Category: default || By jt3y

Several people have sent the following email in care of the Tube City Almanac National Affairs Desk, and I've gotten so many copies now, I thought I'd share it with you:

Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20th, 2005 is "Not One Damn Dime Day" in America.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day" those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer spending.

During "Not One Damn Dime Day" please don't spend any money. Not one damn dime for gasoline. Not one damn dime for necessities or for impulse purchases. Not one damn dime for nothing for 24 hours.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day," please boycott Wal-Mart, Kmart, and Target ... Please don't go to the mall or the local convenience store. Please don't buy any fast food (or any groceries at all for that matter).

For 24 hours, please do what you can to shut the retail economy down.

This is simply a brilliant idea. Brilliant! Instead of doing something tangible, just don't buy anything for a day. What a concept!

That way, to take out your anger on the President, you can hurt some local merchant instead of the Republican National Committee. So Bill, who owns the local gas station, and the old man who owns the grocery store in my neighborhood (also known to the readers of the Almanac as "The House of Rancid Lunchmeat") can be penalized, while you walk around feeling smug.

OK, Bill and Lunchmeat Guy and the people who own the dairy store where I get my coffee won't be hurt that bad, I suppose. After all, if every leftist who gets this email acts on it, then retail sales in the United States on Jan. 20 might fall by, what? One-tenth of one percent?

Wow! I'll just bet Karl Rove has been reduced to a quivering mass of gelatin by that prospect. According to the Census Bureau, total retail sales in the U.S. for the third quarter of last year were about $916.5 billion, or $10 billion per day. A drop of 1/10th of one percent would be equivalent to $10,000,000, or about what Wal-Mart does in net sales every 20 minutes, or what Starbucks sells in a day. (I did the math.)

If the American economy was shaken to its hustings like this, could impeachment of the President be far behind?

I asked one of the people who sent this email to me if I was allowed to use the commode on Jan. 20. After all, flushing the commode uses water, which helps support the water company. I didn't get a straight answer.

Should I use electricity that day? Did Duquesne Light executives donate to the President's re-election campaign? I'm not sure! People, I need facts!

Anyway, this is just the kind of meaningless pouting that has enabled the far-right to laugh at Democrats for the past four years, and mock them as incompetent, intolerant whiners; and which resulted, in part, in the 2 percent "mandate" that the President now enjoys.

So, I say "bravo" to the organizers of the "Not One Damn Dime Day!" It's oh-so-fraught with deep symbolism and evokes a couch-potato version of Marxism, while not actually requiring any real effort on the part of the participants.

I wonder only if meaningless temper tantrums will characterize the progressive movement for the next four years. And if so, what sort of "protest" will be organized for the Jan. 20, 2009 inauguration of President Santorum? National Spin in Circles Until We Puke Day, perhaps?

...

Other possible protest actions for Jan. 20:

Go to the Bathroom in Your Pants Day: Drunken bum? Crack addict? Or angry about the war in Iraq? Passersby won't be able to tell on Jan. 20, but you'll have a nice warm feeling ... literally!

Hold Your Breath Until You Turn Blue and Pass Out Day: A classic, updated for modern times. How better to show your affinity with the "blue" states than with a "blue" face?

Bang Your Head As Hard As You Can Against a Wall Day: Self-destructive, injurious and worthy of ridicule --- what better way to sum up U.S. foreign policy since Sept. 11, 2001?

Pound Your Fists On the Ground Day: This is best done in the aisle of your local discount retailer, and should be accompanied by shrieks of "It's not fair! It's not fair! It's not fair! It's not fair!"

Donate $20 in Cash or Volunteer Effort to the Political Cause or Group of Your Choice Day: ... nah, this actually has a small chance of helping. Never mind.

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Just in case you actually haven't been moved to teeth-gnashing, mouth-foaming fury by this point, and aren't yet banging out a nasty email to me, here's an item from the Valley Mirror. Braddock Carnegie Library has been forced to cut back its hours of operation because of what is being described as "a very tight economic environment."

I can only assume that a drop in donor funding and increased energy bills are strapping America's oldest Carnegie Library.

No one asked me, but I suspect you could help by sending a check or money order to 419 Library Street, Braddock, PA 15104. Braddock's Field Historical Society, which operates the library, is also set up to accept donations through United Way; use donor code "3965."

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Stories You May Have Missed: The conductor and manager of the McKeesport Symphony Orchestra have resigned, reports Andrew Druckenbrod in the Post-Gazette:

Conductor Roger Tabler has resigned as music director of the McKeesport Symphony Orchestra ... and was followed by orchestra manager Lynne Cochran. ...

"I cannot overcome or endure what I feel is an environment that's unfriendly to supporting an orchestra," Tabler said yesterday. "I don't know what direction the board wants to go any more now than before. I was told I was in the driver's seat but discovered I was a only a chauffeur for other people."

Says Tabler: "There was not really an interest in being progressive."

Shocked, shocked I am that anything in Our Fair City could be accused of being less than progressive.

Seriously, I know nothing about the situation, so I'm not about to comment. I do know that the MSO has been a vital organization for a long time (since 1959) and deserves your support; their next concert is Feb. 26 at McKeesport High School's auditorium.

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Things to Do This Weekend: Frankie Carroll plays the ballroom at The Palisades at 9 p.m. Saturday; call (412) 678-6979 ... North Braddock Volunteer Fire Co. No. 3 holds a bingo, starting at 1 p.m. Sunday. Call (412) 271-1572.