairly packed, when my bf and i showed up in our auditorium, there were only about 20 people there (the auditorium holds several hundred). prior and following this was a clear lack of interest from our general student body - complaints more about having to adjust to a new schedule today or not getting the day off entirely - rather than any interest in what Mfume or the mayor had to say or furthermore, thinking about why we're actually observing the day of MLK.

If you think about it, MLK stood for leadership, taking action to make things better in the world, learning to leverage one's intelligence, passion and power to be able to do so and inspiring others at large to make these things happen. and at my business school, a top 3 in the country, we are the very people who are in the position to do this. we will graduate and work in positions of leadership, power and influence. i only hope that we're being groomed for the right goals.