|
 |
|
wThursday, January 20, 2005 |
|
|
 |
black thursday, part deux
i'm not gonna spend one damn dime on non-inauguration day. why don't you try it. what if worked?
don't spend one damn dime. of course we want to do more, we will do more. but start here. maybe they'll listen. maybe they'll see.
on a hoax web site, I found this last month (excellent):
posted by (now) site owner of not one damn dime
"Not One Damn Dime Day is not a hoax in the sense of the usual email hoaxes on this website. I received that same email around Dec. 15 and I thought it looked like a pretty effective form of protest. Yes, it's "small" because it's only one day, but if several million people participate, Bush WILL notice (if for no other reason than the glitch in the GDP statistics).
I liked the idea so much -- and found that no one had posted it on a website -- that I set up http://www.NotOneDamnDime.com -- same text as the letter below, more or less. For those with mild sensitivities about that cussword there's also http://www.NotOneRedCent.com
The press has certainly noticed already -- this week the email is getting into mainstream press. That's the way that it will become effective -- boycotts need publicity -- so if you like the idea, go spread the email around!"
Thank you jesse gordon, whoever you are, fellow democrat, in cambridge massachusetts.
Subject: Not One Damn Dime! - Jan 20 (Non-Inauguration Day)
Don't spend a dime on January 20, 2005 (pass it on! far & wide!)
It doesn't really matter that everyone will be out spending what they didn't the next day - a point or two will have been made: Since our religious leaders will not speak out against the war in Iraq, since our political leaders don't have the moral courage to oppose it. 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 money. Not one damn dime for gasoline. Not one damn dime for necessities or for impulse purchases.
Not one damn dime for anything for 24 hours. On "Not One Damn Dime Day," please boycott Walmart & KMart. 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. The object is simple. Remind the people in power that the war in Iraq is immoral and illegal; that they are responsible for starting it and that it is their responsibility to stop it. If you're a small business owner, shut down your doors for one day. If you have a web site, black it out for just one day.
"Not One Damn Dime Day" is to remind them, too, that they work for the people of the United States of America, not for the international corporations and K Street lobbyists who represent them and funnel cash into American politics. "Not One Damn Dime Day" is about supporting the troops. The politicians put the troops in harm's way. Now 1,300 brave young Americans and (some estimate) 100,000 Iraqis have died. The politicians owe our troops a plan -- a way to come home.
There's no rally to attend. No marching to do. No left or right wing agenda to rant about. On "Not One Damn Dime Day" you take action by doing nothing. You open your mouth by keeping your wallet closed. For 24 hours, nothing gets spent, not one damn dime, to remind our religious leaders and our politicians of their moral responsibility to end the war in Iraq and give America back to the people.
--
Sister Joan Chittister:
January 6, 2005
"All I have to do, the announcement tells me, is to refuse to spend a single dime on anything -- food, gas, entertainment, hardware, necessities or consumables -- for one day, Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, to protest the war in Iraq.
I don't need to march anywhere, hold any signs, risk any jail term, absorb any jeers from passers-by, or tell my family. All I need to do is to join millions of other people in sending a silent but potent signal to the people in power that I am opposed to the war in Iraq and that we are calling on the government that started it to do something about ending it. It is an attempt, the organizers say, to "remind them, too, that they work for the people of the United States of America, not for the international corporations and … lobbyists who represent the corporations and funnel cash into American politics."
No doubt about it, here's another way to organize. Here's another way to be a presence in society. As the organizer puts it, "What if it worked?"
The Internet might even be a way to organize national conversation on current issues. We could start, for instance, by asking ourselves spiritual question about political subjects - like why it is that we are all so stunned, shocked, dismayed about the 150,000 deaths in Asia from a tsunami but we don't seem to be bothered a bit about the over 100,000 civilian deaths - most of them women and children - which, the Lancet study tells us, have resulted from our own invasion of Iraq?"
NEW: Questions for an Inauguration
-Sister Joan Chittister
January 20, 2005
It's Inauguration Day. It's time to ask that revered old political question again, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?"
posted by
zenbetty at 11:00 AM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|