Oh man, I have a serious Walmart hangover. It's all T's fault, really: after camping, I realized I needed a mess kit for the upcoming portable Suddeth Thanksgiving. Everywhere I checked they weren't thin enough, or foldy enough, or cute enough. Unfortunately, T's evil Walmart kit was....just right. I felt (and probably sounded) just like a drug addict, slouching down the aisle and muttering, "This is the LAST time, I swear!" and pulsing in the back of my mind was the thought, "Greg is seriously unimpressed with you right now."
You see, Greg not only didn't shop at Walmart, but he could also provide you a list of precisely how Walmart was ruining the world. He loved his soapbox tirades, but he also prided himself on being well-informed in his rage. As I got older, it became a joke that he would literally take a little hop and a bow at the end of a rant, stepping down from his soapbox.
Other issues that got him going:
Education: When my dad was a student teacher of history, he got in trouble for showing videos of Vietnam War protests and holding "current events" discussions. Many other teachers at that time didn't address the "social studies" aspect of history, but he made his students be aware and participate in the unfolding of their own lives. When I became a teacher, he ordered innovative math curriculums and taped PBS specials about early childhood literacy and poverty as a learning disability.
GLBT Rights: Greg and I went to a SAG screening for Milk, which led to a discussion of Proposition 6, which I had never heard of and which was on the ballot the year after Greg & Sharon moved to CA. Prop 6 would have made the firing of all gay teachers mandatory. Of course, Greg was livid then and he was livid in 2008 about Prop 8. According to him, "Gay marriage isn't a sex issue, and that's where people get confused. It's an issue of civil rights. Marriage is a basic civil right for everybody or for nobody."
He watched Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart, but he also told me that he read conservative newspapers in college, because it's "important to know your enemy."
He believed in unions, but he wasn't naive.
He gave away hundreds of dollar bills, dozens of hot Thanksgiving plates, and several blankets.....but the recipient had to have worse shoes than his.
He believed in animal rights, but not at the expense of human rights. PETA billboards made him shout. Hurricane Katrina news coverage made him give.
He put his money where his mouth was and pushed hard to see Barack Obama elected as the first Black president of the US. I'm so grateful it happened during his lifetime.
Oh, and he also campaigned for George McGovern. Ha.
