Buy Nothing Day or Shop 'til you Drop Black Friday

Depending on where your loyalties lie, you've either been up since the crack of dawn giving your credit cards a harder workout than Lance Armstrong endures during his Tour de France training, or you're protesting the Black Friday nonsense and joining in the consumer strike, commonly called Buy Nothing Day. Given the economy, we are presented with conflicting messages on what's better: Shop to save the world as our patriotic duty? Or keep our eyes firmly focused on REDUCE as good, green foot soldiers in the environmental army. Thanks to the flu, we'll be spending the day at home. We haven't even cooked our hormone-free, free-range, locally and organically-grown Thanksgiving turkey yet. Maybe today. Maybe tomorrow. In any case, I wanted to share an article from New American Dream by economist Juliet Schor detailing why spending isn't the way out of our economic woes. On second thought, maybe we'll go out and I'll spring for flu shots. Flu shots for everyone! My treat.