Please consider using your MLK Day of Service to help me with my new apartment
Honor Dr. King’s legacy by breaking down all this cardboard
A re-post of something I originally wrote in 2017.
If anybody has the day off today and would be interested in volunteering I’ve got a lot of stuff around my apartment that could be done.
I just moved, and my new place could use a lot of cleaning. Maybe some painting. Hanging up a few pictures would sure make the place feel like home. The company I work for doesn’t seem to think giving their employees the day off to honor Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. is a good idea, so I can’t do it all myself. I spent my weekend getting acquainted with the nightlife in my new neighborhood and then recovering from all the acquainting by sleeping until the late afternoon.
Come on over, whatever time is good for you. Which should be whenever since you have the day off. You can sweep my floors while talking about King’s work during the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955. Do you know that during the three hundred eighty-five day boycott, things became so tense his house was bombed? Man, I can’t even imagine that. I just moved in, ya know?
To paraphrase the great Dr. King himself there is no “more convenient season” to act in helping me get all set up in my new place than now. You have the day off, you’re not really doing anything, anyways. What better than to just get a bunch of people together so we can bang this out really fast? Sure, it might get tense with a bunch of us (I mean, you) working together, some of you may butt heads, but do you prefer some kind of negative peace (my place staying dirty and not set up) in the absence of tension to a positive peace (the chill-ass vibes we’ll get when everything is in its right place and we can kick back on the couch with a brew and a slice of ‘za) that will come in the presence of justice (my pad being dope!).
I know what you’re thinking: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action.” I mean, come on, dude, what do you think you can set the timetable on another man’s (me) freedom (cool crib)? Who are you to tell me that my want to have a bunch of other people unpack my stuff, clean my apartment, and move everything around for me until I’m happy isn’t the best way to get that shit done. It’s my stuff, it’s my place, I think I know what’s best.
I have a dream that one day soon my couch will be in place and my ROKU box will be plugged into my TV and connected to my wifi and my Netflix and HBO and Amazon accounts will be set up and my queues will be full of cool stuff to watch to keep me entertained, and my dishes will be in my cabinets, and my fridge will be full of food (can you pick up some groceries for me on your way over please?) and I truly will be free at last.
So, yeah, like I said — I have to work today so I’m not home. But there’s a key under the welcome mat. Let yourself in, hang out and work for as long as you want. And as Martin Luther King, Jr. himself said: “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase” because it’s full of boxes of my stuff. They should be labeled what room they belong in for when you unpack them. Thanks again you’re a peach.
