THE MARKET PLACE AT WORK

I was trained as a sociologist.

A sociologist, by definition, is interested in the behavior patterns of people in various sociological situations.

One place where a great many of people end up eventually is the grocery store.

The grocery store parking lot is a place where a great cross section of the population may be observed with some ease.

One of my favorite things to do is to go to the grocery store and watch and listen as people pass by. I frequent three grocery stores in town, Publix Market, Winn Dixie and Wal-Mart.

Here are some of the things I have observed.

A number of the people who pass by in the parking lot, do not speak proper English, use vulgar language, dress toward the lower echelons of society (which, if they all dress that way I suppose defines a new class of society), argue with each other without ceasing, and speak of Barack Obama as though he is the answer to life's issues.

Not all of them, but many.

Interestingly, the younger the passer by, the more he/she conforms to the above behavior patterns.

I am also able to "categorize" the passers by according to various external characteristics, ethnicity, race, age, language group, etc.

My observations are not a scientific sociological study, just my impressions of the general attitude and behavior of those who pass by.

These are not the same attitudes I observe in church or in most businesses in the area, but they are what I see in grocery store parking lots.

I believe that if we are to be what we should be as a nation, we must change at the level of the "average" person.

I don't believe there is any sociological or governmental way to do that. It must come as a result of the people coming to know their Creator (you know, the one who endowed them with certain unalienable rights).