MiLKing the Legend Man
Here we are, folks. Another low, insipid, uninspired, uninspiring year in I-town. What's new, you ask? Nothing much except that Ithacans have had a larger than usual dose of sunlight so far this winter, a fact which has not mitigated the rock solid Yankee dourness of folk up here. It's business as usual when you get right down to it -- folks busy making money off the rental market, or amassing real estate , or opening even newer eateries, starting bands, playing hackey-sack on the Commons, or getting tenure, and otherwise spreading the gospel of Cornell --all the things people do in Ithaca. Hey, remember Paul Glover? Did you ever really think that you'd miss that old Maoist, pseudo-anarchist, occasional candidate for mayor, gadfly to all the organic millionaires at Greenstar, the guy who stood up against the corporate conspiracy to introduce Swift Butterball turkeys to the frozen food section at the local whole foods market? Well, the reason Ez brings up Paul Glover is that Paul was responsible for some of more madcap hippie, yippie aspects of life in Ithaca . Remember those mad Mondays or tipsy Tuesdays or whatever they were when Paul and his three disciples donned some crazy outfits and made a three minute jag across the Commons like some juiced up mummers? A small slice of ithaka (have you noticed how folks on the left add a 'k'to the word america? Does adding a 'k"really change how you think about a place?) history you may have missed, eh? Now, all we have to look forward to is Barbara Mink's impossibly highbrow Light in Winter rituals. Fuck, maybe she'll get the Bolshoi this year.
All we are left with are the two burning issues of the day, questions unresolved and served up like cold meatloaf from 2006. 1) Will my Alapaha Blueblood Bulldog be able to run around and co-mingle with other exotically expensive dog breeds at Tremain Park? and, 2) will State Street be renamed Martin Luther King Blvd?
Now Ez has an excuse not to weigh in on that ticklish question of whether Fido gets to run around and shit on the grass next to the fancy dancy cabin cruisers and yachts parked at the marina, apparently offending the sensibilities of those admirals of the lake who pay beaucoup bucks to park their boats in those brackish slips. Ez just doesn't own a mutt, could care less what a bunch of yuppie pet owners do with their impossibly expensive miniature schnauzers or what the fuck have you as long as they don't add more shit to the Commons, run in front of his car, piss on his leg, or run away, causing another homemade flyer to be added to the the existing stock of MIA mugshots posted around town in laundromats and telephone poles.
But the MLK thing --that cuts to the heart of the knee-high hypocrisy that far surpasses any amount of dogshit that all the pooches of Tompkins County could muster in a whole month of rampant diarrhea. For newcomers to the Ithaca scene - the controversy stems from a motion before the city council that originated from members of the African American community to rename the main thoroughfare in town after Dr. King. So far the mayor and city council, along with their liberal backers and cheerleaders , have obfuscated, stalled, appointed committees to study the question, stalled some more and generally avoided the issue. To say 'no' outright would obviously send the wrong message and threaten the community's liberal reputation as a citadel of political correctness. Say 'yes' to changing the moniker of that languid mile or so long strip of empty store fronts, moldering Victorian mansions, struggling mom and pop businesses would send the wrong signal to that army of developers, would be-gentrifiers, and real estate speculators who have the future of Ithaca mapped out , the red neck tourists from even further out hinter who come to I-town for big, little city excitement, and the poor who might flock to Ithaca if they thought Ithaca was really a tolerant place to live. Mayor Peterson probably blanches at the thought of a tent city blossoming on the edge of Fall Creek, a veritable million man march on Ithaca, or a bogus army deja vu or a hobo metropolis.
What to do? What to do?
Now Ez doesn't personally subscribe to the Great Man theory of history. Dr. King was certainly a great leader with a real gift of vision and eloquence but there were so many other changemakers back then who made just as much a difference to the struggle for racial equality which is ongoing, never ending or so it seems and, hopefully, never just simply replaced with hollow gestures of tokenism like renaming streets after folk. (The French are much more civilized, naming places after concepts or events.) Ez is talking about Malcolm, Mr, Carmichael and the hard working people at SNCC, the Panthers, Angela Davis, right down the list who also are equally deserving of street names if that is one's reward for speaking truth to power. Let's face it - the Great Man Theory of History is, and Ez has to admit that Noam Chomsky, himself heading towards Big Man of Protest status, is right on this - a ploy to diminish the role of ordinary people in the making of social and historical reality. When you get right down to it, the same social structure that brought us a Big God, Great Books to read, the Great Society, the Big Bang, big corporations, big government, big box stores, also gave us little to do with our time except consume, consume, consume. Hey, when you have BIG people around to do all the work,what else is there left to do except quibble over trivial questions like renaming State Street.
Well, Ez, as usual, has the solution. Instead of renaming State Street after Dr. King, let's rename Wegmann's after the civil rights leader. More people visit Wegmann's every day than drive or walk down State Street in a month. If your goal is to build on the legacy of Dr. King, there is more practical work to be done than naming things after him. What a cop out that is, to get off with changing a few signs around. So typically Ithaca, isn't it. (Rachel Carson Way, etcetc?) How about creating scholarships., creating more jobs and economic opportunities for people in the African American community, things that will actually make a difference in people's lives. Now, if your goal is to sell Dr. King like a brand and make him a houshold word, hey rename Wegmann's Ithaca after him. Can you see it? I have to go to Martin Luther King and pick up a party platter. Yeh, you can now drop your pictures and dry cleaning off at Martin Luther King while you do your weekly shopping. Martin Luther King has the best organic produce, much better thanyou get at Tops. Hey, did you know that Martin Luther King is having a sale on Swift Butterball turkeys?
Comments invited at: ezrakidder@gmail.com - Peace, Ezra at 3:51 AM
