Local Politics
Listening to one another (even in Facebook groups)
I’m in a community Facebook group for the city where I live. It’s fairly well moderated and honestly better than I expected it to be, as these sorts of online spaces frequently devolve into vitriol. One of the most common topics of conversation? Trash pickup.
Our city within the past few years switched to having bins for pickup after previously just collecting bags from the curb. Now instead of raccoons eating our trash we can complain about neighbors who leave their bins out. These bins are a source of great consternation. It also usually only takes one or two comments for someone to complain about the complaining. Local politics!
What I like best though is one of our local city employees frequents the comments, often just to remind people, hey I live here and work here too. These are not some nameless other people who come and decide to pick up your trash late—these are your neighbors. People know her by name now and frequently express appreciation and ask appropriate questions.
I was a bit surprised then to see an egregious post where someone was asking about why holidays delay trash pickup. Shouldn’t these employees just work through the holidays?
You better believe there was swift pushback on that. Complain about the bins, but don’t speak ill of the workers.
The particular irony of this being asked on a day celebrating the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was not lost on me. In his last days, Dr. King was organizing alongside sanitation workers in Memphis after the horrific deaths of Echol Cole and Robert Walker. These two men were killed by unsafe working conditions, as their garbage truck malfunctioned when they were trying to take refuge on a rainy day.1 All to say, yes, public works employees should receive a paid holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The dignity of work is not an abstract concept. It’s in ongoing conversations, labor negotiations, and clergy compensation guidelines. And it quite literally took King’s assassination for Memphis to provide raises to African American employees and recognize the labor union.
Collective understanding about work—who is getting paid, who is not, and who decides—is as relevant today as it was in 1968. It’s easy to think our conversations are just trivial chatter. But check out the workers around you. Are your public works employees unionized? Does your church pay employees more than minimum wage (please and thank you)? Who is working holidays? We’re obligated to know.
Even if that information sometimes comes through Facebook groups.
What I’m reading
I highly recommend “The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy” by
. It’s a historical look at the overlapping stories of Indigenous peoples and African Americans. Jones often writes with an eye toward white Christianity and the evils it has long perpetrated. It’s a good primer on buried history like the Doctrine of Discovery. Would recommend for a church study group, too.Tech tip
I’m working on my alt text writing. There’s a real skill to it! For example, I am now going to be better at never including “picture of” or “image of” in an alt text description. It’s just not necessary. Not sure what that is? You probably have some images online that could use some description. Learn more here.
What life looks like
Gray winter mornings.
https://www.history.com/news/sanitation-workers-strike-memphis