Do Children Understand the Significance of MLK Jr.?

Last year, I volunteered to work on the holiday commemorating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (it was a company holiday). I covered a couple of parades in his honor on Hilton Head Island and in Bluffton, SC, for the newspaper I was working for. I wanted to take a different approach to the story that no doubt had been written year after year, so I asked marchers why they decided to participate in the parade rather than stay at home. The adults I interviewed all had good answers, explaining it’s important to remember and highlight the fight for civil rights our nation endured only four decades earlier. Some of the children, however, seemed to treat the parade as a roller rink, skating down the road in those Heelys shoes that were oh so popular then:

While adults walked briskly in marches Monday on Hilton Head Island and Bluffton to commemorate the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., some children skated past them in gym shoes equipped with plastic wheels.

For the children and young adults at Monday’s marches, the civil rights movement is something they’ve only read about in history books. So it might seem fitting that some youngsters seemed more concerned about losing their balance on the heels of their trendy skate shoes, then about the struggle that allowed them to play together, regardless of race.

“I think they have a clue about the purpose,” of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, said Bluffton resident Gwenita Jenkins, whose 7-year-old niece skated through downtown Bluffton with a life-size cutout of King’s photograph tied around her neck. “But the unfortunate part is they have what they want already, so they don’t know what it’s like not to have.”

As society becomes further removed from the days when Jim Crow signs hung over drinking fountains and blacks were directed to the back of the bus, it becomes more challenging to make children appreciate the struggle for civil rights.

So as our nation celebrates the birth of the civil rights leader today, I wonder whether you think children appreciate the significance of the day.

Durham MLK Parade postponed

Forecasters are saying snowfall and/or rain is possible Saturday, and with that possibility, organizers of the Durham parade just made this announcement:

Due to the prediction of inclement weather, The 6th Annual Durham MLK Parade originally scheduled for Saturday, January 19th at 12 noon has been postponed. The new date is Saturday, February 2nd at 12 noon - “Honoring Dr. King during Black History Month.”

I’m So Smurfed it’s Tuesday

The Smurfs turn 50 this year! The blue, mushroom-dwelling cartoon characters debuted in a October 1958 comic strip, according to an article in today’s News & Observer.

One of the best things about the Smurfs is the way they spoke. They replaced random verbs and nouns with some variation of the word “Smurf.” As in: I’m so Smurfed it’s Tuesday because of the Republican primary up in Smurf. Check out this Web site. It allows you to type in a site’s URL and then it will translate the site into Smurf Speak.

Don’t Let the Post Office Overcharge You

I have a love/hate relationship with the U.S. Postal Service. We get along when packages and handwritten letters from my grandma are delivered on time. But then there are the times when I mail a letter to my mom in Illinois and a friend in San Diego, Calif. and my friend gets his letter five days before my mom. How is that possible? Illinois is so much closer to the Carolinas then California.

There’s an interesting column by Vicki Lee Parker in today’s News & Observer addressing a reader’s inquiry about being overcharged at the post office. Parker reminds us that “the U.S. Postal Service is a business, not a civil agency whose sole purpose is to serve us.” She explains:

It stopped receiving federal funding 1971 and has struggled since to strike a balance between being a quasi-federal agency and a major corporation. As a federal agency, it is under a mandate to provide mail service to all U.S. residents, even if that means keeping an office open in a remote area that serves just a few people.

But as a for-profit corporation, it has to make money, even as it contends with increasing competition from overnight delivery companies and other mail-services businesses.

Parker concludes by explaining why postal employees always quote the most expensive price first, and offers some suggestions on how to get a good deal.

Is Free Chick-fil-A for a Year Worth Camping Out For?

Are there really more than 100 people standing in line outside Durham’s new Chick-fil-A? Supposedly the first 100 people lined outside the fast food restaurant will score a free meal each week for a year when the store officially opens tomorrow.

A PR person for Chick-fil-A sent an e-mail today saying that as of 6 a.m. today more than 100 people were camped out in the parking lot. Is this true? I’m in Charlotte today for software training or you can bet I’d be heading there to interview some of those folks. I mean, I like chicken as much as the next carnivore, but is it really worth standing in line for? Maybe if I couldn’t afford to eat out, then I might consider the wait. But if I couldn’t afford to eat out, then I’d probably need to be at work and not in a Chick-fil-A parking lot.

If you drive past the new store in Durham today, please let me know if this is really true. It’s located at 7836 Leonardo Dr.

What about you? Would you spend 24 hours standing in line if it meant you got free chicken for a year?

The State Pays College Students to Hang Out with Turtles

If you know any North Carolina college students who want to earn $8.25 an hour this summer doing things like acquainting the public with reptiles at a museum or filing court documents, direct them to this Web site before Jan. 23.

That’s the deadline to apply for one of 100 paid state government internships available in 2008, according to a news release from the state Department of Administration. Here are some of the things previous interns have done:

• introducing visitors to reptiles at the Museum of Natural Sciences
• working in the Office of the Governor
• publicizing the State Fair
• tracking the nesting patterns of loggerhead turtles on Bear Island
• clerking at the N.C. Court of Appeals
• assisting NC companies to compete in international markets

My Flight is Delayed, I’m Going to the Strip Club

In case you didn’t know it, Raleigh “was long overdue” for another topless club. So says one of the new owners of a planned topless club near RDU, the News & Observer reports today.

So long as the long arm of the law doesn’t get in the way, the club would open in spring 2009 on Mount Herman Road, according to the article. The club will be called The Runway.

One of the new owners told the N&O that he’s taking on the project because he believes there’s a need because apparently there’s only four or five other similar vice venues around these parts.

Despite peer pressure by some friends, I’ve never been to a strip club. Without being grossly inappropriate on my blog, may I ask, have you ever been to any such clubs in the Triangle-area? If so, do you think there’s really a “need” for another?

Another Environmental Hazard: Dead Deer

I was watching the local news in southern Illinois while visiting my family for Thanksgiving and had a laugh at the way they closed the Sportscast. It ended with a slideshow of photos submitted by local hunters. Most of them featured a man wearing a blaze orange sock hat, a bow nearby and a dead deer splayed for the world to see.

Ahhh, yes, southern Illinois, where some schools close for the first day of hunting season and where my high school actually had a “drive your tractor to school day.” But my friend Javier (also from Illinois, but now resides in Raleigh) recently reminded me that hunting also happens around here. He and his buddies have rented land somewhere outside the Triangle for the sole purpose of hunting deer.

This morning, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission reminded local media of the importance of properly disposing of deer and other game carcasses. In a news release, the state’s hunting safety coordinator, Capt. Chris Huebner, explains that there have been recent reports of illegally dumped deer carcasses. Apparently, that’s just one more thing that can harm the environment:

“Remnants on the side of the highway may not be cleared by a road crew. The carcass left on the ground won’t decompose or be eaten by scavengers right away, and it certainly won’t float downstream. The impact on the environment and the negative effect on public perception of hunters and hunting are long-lasting,” Huebner says.

In case you’re wondering, the proper way to toss out a lifeless deer’s body is to bury it at least two feet deep or take it to a special disposal spot, such as a specified spot at a local landfill.

Scared of Santa

The Chicago Tribune posts photos of children who are scared of Santa.

I don’t know what’s funnier, the frightened faces or the various versions of Santa.