This is how you affect real change

People have to pull up their socks and say "no."

That is what the owner of the Kearny Mesa shooting range in San Diego did yesterday, when he sent a fax to Blackwater, telling them, in essence, "we don't want your business."

“I'm tired of being dragged into this thing,” said Marc Halcon, owner of American Shooting Center.

Halcon, who's run American Shooting Center for 11 years, said he has been a subcontractor for Blackwater since 2002. He sent a fax to the company Monday notifying them the agreement will end May 31.

Now I am not so naive as to think that this is going to have much of an effect on Blackwater. A Blackwater spokesman waved it off with a breezy air - doesn't affect their plans any - But I do find a kernel of hope in the fact that someone said "no," especially when that "no" has a significant impact on someones bottom line in these economic times.

This tells me that the worm is turning, that "right" and "wrong" still mean something to some people, and that they aren't subjective.

Sometimes, a good old-fashioned shunning can go a long ways toward modifying behavior. Scorn and disdain are powerful weapons, and the willingness to forgo money speaks in a very loud tone. It is the first step toward scraping these human waste products off the bottom of America's shoe.