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Begin rant …

To be honest, all the SUV bashing I’ve been reading lately is starting to wear thin. It’s much too much like the BMW haters of a decade or so ago. It seems to be driven as much by envy as indignation over wasting gas.

But then it snows in Knoxville. And all those wankers who drive $40k SUVs on dry pavement all week can’t get in to work. And I start wondering if maybe the folks bashing SUV drivers are dead-on. Why are they wasting all this money on 4x4s that they’re afraid to drive when it gets a bit slippery. Grocery carts don’t need four-wheel-drive …

Here’s a little tribute to all those daring young yuppies who are staying home today because of the snow …

… end rant

When I taught at the University of Birmingham at Alabama, I always assigned Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” to the students. It hit close to home, and it was a good example of rhetorical method. I try to take a moment to read it every year on the King Holiday. It’s a stark reminder of the role some so-called Christian churches played during the civil rights movement, and it’s a beautiful piece of writing. I guess sitting in jail on behalf of a just cause can prove inspirational.

Here it is if you want to give it a read …

As I read it again this year, I was struck by the parallelism he uses so often in his speeches and writing. Very similar to Whitman. And very Biblical, too. Parallelism is such a great device here, signalling an equality of sentence structure and thought as he argues for equality and human rights:

“Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, “Wait.” But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”; when your first name becomes “nigger,” your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you no forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness” then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.”

I always thought Amazon.com was everything Internet commerce should be. It was technologically smart and utilitarian. Comprehensive. Convenient. But when push came to shove, it came up lacking in the most important category: heart.

I bought three $50 gift certificates for my nephews and niece for Christmas 2001. For some reason, they never used them and by the time I found out and tried to help them with their order, it was one year and one day after I bought the certificates. They expire after one year.

I sent a note to Amazon. Noted I spend a lot of money with them. Asked if I could still redeem the certificates. Afterall, we’re talking one day. Loyal customer. A lot of business. I understand that businesses have rules, but good businesses know when to be slavishly adherent to rules and when to bend them. This, I argued, is a case where Amazon should cut me a break.

They disagreed. After talking via e-mail to several folks there, I realized my money was gone and they weren’t going to honor the certificates (even though they had my money). So I told them to remove me from their databases. I was taking my business elsewhere. (To their credit, they appear to have done so; I’m not getting any Amazon spam since I made that request). I figured I’d give Barnes and Nobel a shot.

But then I stumbled across an independent bookseller in Portland, Oregon: Powell’s Books. I remember visiting there when I was in Portland once. It was impressive, taking up an entire city block or so and having a very personal feel. It reminded me of the Tattered Cover in Denver.

I’ve placed my first order with them, and I’m very impressed so far. Their e-commerce engine is easy to use and flexible, and I like the flexibility built into their shopping cart. And the relatively obscure titles I was chasing were in stock. I even found used copies, which will save me some money. Next time you’re looking for a book online, give them a shot:

http://www.powells.com/