The Christmas Tree Ornament Made Me Do It

About a year ago, I was going to one of my favorite South Philly BYOB restaurants when I was greeted by a protest outside the entrance. A woman was holding up a large poster board covered with photos of young girl, and the writings stated that the owner of this restaurant (which I won’t specify here) was responsible for a hit & run fatality.

This suddenly altered my mood, and made me weary of entering, but we were on a mission to down a bottle of wine and enjoy a nice meal. Of course, I couldn’t side with anyone in this protest because I didn’t know the facts at all. (The restaurant has since closed.)

Today I was heading into Urban Outfitters on Walnut Street when I saw quite a large protest in front of the store. Apparently, the Mothers United Through Tragedy (is their acronymn really MUTT?) were angry that the store was selling a “tasteless” Christmas Ornament…a glittery gun. On the tagline stated: Bust a cap in your tree with this super glittery ornament in the shape of a handgun, complete with a satin ribbon for hanging.

Now, with Christmas trees and Santa having NOTHING to do with what Christmas is all about, I could care less if you used bullets on your tree instead of garland. And there’s a lot more “tasteless” products for sale in Urban Outfitters besides that. It just all seemed so ridiculous! Why not protest in front of Toys ‘R Us for selling large plastic guns in which kids will use to set up fake battle lines in the backyard?

I understand that the suffering of losing a child to street violence is immeasurable. But a lot of what people go to Urban Outfitters for is to check out the goofy, tasteless, and HARMLESS products that they sell.