THE CULT OF DR. KING by Samuel FrancisnThe third annual observance of the birthday of MartinnLuther King Jr. passed happily enough in the nation’sncapital, with the local merchants unloading their assortednjunk into the hands of an eager public. It is hardly surprisingnthat “King Day,” observed as a federal legal public holidaynsince 1986, has already become part of the cycle of massnindulgence through which the national economy annuallynrevolves. Christmas itself, commemorating an event almostnas important as the nativity of Dr. King, has long beennnotorious for its materialism and appetitive excesses, and anvisit to any shopping mall will alert the consumer to the nextnfestal occasion on the public calendar and instruct him innwhat ways and to what extent he is expected to turn out hisnpockets in its celebration. Since Dr. King, wherever he isnnow, has been promoted to full fellowship in the nationalnpantheon, it is to be expected that he too must perform hisnoffice in keeping the wheels of American commercenwell-greased.nWhat is remarkable about the King holiday, however, isnthat, alone among the 10 national holidays created by act ofnCongress, it is celebrated in other ways that are pretty muchnin keeping with its original purpose. While the other ninenfestivities are merely excuses for protracted buying andnselling, three-day weekends with an attractive compadre, ornorgies of eat-and-swill punctuated by football games, onlynthe third Monday in January is the regular subject of solemnnexpatiations by the brahmins of the republic as to what itnreally means. Newspaper columnists, television commentators,nand public schoolteachers — the nearest things we havento a priesthood — devote at least a week to discussing Dr.nKing’s life and achievements and their place in our nationalnconsciousness. Certainly they do not explore the lives ofnJesus Christ, Ceorge Washington, or Christopher Columbusnwith such piety, nor do they usually dedicate much timento reflecting on the less anthropomorphized occasions thatncelebrate national independence, public thanksgiving, ornremembrance of Americans fallen in war for the fatherland.nOnly Dr. King seems to elicit effusions from the guardiansnof the public tongue, and, as in the rituals of the heathenngods of eld, woe to the blasphemer who fails to bend thenknee.nThe fate of Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder is a case in point,nthough not unique. Approached at table in Duke Zeibert’snrestaurant in Washington on the Friday before the officialnceremonies, Mr. Snyder, a sports commentator created andnemployed by CBS, was asked by a local reporter for hisnviews on the progress of blacks in professional athletics. Mr.nSnyder perhaps had dined too well, and he was foolishnenough to say what he really thought in response to thenuninvited question. He praised the accomplishments andnhard work of black athletes, made some insulting remarksnabout the laziness of white athletes, and suggested that thenathletic prowess of blacks was due in part to their havingnbeen bred for size and strength in antebellum days, specifi-nSamuel Francis is deputy editorial page editor of thenWashington Times.ncally for their “big thighs,” and that “they can jump highernand run faster because of their bigger thighs.” It is notnknown if the Greek, a professional gambler, gave odds onnhow long he would keep his $750,000-a-year job afternuttering his inanities, but there was littie time to place anynbets, and probably few would have taken them. Within 24nhours Mr. Snyder was in the ranks of the unemployed.nMr. Snyder was not the first victim to the new deity, andnthe practice of ruining a white person once a year in honornnn^^MA^nMAY 19881 25n