MLK Day on Sunday? Let's expand on that

State Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, thinks Wisconsin should move the Martin Luther King holiday to a Sunday. "If you really wanted to have a ceremony honoring Martin Luther King, wouldn't it be better to do it on the third Sunday of the month, when everybody could honor him rather than just state workers? I think this becomes more of a holiday to benefit government employees than to benefit the memory of Dr. King," he says in a Wis. State Journal story.

If you read between the lines, it sounds like Grothman is just hacked off that state workers have a holiday when some other people don't. Typical. (One reader suggests maybe Grothman's gripe is that he couldn't collect his $88 per diem on the holiday.)

Did West Bend have a ceremony? (Just curious.) Would it have one, no matter which day it was? (Even curioser.) Moraine Park Technical College's West Bend campus is having an observance, but it's next Monday. Is that it?

In Milwaukee, there were plenty of activities on both Sunday and Monday. If you wanted to honor Dr. King at something official, you could easily do that.

Dr. King's birthday is already a federal holiday, of course. That wouldn't change.

Some school districts held classes on Monday, on the theory that students wouldn't remember Dr. King on their own if they were out of school, but would have to hear and perhaps learn something about him if they were in school. Middleton-Cross Plains was one district that held classes, sparking some controversy.

But back to Grothman's brain fart. I'm a veteran and always thought I should have Veteran's Day off. Maybe if we celebrated in on a Sunday, veterans wouldn't have to work. Maybe if we had Labor Day on a Sunday, more workers would have the day off. The possibilities are endless. IfValentine'ss Day were on Sunday, more couples could go to brunch. If St. Patrick's Day were on Saturday, the bars could stay open later, and people could just miss church the next day, instead of missing work.

And how about Election Day? It's a hassle to vote on a Tuesday. If it were on a Saturday or a Sunday, think of how much easier it would be for working people to get to the polls. Think we could get some Republican sponsors for that? Oops, forgot. They don't want to make it easier to vote; they want to make it harder.