Here at Embrace, we have a philosophy about the concept of “neutrality.” Specifically, that it doesn’t exist.
Words aren’t neutral. Voting maps aren’t neutral. Monuments aren’t neutral.
What we say and do, who we choose to remember, are not idle, meaningless actions. They reflect who we are and what we value. They always have.
So when the administration decided to remove the Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth holidays from the National Park Service’s fee-free calendar last week—swapping in the president’s birthday—we knew it didn’t do so aimlessly. On the contrary, its actions represent a continuation of a particular agenda.
For one thing, it furthers the administration’s efforts to reshape America’s representation of its history, with the National Park Service being a frequent target of those efforts. Earlier this year, the Department of the Interior asked people to flag national park signs that discuss our country’s racist past—or, as the department put it, “inappropriately disparages Americans past or living.”
That courtesy, however, appears to extend only to Confederate generals and slaveholding Founding Fathers, not Dr. King or those whose first taste of freedom came in the 19th century.
The devaluing of MLK Day mirrors the administration’s systematic destruction of the civil rights legislation Dr. King fought for during his lifetime, which aimed to create opportunity for all Americans.
It disrespects the only federal holiday designated as a day of service, shifting focus away from celebrating a man who dedicated his life to helping others toward an administration only concerned with serving itself.
Because, as we say, nothing is neutral.
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Closed west entrance of Yellowstone National Park after heavy rains in June 2022.
(Photo: Wikimedia Commons) |
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These new attacks on Black holidays and historic figures aren’t about representing history fairly or getting rid of a “woke” holiday enacted under the Biden administration. (Ironically, MLK Day first became a fee-free holiday for national parks in 2018 during the first Trump administration.)
In his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. King reminded us that neutrality is not enough. “The absence of tension” is not the same as “the presence of justice.” Because justice isn’t neutral, either. You have to strive for it, act on it. And if something is unjust, you have to change it.
Nothing, from our words to the history we commemorate, is neutral.
Sometimes, justice demands we pick a side. So let’s pick the side that centers joy, service, and the triumphs we can achieve when we work together. Honor Dr. King’s legacy by using his day to lift up your community or fight for the rights of those who are under attack.
Because our divided house will not stand, and it will take all of us, standing side by side, to build something stronger in its place.
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