Doing my part

I think each of us, in our own small way, should contribute toward making the world a better place.

Here's what I do.

Whenever I go to Costco or to the supermarket, I stop by the book section.  Instead of books being on shelves, the books are laid out in stacks on a table top.  I locate the books by right wing fanatics like Ann Coulter or Bill O'Reilly and I hide them.  It's not that clever, really.  I simply borrow a book from another stack and cover up the offending title.  So instead of seeing "How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)" staring up at them, shoppers will instead see what appear to be two stacks of, say, "The Kite Runner."

When we moved back to the US, I started doing this at the local store about once every week or two.  Each time I came back, Ann Coulter's ugly title was visible again.  And, again, I'd conceal it.  I'd get a little more inventive each week.  Instead of using a book from the next stack over, I'd use one from the other side of the table.  Or I'd create a hole where the Ann Coulter books should have been and move the Coulter books a few stacks over so it looked like they were sold out.  

I often wondered whether the same employee was responsible for putting the books back.  Did he or she think of it as some bizarre game of cat and mouse? Or was it a different employee each time, so no one made the connection that someone was doing his part to prevent the dumbening of supermarket shoppers?

In any event, a few weeks ago I walked up to the table.  Ann Coulter's books were gone.  I paused.  What could this mean? Had I won? Had the supermarket thrown up its hands and said, "The hell with it.  We don't sell any of these books in Seattle, anyway, and it's too much trouble having to fix the table once a week?"

Or had something more sinister occurred? Had the books actually sold out? Did people really want to read these books? Had my efforts been in vain, or did demand for these books mean the efforts were worthwhile even if the books were eventually purchased?

Was there someone else like me--but more effective at concealing the books? I envision someone even more daring.  Instead of hiding the books elsewhere on the table, maybe they were moved to the snack food aisle and hidden behind bags of pork rinds? (Not that I think behind pork rinds would be a good hiding place; I suspect that many consumers of pork rinds are also readers of Ann Coulter).

In any event, I felt like a man without a purpose.  I halfheartedly browsed the titles and then walked to the organic food section.

Now I need to find another way to contribute.