Calling Bullshit

'Tis the season. I love the way the internet makes it so easy to get a wide audience when you have a cause to mount...and it is a sacred duty to call it when you see it, I feel. I am almost always proud of people who can see through the fog and go for the truth even when it causes people to squirm uncomfortably and issue their denials and rationalizations. And I can say that I welcome it when it happens to me, but that's a bit more complicated. Nobody likes to be called a liar, however gently, and when you apply some compassion you can usually see how they got to their false assumption or why they are interested in spreading the faulty information.

There is so much of this going around my world right now! I do welcome the discussions of white privilege and white fragility and feminism and how it works in politics and our personal lives. I have about as many prejudices and misconceptions as the average TV-raised white American, well, not average, because average is dumb, (I think George Carlin gets the credit for that) but I do fall into the pits of not-knowing fairly regularly. It can be embarrassing, but actually I struggle a lot more with stopping myself from the calling of the bullshit.

I want to do it right. The bullshit usually hurt someone, and I don't want to hurt someone else in exchange, and there is also the self-protection piece. I'm vulnerable, and can have plenty to lose by standing up in certain ways, because the world is not fair, and the standard-bearers get shot down as quickly as those who are less righteous and willing to carry that particular flag. And sometimes I am complicit in the benefits gained from the spreading of the bullshit...except that I don't stomach that well. Moral ambiguity is a land where maybe no one should be too comfortable.

My latest gut-churner is the continuing repeat of the lie that Lane County Farmers' Market is 100 years old. Why do they keep doing that? I get that they want to strengthen their brand and not keep depending on Saturday Market to define the corner with our giant advertising budget (that's sarcasm), I get that they have been working on their own identity. That's not a bad thing in itself. There's a lot to celebrate in 30 years of bringing farmers to downtown. But the fact is that without Saturday Market they would not exist. It's printed right there on our website in our history, so except for maybe their new Director, they can't say they don't know it isn't true. Even she ought to have read every word on that website since we are such tight neighbors and have been so for so long. So there's that aspect, and one reason I haven't gone public really, because it makes SM look kind of petty if we bring it up. We know who we are, and what we did.

But every time they say it on TV or in the newspaper I just cringe and get angry. Why not mention us? Why not celebrate that synergy that we all benefit from, why not show how far they have come from those hippie roots like we do? There's something dark in them trying to dismiss us. It's kind of revisionist. I'm an amateur Eugene historian, and I don't see the purpose or benefit of rewriting history from a community perspective. Why can't we all work together for mutual benefit? We always have all this time. The relationships across the street are strong on both sides. Everyone with any observations skills can see how it all works for all of us.
But I try to keep quiet. I want them to be successful and stay over there on that block. I want all that to continue for my own benefit. I've been welcomed to sell at the Tuesday Market for many years and I don't want to feel unwelcome.

There was a time when I tried to call bullshit on them when I was taking minutes at their meetings, and when the 8th St. closure was a quietly fought issue in the city, and I know I made some enemies over there. I was defending my life and it's viability, I thought, so I tried to keep my head with so much at stake, and it seemed that we all managed to grow past that and be friends again. I have to admit that I still am wary, though, of just what might happen in their drive to grow that might hurt me. I liked it better when I knew they would never do anything to compromise my own organization. That trust needs to be fostered and tended. So I'm still trying to do that on my own part, trust that indeed whatever happens will also benefit me and my own organization and all of it's 600 plus members. We matter a lot, and surely that is understood by the farmers, the city, and the county.

But I have to call bullshit on Mike Clark, too, when I watch him in action on the City Council. I don't think he cares a bit what might happen to Saturday Market, or even the farmers, when he brings remodeling the Park Blocks to the agenda. I think he wants to promote himself as a great mayoral candidate. I think he would be a disaster for me, quite possibly, because I heard him say his model and vision for the Park Blocks is Oakway Mall. I guess maybe he has never been to Saturday Market.

I could go on, but I'm supposed to be working. I just had to get this off my chest so I could go earn some more money with my honest work of making things from nothing. I'm proud of my right livelihood, as all of us should be who weathered recessions by creating jobs for ourselves and have continued to make our priceless contributions to the culture of Eugene and Lane County and to improve the lives of all of our visitors from all over the world. We have so much to be proud of! We should be honored and have other organizations and businesses downtown fighting for space to be next to us. Talk about downtown revitalization...what else happens on Saturdays down there? A lot these days, but go back to the 70's and 80's and even the 90's. All this shiny new stuff is here because we have stuck with our little 8x8s and made this work.

All of our fees are the only income Saturday Market has ever had to do all of the things we have ever done. We pay rent to the City, and we used to pay it to the County until they kind of threw us under the bus with what's happening over at the FSP. We ought to feel that honoring once in awhile, of creating all of that through our common effort. I call bullshit on everyone who criticizes us by saying we are boring old hippies who never change. Come down and see what is new every week. Bring money. Build community in a place where people like to be honest and forthright and independent and put their hands and hearts together to create something wonderfully new and precious. Every week.

And after you go to Saturday Market, come to the Jell-O Art Show. See something that has happened for 28 years that is unlike anything else in the whole damn world. See me and my friends produce an event that is pure delight and no bullshit. You know you need to see it for yourself once in awhile, or you might just start believing the PR too. Come and check out the real thing. You are so lucky that you can.