Check the Cawendar To See What Howiday It Is

Seeing as how over 90% of the people we service at work are white, perhaps it is fitting that we did not get Martin Luther King Day off today. So I had a full schedule of clients.

One of my favorite kids is on my Monday morning schedule. He's six year's old and loves football. Obsessed, in a healthy, non-autistic way, is more like it. I have never met a more knowlegable six year-old when it comes to football. And, as my job dictates, I have met my share of six year-olds.

So this kid comes barreling into my office (he's already the size of a 1960s offensive lineman), as per usual, belting out all the information about the weekend's games that he knows.

"The Steewers beat the Coats 21-18! I know duh Panfers beat duh Bears but I don't know duh score. And dat guy who got shot? He used to pway football too. But not in cowege. Just before dat."

It should be appearant by now that we are working on his "L" articulation. In fact, it is the only sound he has left to work on; his "TH" can wait a few years. So if he could only learn to self-monitor his "L," I can discharge him, which is always bittersweet when the kid is as likeable as this guy.

Likeable or not, when a kid who is working on monitoring his "L" comes in talking like he was, I make him start all over again. Only this time he'd better say "SteeLers" and not "Steewers."

But this time I let it slip, mostly because I couldn't figure out what the hell he was talking about at the very end.

"A guy got shot?" I asked.
"Yeah and he used to pway football."
"Pway?"
"Play football."
"That's better." So he can correct his "L." That's a start. Now if I can only figure who got shot.

And then the hamster in my head starts a running and powers the lightbulb in my brain. I slowly put two and two together.

"Wait a second," I say, "Was he shot yesterday or a long time ago?"
"A wong time ago."
"A what."
"A long time ago."
"And is today his birthday?"
"Yup."
"Are you talkking about Martin Luther King?"
"Yeah! Martin Lufer King! He used to pway football."

And I'm shitting you negative the only "L" he marked correctly this entire conversation was the "L" in "Luther." How's that for paying respect to the man?

So now I'm curious. I know the dude loves football. And he's only six. But has he gone so far as to define people as important as Martin Luther King as to whether or not they played football? So I ask, "What else is Martin Luther King known for?"

And then he says, "Mike," in his way that lets me know he knows I'm playing dumb. He knows I know the answer to this question.

"You know what he did. He made it so Bwacks and Whites can go to school togever," he says and looks at me and shakes his head in a way that screams "No duh."

Well that's a Hell of a lot more accurate than he played football before he went to college.

Anyway, there's something to be said for having the perpspective of a six year-old. Jim Crow. Bombingham. The KKK. George Wallace. None of those things are important. In fact they don't even exist. When you're six years-old, what matters isn't the color of a guy's skin, but whether or not he played football at any point in his life.

It's not exactly what Martin Luther King had in mind in his "I Have A Dream" speech, but I as far as I'm concerned, it's pretty damn close.