I do want to mention that I have heard from Shugars, who is working diligently on a T-boycott, but is hitting all the usual roadblocks.

She has contacted organizations that claim to represent T-riders or their interests, and has gotten no reply. She says she did get a response from the Sierra Club, “who thought it was a bad idea.”

As for my suggestion that a boycott without a rally is like a hotdog without a bun, Shoogs is not so surre: “Doesn’t it seem a little weird to ask people not to take public transit and ask them to go somewhere at the same time?”

My answer: well, yeah, sorta. But we’re living in weird times.

Example: I’m sure the Sierra Club thinks a boycott’s a bad idea because people should be encouraged to use mass transit, not discouraged from it, even for a day.

Example: liberals are supposed to be for organized labor, but unions end up as often as not as corrupt, intransigent, and bullying as the companies they’re up against. (Unfortunately, that seems to be what happens when people get too organized.)

Note that both of these examples pit people generally sympathetic to each other’s causes against each other, paralyzing them when it comes to effective action against a common foe. That’s politics, baby. Weird.

But when you think about it, this could be a very “teachable moment.” A public transit boycott doesn’t mean that people are gonna sit at home all day. Do you honestly expect people who boycott the T on a workday to stay home from work and lose a day of income, too? It’s not gonna happen. The whole point is to show the T that we can get to work without them. That we’re doing them as much a favor by using their service as they are doing us by providing it.

The reason the T has leverage here is that people feel trapped. How can I get around without the T? So the teachable moment comes when they try it and see that it can be done. It can be done through car-pooling. It can be done through cycling. It can be done in some cases by walking. I plan to skydive in, myself. I have a colleague who will be hang-gliding, and a friend who’s just dying to debut his Leonardo Da Vinci-inspired flying machine. Vee have vays, as zey say.

But let me let you in on a little secret about screaming into the void. “Silent protests” don’t work. “Invisible protests” don’t work. Especially when you’ve got a deadline. Invisible people can’t be photographed, for one thing. Crowds get front-page coverage. If there’s no one to scream and shout and ululate, to march with banners with goofy slogans on them, hold up posters and babies swaddled in American flags, there’s no photo-op. If there’s no photo-op, there’s no story in the news. If there’s no story in the news, it never happened. You want an invisible protest? You got one.

Rallies are happenings, celebrations of our collective impotence in the face of powers that don’t give a rat’s ass what we think. One-day boycotts where you sit at home in your PJs all day, eating tubs of Häagen-Dazs Light, scratching your ass and watching back-to-back Judge Judies are non-happenings. Eat as many tubs of Häagen-Dazs Light, watch as many Judge Judies as you want. It will never be a happening.

You could easily turn one of these public meetings with the T into a mass protest, too, though. It would call for a little civil disobedience, of course. A lot of people showing up at meetings with signs and babies (and not just baby arms, you guys) to wave around. But a real rally in addition to a presence at scheduled T-sponsored meetings would seal the deal. But it’s a lot of work getting the word out and making something like that happen.

These are just a few humble thoughts of a very simple man. I have to be honest. This is really the most I can offer, philosophical Taoist that I have decided I now am. In keeping with my deeply-held beliefs about the universe, I have no choice but to skip all the rest of the Kübler-Ross cycle and just go straight to Acceptance. And I will see you all there shortly, I am sure. I’m baking cookies in anticipation, but please, bring your own milk.