Last Saturday, I did what I have done many times this year: take a branded grocery bag and head for Trailblazer Park in Travelers Rest, South Carolina. It was the last Farmer’s Market of the year, and the place was packed with people.
I need a picture of this, I thought to myself and turned to the man standing beside a pick-up truck. “Is this your truck? If so, I’d like to step on the bumper and take a picture.” I will do you one better, he said, and dropped the tailgate. Up I climbed and took both a picture and a video. It was a beautiful day.
“Thank you,” I said, jumping down and extending my hand. I noticed the stitching on his short-sleeve shirt: Police Department. When I inquired, he explained, “I am the police chief,” and handed me his card. And that is now he became the first of one hundred people to answer the five questions I had prepared for my survey.
I introduced my self to Bennie Ford and handed him my card. “I am a religion scholar doing a survey today. You can be number one.” And he said OK.
“Do you recognize the name Charlie Kirk?” I asked. He said yes, as did 97 of the 100 people. Three people said no: one was from Italy, another from Brazil, and the third had just come in from the wilds. “I don’t read and watch any news,” he said. “I don’t know what is going on. I grow mushrooms in the hills and just come to town for Market.”
My goal was 100 people, and I had no idea how long it would take. Over the next 150 minutes 14 people turned me down. Some just shook their heads when I handed my card, others gave it back and walked away.
“Do you know what happened to Charlie Kirk last week?” I asked, and again 97 people said Yes. Things changed when question three was posed. “Were you familiar with Charlie Kirk before his death?” This time, 33 people said no. Others offered: “I have been following him for years.”
I wasn’t interested in lengthy conversations; but they happened, and I listened and took notes, not sure then or now what to do with the material until one vendor asked, “Do you want a sponsor for your broadcast tomorrow?” He was asking because I explained to most people, as I handed my card, that I would report on the survey on my website and also on my Sunday broadcast. More than a few promised to tune in and maybe they did. I hope Steven Reid did because I included his picture in the broadcast and testified to the yumminess of his “fine pimento cheese spread” made and distributed by his “Humble Roots” catering service. He had given me an 8-ounce jar of his “spreadable edible” and it was mostly gone (eaten) by the time the broadcast rolled round Sunday morning.
“Does your opinion of him today tend to be positive or negative?” I asked. And by almost a 2-1 ratio, people said Positive. I was not surprised. Well maybe, a little surprised that so many people—36, to be exact—in this ruby red state of South Carolina were not so enamored of the now-slain 31-year-old man. That became more pronounced with question five.
“Do you think of Charlie Kirk more as a Christian witness, a campus free-speecher, or as a political activist?”
That is a difficult question, more than one person said, and I defended myself: “I gave you four easy questions! You can handle one hard one!”
And they did, with these results: 32 said Witness, 30 said Activist, and 22 said Free-Speecher. A few responded with all three or two of the three, and I let some of them enter that response. But mostly I pressed them to make a choice.
And what came of this? My surprise at how much fun it was and how sorry I had not done something like this earlier in the summer, but also at the strong correlation between those who had a negative take of Charlie Kirk and those who considered him a political activist.
Thank you, Chief Ford, for bringing your team to the park, for being neighborly with me about your truck, and for being the first of one hundred to take the quiz. I don’t recall how you responded to the questions, but I an say about everything else, “You done good!”
