A new brick structure is rising slowly from the ground at the corner by Veterans' Parkway and Vernon/G.E. Road.
On my way to work daily I pass two protesters holding a block-lettered banner between them. It declares that the Vitamin Shoppe is unfair because it is not employing local workers to build the store.
Obviously this makes me quite happy. To know that I'll be living within a stone's throw of a presumably endless supply of Flintstones chewables is part of the American dream. Only a Pez store would rank higher.
On the other hand, I am sad. It is Illinois cold out there, and standing in place is surely near the top of the list of least-recommended ways to allay frostbite.
On the third hand, I am uninformed. Is the Vitamin Shoppe owner a callous penny-pincher trafficking in truckloads of slave labor to and from St. Louis every day and endangering the viability of our town so that he can afford to trade up from his Hummer? Or a struggling first-generation immigrant saving for the dream he's harbored since the first time his molars lopped off Barney Rubble's tangy-licious chalky purple head as an orphaned toddler?
So I'll go ahead and agree with the "unfair" part of the sign. Something about this arrangement is unfair. I don't know to who. Hopefully everyone gets what they need to stay warm. Including their vitamins.
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