Looking out over the 8 inches of snow in my driveway almost sent me back to bed. For the first time since I started covering the Utah Legislature, I didn't have to trudge up to the Capitol to watch half-hearted Martin Luther King Jr. Day ceremonies and shallow, first-day lawmaking.

But I figured if Utah legislators would be working one more holiday, so would I. The better to give them some credit: After 16 years of deliberately launching their 45-day lawmaking session on the national holiday, legislators are ready to acknowledge the slain civil rights leader with more than a token speech.

Last year, then-House Minority Leader Ralph Becker sponsored a resolution to amend the state constitution and change the start date. And House Speaker Greg Curtis and Senate President John Valentine cajoled, arm-twisted and guilted their colleagues into agreement. Voters will decide in November whether Utah legislators did the right thing.

Not all of them are happy about it. Legislators changed opening day to Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1992 - years after President Reagan declared the day a national holiday. For years, they called it "Human Rights Day." In 2001, Utah became the last state to name the holiday after King.

Legislators clung to their ceremony, insisting a short day of lawmaking was the best way to honor him. Eleven states nationwide still meet on the holiday. Before Becker's resolution could pass, many lawmakers insisted on taking off Presidents Day, too. They didn't want to give the Baptist minister more credit than Washington or Lincoln.

But now, it seems even Utah lawmakers have acknowledged times have changed.

Draper Republican Sen. Howard Stephenson nearly waxed poetic Monday. "Every schoolchild should know [King's letter from Birmingham jail] just as they do the Declaration of Independence," he said.

Now, it's up to the rest of us. At the NAACP's annual Martin Luther King Jr. luncheon, the referendum vote was a call to action.

"Our future's going to look a whole lot different than it does today," said Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. "We have a great opportunity this year. Let's talk about the ideas that bring us all together."

And Pace McConkie, a white civil rights attorney from Utah who manages the Center for Civil Rights Education at Morgan State University in Maryland, said King's message is just as relevant today. Modern American racism ranges from overt bigotry against undocumented immigrants to softer remnants like lower life expectancy, higher foreclosure rates and fewer doctor visits among America's blacks. A black man still earns 75 cents for every dollar a white man makes. (A white woman in Utah makes 74).

"Would Dr. King be silent in the face of such profound issues?" McConkie asked.

Will we?

walsh@sltrib.com