Thread: How This Tea Party Hopes to Help Ferguson Merchants

How This Tea Party Hopes to Help Ferguson Merchants

Melissa Quinn / @MelissaQuinn97 / December 01, 2014


Natalie DuBose, owner of Natalie’s Cakes & Things in Ferguson, Mo., lost her livelihood last Monday night.

Earlier that night, a grand jury had gone public with its decision not to indict a white police officer for shooting and killing a young black man. Anger quickly spread through a crowd of protesters gathered in the streets of the St. Louis suburb.
They marched and chanted, and some of them looted and rioted, leaving smoldering buildings, broken windows and damaged storefronts in their wake.

Now, DuBose and other Ferguson merchants must rebuild, grappling with how to pay the bills. And Christmas soon will be here.



That’s where Bill Hennessy, a founder of the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition, hopes to help.

Hennessy drafted a list of eight ideas to save Christmas in Ferguson and help DuBose and other business owners and employees.
“Who got hurt last night?” he wrote on his blog Tuesday. “1. People who own businesses. people who work at businesses. 3. People who rely on businesses.” He continued:

Time is short. The people affected by last night’s riots need help rebuilding and jobs right now. While I don’t have complete plans, I can throw out eight ideas. Please make one of these come to life.

Among other calls to action, Hennessy asked 100 companies in the St. Louis area to hire one person affected by the looting and riots for one year beginning Dec. 1 He proposed that companies both in the region and around the country “adopt” a damaged business and assist with rebuilding. Many of these, he wrote, need money to begin the process of fixing the damage.

“We cannot rely on government — government is the problem, not the solution,” he wrote. “We have to rely on ourselves.”

Hennessy, a native of Wildwood, Mo., organized a “buycott” in Ferguson in August as a way to help boost the local economy.
After Officer Darren Wilson, 28, fatally shot Michael Brown, 18, on Aug. 9, protests quickly turned violent and businesses were looted much in the same way as after last week’s announcement that the grand jury would not indict Wilson.

At the time, Hennessy called on consumers to head to Ferguson to shop in affected stores.

“The goal is to let everyone in the area know that those places are open and to generate commerce in the area,” he said. “A lot of them are very small. … The little shops are left on their own.”

More than 40 residents affiliated with the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition shopped in Ferguson during the buycott.

“With the city’s main business district laid to rubble, buycotts won’t have much effect,” Hennessy wrote last week. “And Christmas is around the corner.”

http://dailysignal.com/2014/12/01/ho...on-merchants/?
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8 Ideas to Save Christmas in Ferguson

Bill Hennessy / 1 week ago

Nixon buck-passed while Ferguson burned. With the city’s main business district laid to rubble, buycotts won’t have much effect. And Christmas is around the corner.

Who got hurt last night?

1. People who own businesses
2. People who work at businesses
3. People who rely on businesses

Time is short. The people affected by last night’s riots need help rebuilding and jobs right now. While I don’t have complete plans, I can throw out eight ideas. Please make one of these come to life.

1. 100 St. Louis companies hire 1 affected person for 1 year. Longer if they wish, but guarantee a job for 12 months starting December 1.
2. 100 companies (St. Louis or elsewhere) adopt one damaged business each to rebuild. And it’s not just the businesses with physical damage. Most Ferguson and Dellwood business need out of business funding.
3. 100 St. Louisans can sponsor Christmas this year for one affected family in Ferguson. Start with a list of employees who are out of work because of the violence last night.
4. Companies and charities can establish a fund for rebuilding destroyed property. Let the private companies’ CFOs manage the money, not government or NGOs who have a way of making a billion dollars disappear.
5. What if our well-endowed universities donated from their endowments to a redevelopment fund? Maybe give students credit for helping rebuild.
6. I’ve been asking for this since August, but how about a state sales tax holiday for Ferguson, Dellwood, Florissant, Hazelwood, and other affected cities? If I were governor, I’d call a special session next week to pass that law in time for the holidays.
7. Add an option to the 2014 Missouri Income Tax forms allowing business and individuals across the state to donate from their tax refunds to offset the cost of the state sales tax holiday.
8. Hold Saturday morning resilience classes for business owners and their employees, followed by a two-hour workday to help in recovery.

These ideas need your help.

If you know someone who can make one or more of these ideas come to life, please email a link to this story. Ask them to get it started.
If you have better ideas, please include them in the comments. (Yes, people read the comments almost as much as they read my nonsense.)

Thanks. Let’s not let St. Louis go the way of Gary, Indiana. We cannot rely on government—government is the problem, not the solution. We have to rely on ourselves.

http://hennessysview.com/2014/11/25/8-ideas-save-christmas-ferguson/

In August:

SOCIETYNEWS
Area Residents Take to the Streets of Ferguson. But Not for the Reason You Think.

Melissa Quinn / @MelissaQuinn97 /
August 25, 2014


St. Louis County residents who wanted their voices to be heard decided to show up in Ferguson, Mo. Their goal: To give some much-needed business to shops damaged by vandals and looters.

More than 40 members of the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition headed to the embattled town Thursday evening to shop at the small businesses and support the local economy.

Led by Bill Hennessy, one of the group’s founders, they shopped at a variety of stores in Ferguson and made plans to “buycott” the St. Louis suburb again next weekend.

Protests following the Aug. 9 shooting death of Michael Brown turned violent as riots broke out across the town of 21,000. More than 30 stores were looted and damaged as a result, and one, a QuikTrip, was burned to the ground.

In response, Hennessy planned the “buycott” to remind local consumers that damaged businesses in Ferguson remained open. In an interview with The Daily Signal last week, Hennessy said:

People have in their minds that Ferguson is a very dangerous place, and it’s not. We’re going to continue having occasional ‘buycotts’ long after this is over to keep reminding people that they can go back there. The easiest way to have a long-term problem in Ferguson is for everyone to abandon the area.

>>> Some Neighbors Are Headed to Ferguson Today. The Reason Will Warm Your Heart.

Funeral services were held today in Ferguson for Brown, who witnesses said was unarmed when he was shot by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.

On Thursday, shoppers gathered on West Florissant Street at 5 p.m. to begin shopping at stores damaged by looters. Groups of three to four “buycotters” shopped at Sweetie Pie’s, Paul’s Market, the Ferguson Bicycle Shop, Whistle Stop Depot and Sportsprint, among others.

Hennessy, of Wildwood, Mo., said store owners were surprised to see a group of “tea partiers” in Ferguson.

He recalled meeting a woman named Dellena Jones who owns the 911 Hair Salon and lost inventory in the riots. He insisted on giving her a donation.

On his blog, Hennessy writes about speaking with a middle-aged man in the salon:

‘Tea party?’ [the man] said. ‘You bad boys,’ and chuckled. Then he looked at me, very serious. He said, ‘The tea party came up here to do this?’

Bill Hennessy (in green shirt) joins in a “selfie” with other “buycotters” and staff of 911 Hair Salon in Ferguson. (Photo: Courtesy Hennessy’s View)

Other store owners expressed gratitude for the business.

“The greatest statement an organization or person can make is to say with actions, not words, ‘what unites us is stronger than what divides us,’ ” Hennessy writes.

The group’s next “buycott” in Ferguson is set for Labor Day weekend.Hennessy also said he hopes the Missouri state legislature passes an emergency bill creating a Ferguson Sales Tax Holiday from “Black Friday” (the day after Thanksgiving) until Christmas.

>>> An Interactive Timeline of the Fallout in Ferguson
Ferguson BUYcott. 911 Beauty Salon. from Bill Hennessy on Vimeo.

http://dailysignal.com/2014/08/25/ar...-reason-think/