Interesting story in the Times Online today about Creative Visions Bookstore of New York.  Not only is it a great survival story of an indie bookstore in today’s internet commerce world, but the birth of the store itself was a nice heartwarming tale. I say “was” because unfortunately this story was originally published in 2003.  The store closed in 2004.  Read the story of its last days here.  It’s probably something depressing like a Starbucks or a Baby Gap now.

Why does this matter? Because on today of all days, when we celebrate our country’s birth and independence, we conjure up thoughts of red, white, and blue blasts in the sky, the Statue of Liberty, bald eagles, soldiers in camo and stuck in foreign countries fighting for our freedom, watermelon and barbecue, children running with sparklers, George Washington, the Star Spangled Banner, our nation’s flag, Abe Lincoln, the list goes on and on….

But in today’s time when gas prices are soaring, people can’t afford their houses and their houses aren’t worth anything anyway because of a sad market, we make less but have more debt, we continue to push ourselves further faster and faster building better cell phones and interactive video games.  Technology has advanced us so quickly when it comes to communication, but we can’t even communicate with one another verbally.  Vowels are dead, IDK why.  We text. We IM.  We care more about the value of our property than we care about making our property a home.  Doesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore?

I’m rambling, I know, but here’s my point….and I do have one!  We love our discount books and huge Amazon.com one-stop-shopping selections and free shipping that the man in brown brings right to your door.  We don’t have time to go to quaint shopping districts and browse.  We’re glad they are there, but we want bitter coffee, the same kind that everyone else is drinking.  We want to pay ten dollars for it too and get bad service, no service at all.  We want to hear ourselves say out loud “Viente Latte;” it makes us feel important.

Plow down those narrow roads, lined with trees and cute little shops lit with gaslit street lamps, with indie bookstores and beat nick coffee houses.  Who needs ‘em?  Put up a parking lot, the song says! I’ll read whatever Wal-Mart wants me to read.  I’ll drink whatever everyone else is drinking.  I want it fast.  I want it now.  Forget the independent business owner.  Who is that anyway?  He can go be a greeter at Wal-Mart.  Oh wait, we don’t talk to one another, remember?  When I walk in the door, maybe he can text a greeting to me.  WTWM!

So, years from now when your kids are grown and have kids of their own, will they still be celebrating the birth of our country today and ignoring the slow choking death of everything this nation built upon the very ideals of independence in the first place?  Or will they not have time to celebrate because they work for what was once an American business, but it was sold out at 65 dollars a share to some foreign nation who requires them to work today?

People, we are wiping away the American businesses, and I’m talking about the REAL American businesses.  Not the Wal-Marts, and Starbucks, and B&N’s.  That’s not America!  I’m not looking for some prairie bonnet wearing woman to serve me a pickle from a barrel and a mug of sarsaparilla, but do you remember the days when an attendant used to come out and pump your gas for you?  Remember the days when a young boy bagged your groceries and helped you out to the car with them?

Those days are long over!  But you asked for it!  We shut out our very own business owners and now we are overwrought with inflated prices and poor quality.  This is America.

Happy Independence Day!