I rarely mention political topics in this column. This is, in large part, because I don’t really give a hoot about politics. I know there are those who consider this attitude the height of hubris and all that is wrong with this country, but I just can’t get interested in the goings-on in Washington, Lansing, or any other governmental epicenter.
Politics have been around for thousands of years and we’re still pretty much governed — for whatever reason — by the least competent and most corrupt among us. It just seems to me a huge waste of resources, emotional and mental, to get too worked up over things.
Also, though I do have a few strongly-held political views, I care not at all whether anyone else agrees with them. When it comes to politics, I am the polar opposite of a proselytizer. I never managed to lose that ‘60s “do your own thing” attitude, and I think the world would be a better place if no one else had lost it, either.
But sometimes, even a sit-by-the-sidelines, mind-his-own-business, go-with-the-flow guy like me has to speak up and take a stand. Sometimes an injustice is simply too heinous to ignore.
I’m talking about back-to-school sales in early July.
About this, Congress needs to do something, and do it now. Now, I say!
I noticed the problem a few days ago, while shopping a local retailer with my grandson, Edison. We were hunting for a new bicycle so he would have something to do while visiting my place this summer.
We already fish together and hang at the beach, but when all your 12-year-old buds are back in Detroit and you’re stuck at G-pa’s house (“G-pa” is what they call me; I kind of like it. Makes me sound like a gangsta rapper) things can get boring fast.
At any rate, we were going store to store, trying to find the cheapest bike that would fill the bill, when there before us loomed up two entire aisles crammed, not with bikes, but with shiny new notebooks, pencil boxes, crayons, protractors, rulers, pens, staplers, locker organizers, stickers and erasers, all displayed brazenly under a huge banner announcing the store’s BACK TO SCHOOL SALE!!
“Ugh,” Edison groaned. “Already?”
I haven’t been a kid in a very long time, but I understood how he felt. It’s no different than if my boss were to call me the first day into my two-week vacation with a reminder that “the Wentworth account is due as soon as you get back.”
No. Shut up. I don’t want to hear about the Wentworth account and Edison doesn’t want to have to think about Algebra class. Not in July. And not for the first two weeks of August.
After that, OK, maybe, in small doses.
But there’s no way retailers are going to show any restraint here, no more than they show restraint in putting Christmas decorations up in October. That’s why we need a law. And that’s why, despite my alleged lack on interest in politics, I’m urging each of you to call your Congressperson.
Demand the passage of the Back to School Sale Limitations Act, the details of which I will happily make up on the spot once Congress calls me and asks me to.
It’s time to Take Back Summer, to Occupy a Swimming Hole, to Just Say No to anything that doesn’t involve long, lazy days spent soaking up the sunshine!
Vive la révolution!
Buy my book! Looking at the Pint Half Full is available at Robbins Book List in Greenville and in eBook format from Amazon.com.
3 comments:
YES! I support this limitations act! (hopefully you have this figured out soon, Mike)
Time flies and summer is no exception in our fast paced, busy lifestyles these days. We are constantly being rushed to look ahead, to plan for the future and stressed by thinking we may not be ready enough yet. We need to be able to slow things down and enjoy the moment, live for today, reflect on the joy that comes from just being, rather than doing. Kids need to be kids, they don't need to be rushed ahead into growing up so fast. (School staff need this too)
Retail sales are going crazy all the time trying to get the jump on their competition and advertising sales earlier and earlier for holiday and back to school, all at the expense of the consumer's peace of mind. Their tactics increase anxiety and these days, our children already have too much of that. I appreciate you taking a stand on this topic!
You want to limit how stores can run their buisness, ok mr. nazi lets calm down. Go online buy a bike and stop bitching.
Yes, because we need the government making more RESTRICTIONS on FREEDOMS. If you don't like it, GO TO A BIKE SHOP FOR A BIKE. Back to school sales are beneficial for many of us. We don't need more laws governing us, especially when we cannot even uphold the ones we have.
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