Today is Martin Luther King Jr Day, a federal holiday. It’s also my weekly shopping day.

I used to try to shop on Wednesdays when I first retired in order to avoid morning crowds, but the pandemic upended that fine planning. I would go shopping on whatever day would be appropriate based on what was supposed to be on store shelves at specific locations. Over time my shopping day drifted to Tuesday, and now it’s on Monday. If I get to Costco (which is where I do the bulk of my grocery shopping) early enough, I can get my gas without waiting and find a conveniently close parking spot, then head in as soon as they roll up the entrance door. I’ve got my shopping list on my iPhone, and I also use a calculator app to keep a running total of everything I put in my cart so I can keep a tight rein on expenses. The things you do in retirement these days.

The next spot I stop at on shopping Monday is the super Target next to the Costco. It’s there I pick up the few minor things that Costco doesn’t sell, like individual cans of vegetable refried beans and diet Bunderberg ginger bear. While I was on the way to the checkout, I happened to pass an end cap with m&m candies stacked on it. And wouldn’t you know it, they had those awful feminist m&m’s, like the small pack I bought yesterday at Walgreens. I didn’t get any today because that’s way too many for me to eat, and besides that, the bags are $12.59 each, which to be honest is a frivolous expense. If I have to spend that much money it had better be for something more important than a “party size” bag of m&m’s, or any candy for that matter. Lord only knows what that amount of candy would do to my blood sugar; if the candy didn’t kill me, my wife would for getting a bag like that.

I’m still amazed that the hard right (no longer need to call them conservative, because they can’t conserve anything) get wound up over little candies and how they’re presented. But this is the same type of hateful and prejudiced minds that have discriminated against black Americans since they were brought unwillingly to this continent centuries ago. Black Americans have been the targets of discrimination, violence, and death, from lynchings on up to MLK’s assassination in Memphis in 1968, and beyond to rampant police shootings around this nation. I’m sure this petty contrived outrage over m&m’s is an attempt to obscure the importance of this day and all the dark history against blacks the MLK holiday is meant to remind us of.