The Mall of America

I have an old book on my shelves, soon 20 years old.

The Acknowledgment at the beginning starts: "As I write these words in early Spring of 1992 in Washington, D.C., constructions crews in Bloomington, Minnesota, are racing to finish the world's largest shopping mall--a monumental agglomeration of retail outlets built around a three-hectare indoor amusement park. Its designers call it 'The Mall of America,' and if their projections materialize it will attract more visitors each year than Mecca or the Vatican."

Source: destination360.com

I moved to the Cities in July, 2002. An old friend from Tucson wrote on her Christmas card that year, "When I come see you, can we go to the Mall of America?"

"Hmmm," I thought.  "I live about 3 miles from the Mall, and haven't been there yet."  I finally went when my family came up from Iowa to do their Christmas shopping.  I lasted for half a day, and had to flee. I drove back out to pick them up at the end of the day.

As author Alan Durning says in his book, HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH? that mall has become "a sort of symbol for my native land." When my son came into town with his girlfriend and went to The Mall, they entered it at the same time as an entire busload of visitors from ICELAND who had flown in for 3 days, specifically for shopping. They were staying at a hotel nearby, and spent all their waking hours in the USA at The Mall of America.

Would I ever fly to Reykjavik, or Munich, or Tokyo, to spend all my time in a MALL?


I grew up on a small farm in Iowa.  As a child, we went to town once a week, on Saturday night, when the stores were open in Lake Mills.  "The stores" consisted of a Five-and-Dime store (where I literally had a dime to spend), a ladies' shop (called My Ladies), 2 grocery stores, a Federated store with household goods, a meat locker (Gunderson's Meat Market), a feed store, a hardware store, a men's clothing store (bought by my uncle when I was in high school), a few gas stations and cafes and Duffy's Drive In.  If you wanted something that cost more than 10 cents, you saved your dimes until you had enough.  No credit. No advances.



It was enough.

It wasn't much, but it was enough.

I almost grieve at the insatiable appetites of our society today.  We are fighting two wars, and have not had to sacrifice a single thing (except those families who've made the ultimate sacrifices). We've not been asked to do with less gas, or less food, or to give up sugar, or do without new rubber tires. We go on as though nothing is different because politicians don't want to be voted out of office for acknowledging the truths of the cost of war.  We'd rather buy more STUFF than to buy health insurance; we refuse to pay more taxes so that all can have proper healthcare, as is done in the Scandinavian countries, and Canada, and France, and in most other industrialized societies. We scorn a two-cent gasoline tax but ignore the overnight jump in the price of gas that is ten times that much, while oil companies make the largest profits in history

I'd rather have a giant park where the Mall of America now sits.  Not a big baseball park that costs $50 to buy a ticket. Not a football stadium that caters to the wealthy, and where a fancy hot dog can cost $11.  I want a big central park with a skating rink and some baseball fields for kids and grown-up-kids, and a botanical garden, and trails for hiking and biking, and picnic tables, and a place to walk dogs, and a place for small concerts.

It could even have some shopping!  An arts and crafts center for local artists and farmers of all kinds to sell their goods. Community!

It would be enough.