IMHO

Okay, I have to say something to my 30 loyal readers. This is my own opinion and no official thing, and I will restrict my sources to the Eugene Weekly Biz Beat and pretend I know nothing else about the soap fragrance issue. I'm the Secretary of the Market, but this is not a blog by the Secretary of the Market. This is an essay from the little old lady on Medicare who prints tote bags and hats with a little squeegee in my cramped little shop. As you might have read in my post from yesterday, I have probably come down to 8th and Oak to sell about a thousand times. That gives me about the same selling rights and advantages as the person who comes for the first time. We are a community that seeks equality. Not just for us, the ones who pay fees, but for the people who come down to do yoga on the lawn, to drum over there in the wild and free zone, or just to watch other people doing those things. We are free and we are open, 10-5, Rain or Shine. And thus it has been since 1970.

I've sold at the Market for 40 years. I've sat on the Board, taken thousands of hours of minutes of that body and various committees, served on a few Task Forces, study groups, but mostly I have stood in my 8x8 and observed the place. It's the Community Gathering Place. It's what the commons used to be, since that no longer exists in the modern town of practically everywhere. Pretty much anyone can come down there and do pretty much anything they want, but over the forty years the people who gather to oversee and nurture the Saturday Market have had to place a few limits on the commons when we are using them. Renting them, to be correct. We made a few rules. Not everyone follows them, of course.

Above all, the health and safety of every person who steps on the block is our concern, and not because liability insurance exists, but because it is right. Everyone from the newest babies to the practically ephemeral comes to our Market. Each person is under my protection, the protection of the community I am a part of. I choose to pay my fees and set up my wares and my (not at all "makeshift") business, and I make agreements when I do that. I agree to our Code of Conduct, and to all of the spoken and unspoken agreements of a polite and cooperative society.

So when I get hurt or mad I take care of it. I get counselling or check things out with my neighbors and friends and that is how I right my own ship and keep my relationship with the Saturday Market clean. I'm writing this with a bit of passion and normally I might not publish it right away, but since I made such a strong disclaimer I think I will just throw it out there. I might hang onto my hurt for awhile or I might see the error of my ways, but I have learned (imperfectly) to take responsibility for my own behavior and my thoughts. I expect that of everyone else too, though it is a lot to expect. So again, these are my thoughts, one little old lady in a town of what, 120,000? One voice.

I know people live in that park when I am not renting my little square. I know they must be worse off than me because I have a roof over my head when I go home. I have a car to move into if it gets that bad. I don't like it when those other park users make my life harder by leaving their waste and garbage in my space, but if I am the leader of the Market I ask the city to rent some porta-potties for the people who need them. Our Market spends a ton of money renting multiple ones for Saturdays, and I pay for that. I want my customers, my friends, and my fellow humans to be safe from disease and if possible, discomfort as well. It doesn't take that much thought to provide basic services. Wash your hands. If you run a newspaper, how about not putting in a headline about human waste being found at the Market? That hurt, but if Eugene is anything it is pretty sensible and that one didn't cause as much harm as we feared. People knew that the problem wasn't confined to that location, but was a worldwide problem. Everybody poops.

If I can't eat dairy (which is increasingly true, personally) I don't demand that every booth serve a dairy-free  alternative for me, but I do take my money to support those who do. If they're people I can ask, I get a dish without cheese. If it's wheat, I get a gluten-free crepe or muffin or whatever I need. I don't think that is my right, necessarily, but in a community it is great when we see each others' needs and try to fill them. I find many, many instances of my special needs being important considerations for other people, and vice-versa. I don't use PVC-based ink in my products, because the people who make the PVC die from it. I'm not going to contribute to that if I can help it. Everybody ought to be able to find a job that doesn't kill them, everybody ought to feel like they belong to a society that sees them and hears them.

Of course I know a lot of people after all this time, and I wouldn't keep coming back if my needs didn't get met. I've learned to ask instead of demand, but when it comes to something like my health or safety, I keep asking until I feel safe. Did you know we are a smoke-free market? It's our workplace. Did you know dogs sometimes pee on our booth corners and our weight bags? That's one reason we don't allow pets. Another is that some little people and not-so-little people are afraid of dogs. It's easy enough to ask that people don't bring animals to the Market. Those food booths are restaurants, and they like it clean. In all forty years I have never been sickened by anything at Market, with the exception of the behavior of people who don't seem to know how to live in community. You may love your dog, but love them at home, if you don't mind.

I don't have a single problem with the Weekly coverage of the issue except that it shouldn't have been there. It's not "surprising" that empathetic ears were found at a meeting and a decision was still made that didn't let someone win and someone else lose. Listening is the first skill we learn to practice in group work. The organizations I love the most work within a consensus-seeking practice. That means everyone gets to listen to the concerns of everyone else, and then a solution to whatever problem or situation can be found that will be the most fair to the most people. Nobody gets dismissed, nobody is accused of following a fad or getting on a bandwagon. Pet rocks were a fad. Feeling the Bern is a bandwagon. Chemical Sensitivity is a medical condition that probably should be classified as a disability. Nobody in a consensus-seeking model is going to succeed by dismissing the health and safety concerns of someone else. I think the people of Eugene must know that, because nobody wrote a letter in response to the really surprising statement of last week's column.

I would have loved to have written a response to the Biz Beat article of last week or the one today, but I can't and won't, because I am committed to the consensus-seeking process that is the Saturday Market policy. The Standards Committee is going to take another look at the Scents policy to see if anything was overlooked, is open to misinterpretation, or if undue hardship will be placed on any individual by another. In the commons we have equal rights, in the Market we are equals. Everybody is honored, everybody gets to have their say, open their booth for business, and sell the creations that please them if they can  find people willing to buy. It's really that simple. Process is our policy and we have a lot of meetings, and some of them are long and not that fun. Still, a commitment to process, transparency and fairness has brought us a long way. Remember when the city hated us? It wasn't that long ago. We earned respect because we try to do the right thing. We take our time, we really care about it, and we work hard.

If you think you can stereotype the Saturday Market member, I am here to tell you that you can't. The incubator and start-up opportunity that we participate in is open to everyone, from the ex-Marine with PTSD from Vietnam to the ex-corporate CEO who now just wants to make wood carvings in his garage. If you make it by hand, you are welcome to try to fit yourself into our basket.

The thing is, the basket is big and thousands fit. We all have to get along. Nobody is allowed to kick a hole in it and let the love leak out. At least they are not without attending a goodly number of meetings and learning how to live in it with the rest of us. With all the many thousands of people who have sold, attended, and loved or hated the Market all these years, nobody has managed to kick a hole in the basket yet.

So process will continue and people will continue to be heard and to participate in the group to seek consensus and get their needs met. The trust is there. I don't know the outcome, and I don't bother to try to push it or pull it to fit what I want. I say my piece, and I listen to everyone who cares to comment. As Secretary I don't even have a vote, and I like it that way. As the little old lady, I have this virtual soapbox, ironic as that is at the moment. It doesn't stink.