No buying continues - to be continued

A young man, gay, brown, employee from the mall, approaches me with “why are you all in D.C.? That’s where you should be demonstrating”. I explain to him we are in D.C. demonstrating AND we are here too. We live here, we are all responsible, and it is not only those in D.C. who will end war, but it is up to us.

He goes from that D.C. to well, then we should go to City Hall & the Federal Building.

I want to tell him to organize his own damn protest at City Hall and/or the Fed Building.

But instead I tell him, we’ve been there too – but they’re not open today; they’re not buying or selling today – this mall is.

He thinks it’s unfair – the one day that retailers get to figure out if they are going to go from operating in the red to operating in the black – thus Black Friday – and we’re trying to fuck it up. Yes we are.

I ask him if it’s fair that soldiers are not able to shop today, that Iraqis shops are closed down, that Iraqis went from full employment pre-US invasion to 70% unemployment since the invasion?