| My Hardest Decision |
| Written by Loren Spivack |
| Thursday, 30 July 2009 08:10 |
|
Simon Property Group, Inc. owns 261,000,000 square feet of retail space according to their website. My kiosk is 8 feet by 4.5 feet. Surely this was one of the most lopsided fights in history! And yet, the Simon management has been entirely stunned by the tens of thousands of people (their customers really) who have become involved with this effort. On Sunday, as over 100 people came to Concord Mills to protest the mall’s treatment of the only store to provide material for conservatives and libertarians, and thousands more were calling for boycotts of Simon shopping centers around the country, Simon seemed to blink. The Mall manager called me for the first time in more than a month and offered to contact company management in an effort to resolve the situation.[1] We were hopeful that we, and Concord Mills, would be allowed to return to our joint capitalist mission of providing merchandise to interested customers. But Mel Simon’s company had other plans. On Tuesday, we were advised that we could stay as long as we wanted, if we removed 4 items. They were: 3 bumper stickers: Obama wins: They celebrate in Iran. Do you get it yet? Al Qaeda’s two favorite days: 9/11/01 & 11/4/08 Obama: Change Al Qaeda can believe in! 1 T-shirt: No to Osama, Obama and Chelsea’s mama! It would seem that we would be allowed to criticize the President’s economic policy, but not his foreign policy. But, to me, the real issue has always been that a gigantic corporation which, along with its owners, has given millions to the President and his party, and was deciding for us which criticisms of the President could be made. I have four employees whose livelihood , (along with mine) were on the line. I can’t say that it wasn’t tempting to give in and go on with our lives, but my employees were very committed to stand on the principles that brought us this far. We have all gained a lot a faith from the tremendous outpouring of support from around the country. This was a day that conservatives (and libertarians) stood up. And, I hope, it marks a turning point in our modern history. We have had enough of letting the establishment left decide what speech is acceptable. We have had enough of the word “racism” being thrown, casually, at anyone whose opinion differs from the (Democratic) party-line. Simon Property Group released a statement which, among other things, quoted my contract with them. It says that the determination of what is “offensive” is at the mall’s “sole discretion”. We have never disputed this point. We just want to tell the American people what Simon Group’s “sole discretion” looks like. At Concord Mills, you can buy a shirt that says: “I eat [an extremely crude term for female genitalia] like a fat kid eats cake." Or a baby shirt that says: “I love my Daddy even though he’s an A**hole.” Maybe you’d like to run around town in a lovely shirt that says: “Don’t just use me for my big D***”. At Simon Property Group’s sole discretion, these are completely inoffensive. I’m sure Mel Simon wears them to board meetings all the time. Not like our baby bib that says: Simon’s sole discretion determined that this (pretty incontrovertible) statement is “offensive”. They actually did celebrate in Iran when Obama was elected. But (you know who’s) sole discretion has decided that this fact can’t be stated, nor can Obama be rhymed with Osama (they actually do rhyme, you know) on a shirt. It seems like this is the same sole discretion that gave millions to liberal Democratic causes. This is probably a good moment for America, as Simon Property group’s sole discretion is laid bare. It is time for millions of consumers to start exercising their sole discretion about where to shop. There’s a Simon Mall near you. There’s also another option near you. That’s a beautiful thing about free markets. As for us, we are content to leave our fate in the hands of millions of patriotic Americans. If you like our material; If you approve of the stand we’ve taken; If we’ve inspired you to stand up for what you believe: We hope you’ll support us. Consider becoming a member, or trying some of merchandise, even passing our website along to your friends would be appreciated. If you don’t like what we have to offer, that’s ok too. Freedom is beautiful and ought to apply to everybody. In fact, I bet there are some T-shirts you’d like, at your local Simon Mall. [1] In their statement Tuesday, Simon Properties falsely claimed that the decisions about Free Market Warrior were made by local management. This is utterly untrue. We had a great relationship with local management until national management got involved. It was a regional, not local, manager who told me that our lease would not be renewed. Moreover, the mall manager repeatedly told me that he needed to check with his superiors to make any arrangements with me.
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