It’s not Kenneth Cole. I’m the problem. My finger points back at me.

Kenneth Cole posts an awkward tweet and I cringe from his statement. Not because he said it, but because he’s telling me something about myself: I am the insensitive one, not him.

I have become desensitized to the world because I am disconnected from the world around me.

I am disconnected from the stuff I buy and eat; I am disconnected from the people who provide for me.

The Egyptian people sacrifice their lives; I buy another bag of frozen organic broccoli that was probably picked by children. Where were my shoes made, by who? I point my finger at Kenneth Cole, I point my disgust at Groupon, and my finger points right back at me.

How many shoes have I purchased that were made in China? How many boxes of Chinese-made discount furniture have I purchased? I’m doing business with a totalitarian, anti-democratic regime.

Groupon makes an ad that showcases my own aloofness from the world, not its own. I sit on my Chinese couch in my oil heated house, and throw anger towards my Chinese TV. I reach for my Chinese phone to Tweet about it. I point my finger at the TV. My Groupon disgust points its finger right back at me.

I need shoes and food and furniture and clothes, yet I see Kenneth Cole and Groupon as separate from me, as separate as the distance between me and the people who make the things I buy and eat.

What can I do! I yell at myself. It’s all so intertwined, mixed up.

Something! I yell back.

It’s not Kenneth Cole. I’m the problem. My finger points back at me.

  • Cut off your finger and leave a roll of quarters. You owe me.

    Global economy. Can’t escape the guilt, the blame, the satisfaction, the hate, the need. We have to live with it. Just don’t learn to love it, baby.

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