A really really free market

Demonstrators prepare for the “Really, Really Free Market” event at Voice of Freedom Park. PHOTO BY JASON BEHNKEN

Some days you go to bed knowing you made your mother proud. Today is one of those days. I, along with fellow Tribune intern Brandi Hollis, had a story published in Wednesday’s Tampa Tribune. A real live news story! Forgive my excitement.

Here is the piece in its entirety:

By GARETH REES, BRANDI HOLLIS | Special to the Tribune
Published: August 28, 2012

TAMPA — Many of the protesters at the Republican National Convention preach a gospel against greed and for compassion and sacrifice for the common good. The country’s current economic policies, they say, favor a few of the rich at the expense of the many poor.

On Tuesday, some of them tried to show there’s another way, staging a unique market at Voice of Freedom Park where all the goods were free or bartered for and where no cash was accepted.

“Our goal is to show a contrast between the ideology of the Republicans and Democrats by having a really, really free market where everything really is free for everybody,” said Keith McHenry, co-founder of Food Not Bombs and co-organizer of the event. “Goods and services should be for us, the regular people, not for maximizing profits for people like Mitt Romney.”

The event began at noon; vendors peddled their goods from behind makeshift tables and booths.

“We’ve been asking for donations for a couple weeks now and today people are bringing their belongings in and just giving them out,” McHenry said.

“It’s all free, as all life should be,” said Jimmy Dunson of St. Petersburg as he opened his table for business. Dunson offered onlookers an assortment of goods, including old board games, tennis balls, fabrics and books.

“It is possible to have an economic system based on compassion,” said Dunson as marketgoers played with the free games and danced to music from a portable stereo.

Others offered more tactile goods including clothes, food and medicines.

Joe Lemieux of Spring Hill said he would accept a dollar bill for his herbal teas and organic food, but that proceeds would go to fund Occupy Hernando. Leftover items would be donated at the end of the day to local medics, said Lemieux.

Katrina Oaks, who has been at the park since Sunday, rummaged through a box of clothes and fabric looking for something to wear. Oaks has participated in Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Orlando, and will travel with a group of 75 others to Charlotte, N.C., to protest the Democratic National Convention next week.

She picked out several items, paying for none.

“It’s pretty much already been said, but I occupy because everyone deserves a clean place to live, to take a shower, and to eat,” Oaks said.