COLUMN: Back to the back

From Jamil Smith's, "Invisible Man," Fall '96 From Jamil Smith's, "Invisible Man," Fall '96In New Hampshire, a celebrationFrom Jamil Smith's, "Invisible Man," Fall '96In New Hampshire, a celebrationof Martin Luther King, Jr. is From Jamil Smith's, "Invisible Man," Fall '96In New Hampshire, a celebrationof Martin Luther King, Jr. is forced across the street so aFrom Jamil Smith's, "Invisible Man," Fall '96In New Hampshire, a celebrationof Martin Luther King, Jr. is forced across the street so awhite supremist group can rally. From Jamil Smith's, "Invisible Man," Fall '96In New Hampshire, a celebrationof Martin Luther King, Jr. is forced across the street so awhite supremist group can rally.On the day that most of the nation celebrates a venerable leader of the past, America received a reminder of times we would rather forget. It's a common belief among many that time travel is impossible, but I'm not so sure. Bellbottoms, marijuana, and the Afro have made remarkably strong comebacks in recent years. Music from the '80s is now as popular (or perhaps even more popular) than it was back in the day. Apparently, it is possible to reach back and not just salvage the good old times, but relive them. However, it would be unrealistic, both in the society we were born into and the one that presently exists, to think that we could avoid reliving the bad old times as well. In 1986, the same year that Janet Jackson came out with the album "Control," Magic Johnson's purple-and-gold Converse high-tops were on more than a few youngsters' feet and the Challenger exploded before our very eyes, the government of this country finally saw fit to establish the third Monday in January as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Despite the fact that it is a federal holiday, Arizona and New Hampshire stood against its observance and refused to recognize it. Arizona has now ratified it, but New Hampshire remains the only state in the "Union" that does not have a legal Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. One group in particular wanted to congratulate New Hampshire's citizens for their nonconformism. To congratulate them? The Nationalist Movement, a white supremacist group based in Learned, Mississippi, received permission to hold a rally on the Statehouse steps on the holiday. (Learned, Mississippi??) Richard Barrett, head of this particular band of hatred, told The Boston Globe that "we see King Day as giving special favors and privileges to the few, to the minority." Of course, anyone with a dose of common sense realizes how even that statement was edited for the general public. You know what he would have liked to call the "minority." New Hampshire Governor Steve Merrill has tried to absolve the state of any liability in this situation by saying, through a spokesman, that his administration "do[es] not endorse [the] beliefs" of those like Barrett and his Nationalist Movement. In place of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day that we celebrate, New Hampshire implemented a cheap attempt at a PC replacement in 1991 called Civil Rights Day. Like the federally recognized King Day, this holiday takes place on the third Monday of every January. According to The Associated Press, Governor Merrill has read a proclamation each year, renaming Civil Rights Day in King's honor. Whether this is his genuine concern for King's legacy or an attempt to save political face is certainly up for debate; but the state legislature has defeated Governor Merrill's seven attempts to permanently rename the holiday. To tell the truth, it does not appear as if the state could have legally challenged Barrett's group right to rally. First Amendment rights and all. However, by allowing the rally of white supremacists to take place on the steps of the state house, Governor Merrill did something even more disgraceful than anything Barrett could have said to the press. As a result of the rally of "congratulations," the informal celebration conducted by the Martin Luther King Day Committee was forced across the street. Regardless of the laws in New Hampshire, the very fact that a white supremacist rally can displace a peaceful observance of King's accomplishments is most angering because it issues a sorrowful echo of times past that we should have been able to forget a long time ago. We as a society should be able to look back on the times when Americans forced other Americans to the back -- of buses, of lines, of the very social order -- because of the color of their skins. We should not be reliving these times. Is this New Hampshire incident not the most painful of all ironies? On the birthday of the Montgomery preacher who led probably the most famous boycott in the history of the nation because a tired Rosa Parks refused to be moved to the back, black Americans who want to peacefully celebrate and protest in his honor were being shoved aside in favor of a group that preaches nothing but hatred. Now, I am not one who believes that the Nationalist Movement's right to express its views should be legally abridged. It would be particularly ironic if someone in my position of opinion writer attempted to censure someone else for his or her controversial views, no matter how virulent those views are. Nonetheless, the treatment of the MLK Committee in this particular situation stems from the Nationalist Movement's sickening abuse of its right to free speech. It is remarkable that some people in this nation still value the opinions of the majority universally over those of the minority, whether they be cultural minority groups or not. To think that the free speech of the spiteful Nationalist Movement is more pertinent than that of the MLK Committee -- which Governor Merrill and the government of New Hampshire implied by their actions -- is simply unconstitutional and un-American. Perhaps we will, one day, look back upon this time in our lives or this decade with a smile and a reflective spirit. We'll think about the times when we were in college, when Waiting to Exhale was the talk of the nation and when a guy named Michael Jordan actually was playing. Our memories will be our own mode of time travel. However, if things continue in the pattern of this recent incident in New Hampshire -- where history shows its penchant for repetition at the most ironic of times -- then we won't have to do much remembering of events. We'll be too busy reliving them.