Met Dick Gregory Last Night

Photo from Smithsonian.com magazine

Civil Rights Icon Starting a Fast for Haiti

I was just sitting in the lobby of a Washington DC hotel enjoying an adult beverage and the football games when I look over and at the next table is Civil Rights icon Dick Gregory. I was in DC for the National Coalition for the Homeless Board meeting. I am not a star struck/autograph type of person , but this was Dick Gregory. I played his comedy routines on a radio show in college and used many of his anti-war speeches in my activism. He spoke frequently in the 1980s and 1990s about the problems facing the African American community in America.

This is the guy who did the heavy lifting so that kids today can wear their pants on the ground or choose a college based on the amount of zeros in their bank account and not the color of their skin. He was in DC because he was starting a fast on Monday for raising awareness about Haiti. I would have never recognized him, but I watched the Mark Twain Prize for Bill Cosby and he was a presenter. He is 77 years old and doing a fast to push Americans to continue to help this country as the shock of the initial tragedy wears off. Gregory is doing 7 days without food or liquids and then 23 days with only liquids. This is not his first hunger strike. He is amazing.

He talked to the three NCH Board members about the history of the Haiti and his theories about poverty in America. He says that he uses the sale of Alpo, Spam and Hamburger Helper as a gauge for the food security of a neighborhood. When the sales of these low priced "food" items increase in a neighborhood that means that people are having a hard time, according to Gregory. He said that in some extremely poor communities, people resort to eating dog food, and to avoid the embarrassment they remove the labels. Gregory claimed that the marketers at Alpo have realized that some people buy this food to eat, and so they removed the picture of the dog from the cans. The one good side of this, according to Gregory, was that dog food has more regulations on it than most human food.

Dick Gregory integrated comedy clubs and marched against the racist wars of the United States. He ran for president in 1968 and fought against corporate control, racism, and pay inequality for women. He looks like he has weathered many struggles in his life, but still looks good for 77 years. Gregory was sitting with an advisor and his doctor planning this fast for Haiti on Sunday night. All I said was thanks for all that you have done for the United States and good luck in raising awareness about Haiti.

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.