This Is Community; This Is Resistance
Fayetteville, Arkansas, take note. Something good is happening in your community, and I bet most of you didn’t even know it. Yeah, you’ve had Ozark Mountain Foods, one of the most successful food cooperatives in the country for some time. Yeah, you’ve had a farmers market downtown. You have several local bakeries producing their own bread. Yes, you’ve had the venerable Dickson Street Shop stuffed full of great used books for fair prices. But now it’s even better.
Fayetteville is the home of a new gathering spot and eatery, Smiling Jack’s. It’s a locally owned, community gathering place featuring live, local music, a robust menu and service with a smile. There’s a big deck where you can sit and bask in the sun, enjoy a spinach salad with fresh strawberry’s or one of my favorites, a grilled cheese sandwich with basil and tomato. Yum, yum!
According to the manager I spoke with, most of the food, probably close to seventy percent, is locally produced and organic, so Jack’s offers the best of both worlds: a locally owned establishment featuring locally produced food. A retail-farming partnership that not only creates economic opportunity but provides a needed service to the community. And it’s even in a refurbished, existing building in the center of the city.
How ’bout them apples?
Two items not locally produced but deeply appreciated were the New Belgium and Sierra Nevada beers. As I sat on the deck under a brilliant blue sky enjoying a seasonal New Belgium brew called Sunshine, the two man ensemble played Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.” Hard to beat that combination….
And all of this in a region known for being the headquarters of Wal-Mart and Tyson Foods, the latter being one of the biggest and cruelest polluters on the planet.
Folks, this is how we resist the dominant cultural trend. Instead of giving our money to chains that are driven solely by profit and have no real interest in our communities, we support the local guy. Instead of chemically enhanced foods shipped with the help of a non-sustainable resource, we take a more sustainable approach and buy locally produced organics. Instead of building new buildings we recycle existing ones. In doing so, we support one another. We create solidarity and establish a sustainable, egalitarian society in parallel to the existing, non-sustainable, hierarchical one.
I believe there are endless opportunities like this for the clever and the driven. We need more Smiling Jack’s. We need more bike shops. Open computer repair shop that’s employee owned. More food cooperatives. Bakeries. Booksellers. Doctors, if you’re fed up with insurance and government, let’s create employee owned clinics, even medical cooperatives with Internists, OB-GYN’s, Radiologists, Gastroenterologists and other specialists under one roof. There’s a way, if you’re willing to make less money, but in return, drop the administrative headaches.
Smiling Jack’s was full of people both days I stopped by. Conversely, our society is full of opportunities for similar endeavors. But we must seize the opportunity, turn our backs on the status quo and create a new society. It’s my belief that we can create a completely parallel society to the existing one, or even a society within a society. One that features point of use, sustainable energy. Locally produced, organic food. Alternative schools. Jobs and retail that’s close enough to home so people can walk and bike.
This is also a way we can stop the advancement of capital.
This is the new Western Frontier. Full opportunity, but also full of challenges. It won’t be easy. But the only way to build a truly egalitarian, sustainable society is for each one of us to step and take it upon ourselves to create the essential piece parts.
It can be done, and as it’s often said “Build it, and they will come.”