AltBrothers

There’s a disparaging saying going about these days, “I blog therefore I’m an activist”. I feel that it’s a back-handed slap. “You aren’t here in the protest line, in the march, on the phone calling government officials… therefore you are not a real activist.” It isn’t fair and it isn’t smart. Obviously we all can’t do it all, neither should we try. It’s EXTREMELY important to not LOSE YOURSELF in the activism you do. Even the character of “Jesus Christ” took time out, socialized and often did his activism through socializing. But what about the times away in retreat, contemplation, and revitalization? What if he just wanted to indulge in being alone and not bothered?

With that in mind, I thought about what would it be like if Martin and Coretta King were still alive and decided NOT to attend a celebration or march in their honor on MLK Day? The marches, the recitation of speeches; inspiring community and socializing for sure. But what if they just tired and wanted to be alone? Or what if they just wanted to spend time on the computer reading the thoughts of others and sending their own thoughts too? Would that cut the mustard of official or proper observants of the “legacy”, of what they did back in the 1950s and 60s or what Coretta did beyond that time till her death?

Then I thought past the MLK day and asked what does the so-called observant or bonafide civil rights activist do during the 300+ days before or the 300+ days following MLK Day? What do they do in the simple, everyday things of their lives that say, I support what MLK wanted? For most people, civil rights for minorities in the U.S. is the MLK legacy. But that’s a far too small description of what MLK believed in and was working for.

If anyone wants to know what MLK wanted beyond civil right, just study what he was up to at the point where he became utterly intollerable and had to be silenced (or attempted silenced, or his legacy hijacked)?

He was doing grocery store activism (see also: Corporate Media Keeps King “in his place”! Buries King’s Fiery Condemnation of US Wars). You know what I’m talking about if you’ve ever read labels of products. You look at the lable of that meat package and see that it’s form a distant part of the country and you put it back on the shelf. You’re looking for the company that’s in your the state where you live and work, the place where you see people without jobs begging for money on the street. You do that because you want to try and keep local money local so that the local people can benefit. You think in your mind that hopefully people in other states are doing the same thing so that ultimately everyone in every state has what he or she needs to live a life of happiness and good possibilities. You have this same concern and hope regarding abscentee landlords/land-owners and corporate real estate too.

Sometimes you go to the store and see that the once local product made by the local company is now a product of a large corporation in a distant state. You think to yourself. “Self? Who benefited in this? What happened to the local workers, the local production and will buying this product now send local money far away?” You ask yourself this because you don’t want to see more human beings on the street begging for change or sleeping on cardboard in doorways. You want local money to benefit local people and beyond money; you want local people to be able to use their time and talent to benefit themselves and each other. You realize that only certain values will allow such a thing.

This is the cycle and entrenchment of the grocery store activism. It is no less activist than people who enjoy calling (or have the time to do so) their legislators. We need those callers and those emailers and those letter writers. Activists are needed in every place and every space. And that’s why when MLK was in Memphis supporting the sanitation workers strike, some people didn’t get it. They didn’t make the connection that civil right is more than ink on paper, it’s real life, every-day-life and it impacts everybody because it ultimately is dealing with civil economics or un-civil eCONomics.

Let she who has ears let her hear what the spirit says… and Happy MLK Day GROCERY STORE ACTIVISM.