They Stood Up Against Violence

I saw something yesterday that buoyed my spirit of a cynical journalist. It was like an army of gulls descending from heaven when T and I decided to go to the bookstore to relieve our misery. As a couple, the bookstore is our special hide away and escape from an insane world on and off TV.

When we got to Mayfair Mall where one of Wisconsin's Barnes and Nobles Bookstore, people stood toe to toe, walked in pairs and/or groups; cars road bumper to bumper with drivers sliding in and out of parking spaces. I was flabbergasted. T searched for an empty, disabled spot while I fumed with increasing irritability. I wanted to go home, but we quickly found a parking spot. Once inside Barnes and Nobles, I noticed that nobody talked. It was as if they all had a telepathic connection focused on one unified issue. Silence was the modus operandi -- a golden endeavor of strength through one vision and one mission.

The patrons got in line to buy refreshments but there was this loose and spirited stance I still couldn't decipher. After hours of watching people in and out of the store and moving over the entire Mayfair Mall. I knew something was happening and I a journalist, of all people, was outside the periphery. I needed to blabber and write about it, but without knowledge I was a gull on a food hunt way below anybody's food chain.

The big break came shortly after we were about to leave. A grandfather came over and shared a table with us. While there I mentioned the strangeness about the large crowds at the mall two days after Christmas, and nobody seemed to be shopping. He reminded us about last year's storm of violence with disgruntled, fed-up underagers who trashed stores in southeastern Wisconsin's most popular mall in a stand against long-standing rules that adults had to accompany anyone under 18 after 4 p.m. Their outrage escalated into hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise and property destruction. They shot guns, too, but no injuries occurred. They planned to keep the effort going until the mall policy was reversed.

Well, this Christmas weekend, the honorable people fought back in force when they said hell no to violence. There wasn't a spot big enough to commit any violent act unless you stepped on a toe or spit on someone. Besides being proactive, the issue was also psychological for no violent actor would want to spend a minute in company of all these do-gooders en masse. Today the mall went back to normal without incident as the opponents never showed, and I hope they've learned a lesson. And perhaps other cities where mall violence and death tolls soar around the nation will implement such a policy against underagers who act like they're on a football field. A sad scenario in our already destructive society.

It's abominable when shoppers cannot shop without violence or without fear of losing their life or injury while minding their own business. At least these shoppers recognized that police react to crime, but they have an opportunity to take a proactive stance, and they won the battle -- for one day.