"Fall into the funding Gap"

Did some press coverage downtown today for a protest against the Gap that my friend Elia helped organize. The Gap's corporate social responsibility record is tarnished, but improving--an LATimes article back in January cited Gap as being "a leader in the small but growing corporate movement to improve conditions for some of the world's most exploited workers." So what's our beef? The Gap's founder, Don Fisher, is a big Schwarzenegger campaign contributor. Doesn't seem right that a company that targets young people should be donating funds to a politician who leaves schools penniless.

I'd had my doubts about how impactful a small rally convincing a handful of people to boycott a huge corporation could really be. But on the way downtown, I was driving behind a truck that looked like it was owned by the Postal Service, bearing the most despicable, hate-filled banner masquerading as "patriotism" that I've seen yet--"Revenge is very sweet" emblazoned under an American flag. Disgusted, I felt a renewed sense of determination to do anything in my power to defeat that ignorant mentality and the politicians who perpetuate it.

The activist spirit was reenergized when I arrived on State St, and watched a pair of girls push through the gathering crowd. They could've been Ashlee Simpson and Paris Hilton, a couple of fake-baked cookie-cutter princesses who turned their noses up at us, responding to our signs with an indignant "ugh, what's wrong with the Gap?" only to wave away attempts at explanation as they continued their shopping trip. That's why we were on the street--to be visible to people that otherwise wouldn't give a rat's ass, to defeat the kind of indifference and apathy that has made it so easy for Americans to be blindly led. As David Krieger of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation put it before my class today, "silence is a sin." We take action how we can, and if it means going after campaign contributors to weaken an irresponsible governor's base and ultimately restore good progressive governance, we do it.

Now, what to do with that underwear I bought from the Gap...perhaps send them to the governor's mansion? I'm betting that's where part of the money I used to purchase them went anyway--Fisher's given Ahnold a quarter mil. Ehh, on second thought, that might tickle the Gropeinator's fancy a bit too much...