Marion Barry and me: Great minds think alike

Having argued for years that mid-January was a dumb time for the Martin Luther King holiday, I was pleased to see support for my view from former Washington D.C. mayor Marion Barry, who was definitely one of the most fun mayors this country has had (assuming you didn't have to live in his city), and he knows that the dead of winter is not a fun time for MLK day. The Washington Post reports:

A committee appointed by D.C. Council member Marion Barry has moved the District's annual Martin Luther King Jr. parade from its traditional date near King's birthday in wintry January to the warmer month of April, when the civil rights leader was assassinated. This year, according to Barry's office, the parade will be held April 1 -- April Fool's Day...

Chuck Bowens, a member of the parade committee, said the group voted unanimously last month to postpone the parade because the members were worried about subjecting children and "senior VIPs" such as Wilhelmina Rolark and Barry himself to January's often frigid weather. Last year, days after Barry was hospitalized for flulike symptoms, the parade was canceled at the last minute because of plunging temperatures.

At a meeting just before Christmas, Bowens said, the parade committee began discussing last year's cancellation and "started talking about, 'What's the rain date?' And someone said, 'What about the date of King's death? That's in warm weather.' And it was kind of like a veil being lifted, and the whole discussion turned toward that."...

Reaction to the change has been fast and, mostly, furious... Aside from the disrespectful symbolism of remembering King on April Fool's Day, Pannell said, it makes no sense to hold a parade that marks King's murder. "If you want to commemorate an assassination, that should be something that is done with some solemnity," Pannell said. "You don't commemorate a person's assassination with marching bands."

Well, that's why I've suggested moving it to August, a month crying out for a holiday, which could commemorate Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech on August 28, 1963.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer