Martin Luther King Jr Day/Day of Service

I've been hearing about the call for service on Martin Luther King day for weeks now, but have been at a lost at how to participate.  I needed something that we could do as a family or do at home.  I wasn't having much luck finding a family activity and Bryan and I had resigned ourselves to the fact that we wouldn't be able to partipate.

But at the last minute, I noticed a posting on USAService for Project Linus.  So today we went to the fabric store to get the cloth to make a blanket like the one I made for Megan last spring.  Megan picked out the fabric and Bryan helped me layout and pin the material (and made sure I actually finished the project) and Riley help put the straight pins back in the case.  Here is the final result:

I have to saw that this is the fastest turn around I have ever had on a project.  

While we were in the car, on the way to the fabric store, Megan asked about Martin Luther King; why did he have a day named after him?  It was one of those parenting moments when you wish you could freeze time, so that you could have a couple of days to figure out an accurate, age-appropriate answer.  

I stumbled through as best I could, explaining that a long time ago, but not too long ago there were people with light skin who wouldn't let people with dark skin go to their schools or churches or ride on their buses.  And Martin Luther King was one of the people who stood up and said that it wasn't right to separate people because of the color of their skin.  And he helped the rules be changed.  And the part of the reason we are so excited that Barack Obama will because president tomorrow is that it once would have been impossible simply because of the color of his skin.

We will have to talk about it again, because institutional racism makes no sense to Megan.  As she told me, there are kids with all kinds of skin at her school.  Light skin, dark skin, and most kids have medium colored skin.  Starting in daycare, she has spent her life in a racially diverse environment.  Even more so here in Silicon Valley where there is no majority race/ethnicity.  I'll have to hunt around and see if I can find some books to read with her.