Sunday, February 11, 2007
Protest
Some snapshots from the anti-Wal-Mart protest at Northcross Mall are available at Julie's flickr.
Some observations:
The organizers asked everyone to wear red. Enough people did that it gave a feeling of an organized effort rather than a random bunch of loiterers who got lost on their way to Denny's.
No singing or chanting where I was. Protest singing and chanting should be reserved for events higher up on the protest scale (civil rights, death penalty, peace). Wal-Mart taking over a mall doesn't (and shouldn't) drive that level of emotion. And besides, what are you going to say?
"What do you want?"
"Mixed used area with green space, a grocery store that's better than the HEB down at Northland and Burnet, and maybe a cool record store!"
"When do you want it?"
"Sometime in the next six to eighteen months!"
The event was scheduled for ten minutes. A big steam whistle or something would have been helpful in indentifying the commencement and cessation of protesting activities. When I first heard about this protest I figured the red clad folks would be trying to levitate the Mall, Pentagon style. But no. Probably didn't get past the RG4N lawyers, no doubt due to the skating rink risk.
We had delightful kolaches afterwards, provided by LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED KOLACHE DEALERSHIP! FIGHT THE POWER OF CORPORATE KOLACHE!
Some snapshots from the anti-Wal-Mart protest at Northcross Mall are available at Julie's flickr.
Some observations:
The organizers asked everyone to wear red. Enough people did that it gave a feeling of an organized effort rather than a random bunch of loiterers who got lost on their way to Denny's.
No singing or chanting where I was. Protest singing and chanting should be reserved for events higher up on the protest scale (civil rights, death penalty, peace). Wal-Mart taking over a mall doesn't (and shouldn't) drive that level of emotion. And besides, what are you going to say?
"What do you want?"
"Mixed used area with green space, a grocery store that's better than the HEB down at Northland and Burnet, and maybe a cool record store!"
"When do you want it?"
"Sometime in the next six to eighteen months!"
The event was scheduled for ten minutes. A big steam whistle or something would have been helpful in indentifying the commencement and cessation of protesting activities. When I first heard about this protest I figured the red clad folks would be trying to levitate the Mall, Pentagon style. But no. Probably didn't get past the RG4N lawyers, no doubt due to the skating rink risk.
We had delightful kolaches afterwards, provided by LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED KOLACHE DEALERSHIP! FIGHT THE POWER OF CORPORATE KOLACHE!
