It’s possible that I could get into a lot of trouble with this comic. So, at the risk of ruining in the joke, I’ll explain myself that everyone wishes they could make a speech like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at least once in their life. Tom is no different. It’s just that the issues he’s passionate about at a little more… pedestrian.

Incidentally, if it makes anyone feel better, eagle-eyed readers might notice that the man in the last panel who puts Tom in his place bears a passing resemblance to Tom’s latent dream scape manifestation of his white guilt. So, is today’s comic a dream? If you’re offended, the answer is “Yes.”

In all seriousness, this isn’t meant to diminish the great work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He’s a personal hero of mine and I find him damn cool to boot. In 2004, I traveled to Memphis and visited the Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel and it was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. I don’t know why I feel the need to trot that out like it’s some kind of pedigree. I just want to make it clear that I mean no harm.

I would say there is a certain amount of white guilt that I’m given the day off for Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. Maybe it’s because I’m from a different generation or maybe it’s because of the whole race issue, but I don’t feel like I’ve “earned” it. Who am I to take advantage of this holiday? Some punk white kid from the suburbs? All I know is the history. I can’t say I lived through those times even as an ancillary witness.

At any rate, if I’m going to feel guilty about it, I might as well try to spin it into something humorous. This is just one of those ideas that got in my head and wouldn’t shake loose. I had to see it through. Hopefully, everyone understands that Tom is supposed to be the idiot in today’s comic. You know, kind of like how Stephen Colbert makes fun of conservatives on The Colbert Report by portraying himself as the worst stereotype of one.

Am I digging myself deeper by trying to compare myself to Stephen Colbert? Funny, too that this would be the first comic I come up with after someone asked me in Friday’s comments section why comic Tom doesn’t have more African-American friends. I think this is what my doctor mean when she diagnosed my “self-destructive tendencies.”

Onto less controversial matters. Cami and I are currently having work done in our basement, so it’s more than likely that we’ll be seeing movies today. I got great feedback about Children of Men and a lot of encouragement to see it. I felt like I had all the evidence I needed to talking Cami into seeing it, but then my good friend Mighty Mitch Clem suggested that perhaps a movie about humanity suddenly not being able to concieve children and the several references to miscarriage that follow would not be appropriate for a woman 8 and a half months pregnant. I appreciated the head’s up. So we probably won’t see the movie until after Baby Brazelton is born. We’ll probably see something like Dreamgirls, instead. After all, since it has all this hype around it and people seem to think it’s going to walk away with an armload of Golden Globes, we should probably see what the fuss is about.

Speaking of The Golden Globes, tonight myself, Joe Dunn from Joe Loves Crappy Movies and Gordon McAlpin from Multiplex will be hosting our second talkcast under the nome de plume of “The Triple Feature” over at TalkShoe. We’ll be discussing The Golden Globes LIVE as they are being broadcast and provide real-time reporting that will factor into our picks for the upcoming Oscar nominations. On the other end of the spectrum, we’ll also be talking about Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, which was completely mishandled by the studios when it was left to flounder in a handful of theaters for 7 days without any advertising late last year. The movie was just release on DVD last week and we’ll be discussing that as well.

I encourage everyone to visit The Triple Feature page at TalkShoe and tune in tonight at 9:00 pm CST to listen to the show. It’s only an hour long and we’ll be taking your calls, so join in!

Have a great day!