Martin Luther King Jr Day

Today was Martin Luther King Jr's birthday. I'm not too sure if folks in the US got today off - last time I heard, they got maybe 2 weeks of vacation, and heck, if Xmas fell midweek - well, you'd better hope you had a sick day left.

But I digress.

MLK was certainly a "great man", and a visionary within his accomplishments. But the "Great Man" (or "Great Woman") theory just doesn't seem to fly anymore these days. Honestly, when did you hear about the last "Great Man" or leader - someone with the charisma, vision, and guts to get the job done?

Case in point: Canadian political history. Hmmmm... maybe Diefenbaker and Trudeau could be considered "great men", but jeez, that was decades ago. Since then, we've suffered through our share of great bastards though - like Mulroney who taxed us to death, and Klein who still makes me embarassed to say I'm from Alberta at times.

I wonder if it's because our journalism is so skewed these days. So microscopic. Any little foible seems to be pounced out, magnified, doubts are cast, careers ruined. I remember hearing how MLK was quite the womanizer and had a soft spot for the ladies - but he still made his mark. But if he was in today's world - would it still be the same?

How many folks have been on the track towards becoming "great" but stumbled along the way, under our intense sensationalistic journalism? Or more likely, the smart folks realized that it it ain't worth it and didn't bother in the first place?

Look at the political guys running today: Martin, Harper, Layton. Nary a speck of greatness amongst them. Propped up by an army of advisors and spin doctors - so heavy, that any message is so, well, sexless, boring and weak.

Keep an eye out for the voter turn-out this Jan 23. I think that number will speak volumes.

j

PS - where's the next Louis Riel?

PPS - why doesn't Leonard Cohen run for office?

PPPS - the above image is of MLK getting arrested during a protest in Montgomery, 1958. I could have used one of those "classic" pictures where he's speaking to throngs of folks, but this photo shows another side - to what it takes to get things done.