Years ago, I was in a basic economics class in which the professor was telling us of the inequalities embedded in capitalism. He spoke of malls as the “cathedrals” of capitalism. Shopping Centers are one of those places Americans go to renew their “faith” in consumerism- after all, didn’t our previous president tell us to go shopping in response to 9/11? It is in malls like the one in which we did our flash mob action today where such “worship” is often conducted. A form of worship that perpetuates consumerism, for we often we feel inadequate without those clothes, baubles, playstations and other goods we buy in such temples. Today in our action, my lens on these cathedrals changed a bit. I witnessed the mall in a different light. We had just spend a day and a half learning about the challenges of the working poor in Baltimore, many of whom are forced to accept low play, inadequate health care, sexual harassment, summary dismissal and other poor working conditions in order to live. Our experience of learning about the community culminated in a small action facilitated by United Workers in which we started at the food court of the mall at the top and marched down to the entrance, passing our flyers and singing both newly created songs and modified ones. In this brief action, I witnessed a range of reactions from people in the mall- from amusement, to indifference, to hostility on behalf of mall security. Usually when I attend protests it is “within the barricade”. But Occupy movements around the country have risen to the challenge of meeting the deepening inequalities with a more creative and vibrant protest art. The mall is no Cathedral, and the restaurants in the Inner Harbor are no “welcoming table”. From what we have learned from United Workers, GGP, the corporation that operates these developments, may make them seem such with glittering fountains and food that comes out of the kitchen in less than 10 minutes, but by and large they are not offering fair development practices to those workers. For six minutes today, however, we started to chip at the facade of this false cathedral. Those who are consumers at that mall and those who are workers became a bit more visible to one another- and to me, our action was almost the same as throwing the money changers out of the temple. Valerie Freseman 1/19/2012