Harpers Magazine has put a suggestion out there for a National Strike, no working, no shopping, no traveling, nothing. The day they have chosen to do this is 6 Nov, election day. That's great but it's not good enough. We need a bigger day for an impact. I propose 23 Nov, the Friday after Thanksgiving. Also known as "Black Friday", the day most retailers go black in operating cost.
It will also be a better time to get more people involved. Using a regular workday is good, using a representative day like Election Day is better. But using the biggest shopping day all year makes a statement. And we can't just not shop on Friday, it has to be the whole weekend, no making up for Friday on Saturday or Sunday. Asking a majority of people to not go to work would be tough but using a day where they are already at home and all you are asking is that they not go out, not spend money would to me seem to be less of an insurmountable goal.
After 9/11 George W. Bush asked nothing of America. He asked no one to sacrifice, except our military and their families. Since 9/11 no one has suffered a hardship except the victims of 9/11 and their families and the military and their families. Instead of asking Americans to make sacrifices to overcome what had happened that day George W. Bush told us to go shopping, and America did.
Meanwhile, George put us at war with a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. That's like slapping your child because the dog crapped in the house. Attacking a country for being attacked is a reasonable response and we were doing that, but it wasn't enough for this administration. They wanted a bigger prize than Afghanistan offered them. Some in the administration had greater plans for the Middle East and also had scores to settle from the first Gulf War.
So Dear Friends lets stay home on Friday 23 Nov, save your money and your energy. Besides, did you really want to fight those crowds? Now you have a great reason to stay home. Support Peace and Stay Home.
And because we are looking for better days, a musical thought for you.
Pilot Mountain
Southbound on US 52
3 comments:
It wasn't actually Harper's, it was their guest columnist, Garrett Keizer (credit where due and all).
Been pimpin this article for about a month and haven't yet seen it in wide distro.
I especially like the concept of a Gen Strike as a way to say to the next Preznit - as Keizer puts it -
"How much better if we could say
to our next administration: Don't
talk about Bush. We dealt with
Bush. We dealt with Bush and in so
doing we demonstrated our ability to deal with you."
That's why I post a link to original article. It covers any errors I might make.
Check out the comments made over at Daily Kos in my Mojo Friday diary. Over there my username is TexDem.
But, given that Edwards' candidacy seems to be very much a grassroots, populist campaign, I wouldn't be surprised to see him spend the summer carrying the message directly to the people eschewing traditional campaign tactics should he be the nominee. Will it work? I don't know, but it could be interesting to watch.
Try this link. I obviously missed on the copying.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/5/9301/20776
Post a Comment