For The Time Capsule
Protest in our time, via Reuters:
Protesters march over loss of Marshall Field'sIt's not exactly 1968, is it?
Amelia James would consider it an insult to her grandmother to shop at the former Marshall Field's department store, a beloved Chicago institution renamed Macy's on Saturday to the dismay of many ardent shoppers.
The 48-year-old Chicagoan was among more than 100 people who gathered outside the landmark State Street store to protest the decision by Federated Department Stores Inc. (Charts) to swap the 154-year-old Field's name for Macy's, a department store chain best known for its flagship in New York.
Under an overcast sky, most protesters wore green - the color associated with Field's that was replaced by Macy's black - and carried signs with such slogans as "This Lady Wants Field's" and "Chicago Shops Marshall Field's."
"We understand this is an emotional time and people are passionate about the name," Macy's spokeswoman Jennifer McNamara said.
posted by The Cunning Realist at Saturday, September 09, 2006
10 Comments:
I wonder if liberalism will be all the rage again in 2068?
...but what does Paris Hilton have to say about it?
Will liberalism return? Well it was certainly all the rage in 1776 so it does seem to go around now and then. George Washington for example wrote, "[A]s mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality."
Who knows, the founding fathers' dream may be reinvigorated sufficiently to save my great-grandchildren from the burden of both peonage or patronage alike (or their 21st century equivalents), but in the meantime I remain duly sympathetic to those who will miss their Marshall Field's.
Wasn't there a cigarette ad-campaign around 1968 that said "I'd rather fight than switch" [brands of cigarette] ? Perhaps the commericalization of politics began right around then.
From someone who grew up in Chicago and now lives just outside of it near O'Hare, I'd have to say that these people are a disgrace. Think of what you could protest about:
The lack of drinking water in 3rd World countries;
The repression of human rights in North Korea;
Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons;
Our trade deficit;
Our spending deficit;
Ad naseum.
Someone should have turned a fire-hose on these people. Where's the good ol' Mayor Daley when you need him?
This is just a natural outgrowth of the Bush administration's advice after 9/11 to go shopping.
Agreed. This was the first administration ever to cut taxes during war-time and ask for little or no sacrifice.
Just think if we took that $60 billion we spend patrolling the Gulf each year and put that towards alternative renewable energy sources. We'd reduce our production of CO2, be able to sign-off on Kyoto, stop funding terrorism and repressive regimes, and actually export technology for a change and help drive down our trade deficit.
Listen I grew up in the Chicago suburbs in the 50's and 60's. Marshall Fields was a proud symbol of regionalism and its demise to the ever-expanding forces of globalization is symptomatic of a problem that is far larger then Viet Nam at the 68 convention.
Didn't people fight to keep the Radio City Rockettes in NY because of nostalgia? :-)
We complain when people don't do anything, and we complain when they do. There is no winning. There are certainly worse things to protest about.
Yep, what's in a symbol, a building, a livihood, a name. Just like farming, and Farm Aid concerts. Is farming a business or a way of life. We spend millions in tax dollars for farm sudsidies to save a way of life when if we let the markets work, family farms would further decline and our agriculture would have to compete with the world (which really makes one think about our National Security, ports, and quality of food... do you really want to get food from SE Asia countries where DDT is used massively. And they have been building our cheap crap with little concern for pollution. Icks!). Businesses use to be an integral part of the fabric of a community.
Oprah use to mention Marshal Fields in Chicago all the time. With historic businesses, people identify, it's who they are, a symbol of their lives, their community, their grounding post. It wasn't just a place to buy crap, it was a community and safe gathering center, a holiday event. But there are aways people who will buy cheap crap, but they have no loyalty. If we are what we eat, are we also, where we shop?
Geraldo Rivera did an interesting segment comparing mom and pop with Walmart in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Harlem --- it was suppose to provoke the question, do you want "atmosphere" or cheap. They bought the same stuff at all stores (milk, eggs, diapers, etc). The difference in prices between mom and pop and Walmart was less than a dollar. Walmart has no place to go but in the inner city, so we'll be hearing more of this. What is there in an inner city if you don't have community and atmosphere. On a side note, the groceries in Los Angeles and Chicago were around $11, but in Harlem the same groceries bought at both mom and pop and Walmart were around $5. I found that surprising.
So, I don't really consider this may have effect.
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