News Guest Writer
One of the great aspects of Choate is how instead of having many individual holidays off, we go to school on those days to allow for the longer holiday vacations we are allotted. The one exception to this rule is Martin Luther King day.
As all of you know, last Monday we had a special program in the morning of Martin Luther King day. Although I found this year’s special program interesting and worthy of my time, I could not stop thinking about the injustice that is done to other significant holidays which are readily overlooked. I am not referring to trivial holidays like Columbus Day, which does not warrant a day off. I am referring specifically to Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day.
Before I am brandished with the title of racist or bigot, I would like to state that I am fully in support of no class on Martin Luther King day and having a special program as we always do. However, one of Choate’s bedrock principles is that the school does not cater to any single race or religion. This is why it is perfectly legitimate that school is in session on Yom Kippur or Good Friday. Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day are holidays that are not based upon religious belief, ergo there is no reason to ignore that they exist. Honoring soldiers who have fought for our freedom is no different than honoring Dr. King for fighting for civil rights.
It doesn’t correspond with Choate’s policy on not catering to any particular group to pay homage to one major holiday but completely neglect others of at least equal importance. Service of your country in its hour of need is the greatest sacrifice anyone can make. Without the courage and resolve of those who have fought in wars from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror, our country, and ergo our school, would not be the same place that it is today. If 392,000 heroes had not given their lives defending our nation in World War II, it is a virtual guarantee that Choate would not be the place that is today. A place that values diversity and freedom of opinion as much as Choate certainly would not have existed under the rule of Imperial Japan or Nazi Germany.
Martin Luther King did his incredible work in the field of race relations after World War II, and had we been defeated in that war it is highly doubtful that Martin Luther King ever would have had the opportunity to advance race relations in the dramatic fashion that he did. I have been referring mostly to World War II, but the same case can be made for any of the wars the United States has been involved in. If not for the 620,000 Union soldiers who laid the ultimate sacrifice at the alter of freedom, slavery might still exist in the South and Dr. King, a Georgia native, would have been enslaved from birth and never been permitted to give his “I Have a Dream” speech, in my opinion the most moving collection of words ever composed. I am not attempting to discredit or trivialize the great work of Dr. King by any stretch of they imagination, I merely think equal respect should be paid for those who died to protect Dr. King’s right to speak his mind.
I was speaking with a peer whose opinion I think very highly of about this matter, and he pointed out that he really likes the Martin Luther King special programs because he feels like he really learns something during them. I agreed with him on this point, but all I could think about afterwards was how our much Americans everywhere take for granted the freedom that is afforded to us.
Much could be learned from a special program on Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day educating the student body on specific war experiences of veterans or current soldiers in the same way that we learn about race relations on Martin Luther King Day. It just dumbfounds me how the collection of great minds we have on the staff at our school could have not realized the lack of respect being shown here.
I wrote Headmaster Shanahan a letter last year on Veteran’s Day stating basically what I have said above. It was my first year at Choate and I was shocked to find that there would be no respects paid on to Veteran’s Day. When I lived at home, each year a group of students would go down to the war memorial in the park in the center of our town and put flowers on the memorial. I suggested either to the Headmaster in my letter, and when he wrote me back he said he would look into possible calendar changes. Obviously, nothing came of this inquiry.
I will not go as far as to say that Choate seems to be intentionally disrespecting the holidays honor military service, but there is certainly evidence to make that point. Why would the school grant a recess from class on to pay respect to Martin Luther King, but not to those who died defending freedom?. I am writing again to implore the administration to please ratify this injustice, because those men died to protect us, the least we can do is take two days out of the year to honor their sacrifice. Putting aside the petty arguments about finishing the curriculum and number of days required to be spent in class, are two days of class really worth the flagrant disrespect of all of those who have fought and died for our country?
