Let it snow, let it snow, let it stop snowing now
It finally snowed. Ski resorts are rejoicing.
It's been snowing since last night. I had to shovel off a good foot of snow from my car. On the way home from the bookstore it was coming down so fast I had another 3-4 inches on my rear window. It snowed all through the night and has resumed snowing again mid-morning. We are going to my cousin's mission farewell this afternoon and I'm hoping the storm will let up.
So, Friday was "Buy Nothing Day". This time last year I was with Tom and MJ in New York City of all places for the annual Black Friday. We saw the protesters at Times Square-which was awesome. We'd had this dialogue about not buying anything-which was alright with me since I didn't really have a whole lot of money and had been thinking of quitting my job at the time. But we'd determined buying nothing on the biggest shopping day of the year only hurts the little guy who depends on that day for business. I thought to just not buy anything from big retailers. Actually Tom and I ended up buying a cup of herbal tea from Starbucks-but we were cold...okay and we spent money on a movie, but we couldn't get tickets to Wicked, even though we tried very hard and stood in line for a very long time.
Well I thought about Buy Nothing Day this year, even telling my family members (much to their chagrin) that it was bad to give in to our consumer culture like that. They already know how I feel about Walmart. My mom bears her testimony of that store every time I bring it up. But then there was nothing to do in the house but eat and watch children's movies and my parents had gone to pick up the motorhome (they bought a new motorhome for when my dad retires) and I had to get out of the house. Well the only thing to do seemed to be to go to the nearby shops. I was just going to look around, maybe visit Wild Oats, or read some magazines at the bookstore. But then...I saw Old Navy, and I saw how cheap it is...and I CAVED! I got some really cute new shirts and they were super cheap and super cute-especially the pink one, and on SALE. But I did refrain from buying an adorable sweater I wanted, so I did use SOME self-control. Okay, don't judge, Old Navy is not world domination-though I'm not exactly sure if their clothes come from sweatshops or child labor factories. But then there's the argument we're giving these people jobs so...Sometimes I wish I didn't try to justify things, and that I knew the right thing to do to help the most amount of people, and that it was in line with what I want, too-like an adorable long sleeve pink t-shirt.
It's been snowing since last night. I had to shovel off a good foot of snow from my car. On the way home from the bookstore it was coming down so fast I had another 3-4 inches on my rear window. It snowed all through the night and has resumed snowing again mid-morning. We are going to my cousin's mission farewell this afternoon and I'm hoping the storm will let up.
So, Friday was "Buy Nothing Day". This time last year I was with Tom and MJ in New York City of all places for the annual Black Friday. We saw the protesters at Times Square-which was awesome. We'd had this dialogue about not buying anything-which was alright with me since I didn't really have a whole lot of money and had been thinking of quitting my job at the time. But we'd determined buying nothing on the biggest shopping day of the year only hurts the little guy who depends on that day for business. I thought to just not buy anything from big retailers. Actually Tom and I ended up buying a cup of herbal tea from Starbucks-but we were cold...okay and we spent money on a movie, but we couldn't get tickets to Wicked, even though we tried very hard and stood in line for a very long time.
Well I thought about Buy Nothing Day this year, even telling my family members (much to their chagrin) that it was bad to give in to our consumer culture like that. They already know how I feel about Walmart. My mom bears her testimony of that store every time I bring it up. But then there was nothing to do in the house but eat and watch children's movies and my parents had gone to pick up the motorhome (they bought a new motorhome for when my dad retires) and I had to get out of the house. Well the only thing to do seemed to be to go to the nearby shops. I was just going to look around, maybe visit Wild Oats, or read some magazines at the bookstore. But then...I saw Old Navy, and I saw how cheap it is...and I CAVED! I got some really cute new shirts and they were super cheap and super cute-especially the pink one, and on SALE. But I did refrain from buying an adorable sweater I wanted, so I did use SOME self-control. Okay, don't judge, Old Navy is not world domination-though I'm not exactly sure if their clothes come from sweatshops or child labor factories. But then there's the argument we're giving these people jobs so...Sometimes I wish I didn't try to justify things, and that I knew the right thing to do to help the most amount of people, and that it was in line with what I want, too-like an adorable long sleeve pink t-shirt.
Comments
This is where the "brick" reference on my blog came from:
My Blog:
On LDS Linkup, there’s a lady from Britain who is not all there to put it nicely. She often “hijacks” boards with her beyond random comments. However, the other day, her comment on the boards was, “"people should be free do what they wanna but if anybody even look at me i throw a brick." Thank you Mary.
The problem with Wal-Mart is that they feed on the poor and make others poor, thus adding to their customer base. For instance, the poor people can't afford stuff at the mom and pop stores because they don't have economy of scale like Wal-mart so they have to charge more to be able to eat at night when they only sell one or two items all day. So with all the people in the usually small town shopping else where, mom and pop have to close their store and usually other chains like K-Mart, Ames, etc, have to close too b/c Wal-Mart has "everything" so no one goes there anymore. So now mom and pop are poorer, the unemployed workers from mom and pop's store and the other retailers are poorer, the custome base is still poor, and Wal-mart treats their employees like crap to keep them poor. So while the family in Arkansas gets richer and richer, along withe Wal-mart's stock holders, everyone basically between Washington DC and San Francisco is treading down this capitalistic spiral. I don't blame Wal-mart per say, they are just making the most out of an imperfect system. Here in Germany, Wal-Mart isn't any cheaper than any other stores, although there are a couple reasons for that which I won't continue to bore you all with, haha.
Talk to you later SJ!!!!
Wal-mart, K-Mart, J.C. Penney;
Tommy Hilfiger, the Gap, Banana Republic. Old Navy, Fruit of the Loom;
Ann Taylor, Esprit, The Limited, Guess, Victoria's Secret;
Nike, Reebok, Adidas;
Aztek, Apple, IBM;
Zenith, Panasonic, General Electric;
General Motors;
Disney.
However, I would like to know what their description of a sweatshop is. Is it a factory where workers are paid less than American workers? To me that's fine, so long as they're paid a decent wage for their living standards. Is it a factory with long hours, little if any breaks, and unfair employment practices or life-threatening work conditions? Does it exploit employees/children? Are employees scared at work, are they paid a decent wage? Are they little more than a step above slave labor? That's the sort of thing I would worry about supporting, not simply buying something made out of country from a factory.
I haven't heard of a derogatory song. But you could easily substitute Walmart for K-Mart in that little diddy.
B's blog is just a bit like B. Not so odd-I can see him saying all that as he drives me somewhere.
The other blogs are Steve's (long overdue for attention here), and my friend Andrew's from DC. He worked just down the hall at the Nation during my short stint at that government affairs firm. I always did like nice East Coast Jewish boys.