Conservative Plan to Boycott Wal-Mart
This is one of the worst things I've heard in a long time.
Why?
Let's count the reasons.
The biggest reason this is bad, and will fail, is that people need to get done with their holiday shopping, and let's face it...Wal-Mart's a juggernaut at sales. Any boycott on Wal-Mart is doomed to fail.
The second biggest reason this is bad, is for what it states about Americans in general.
Are we really this bad?
Do we really go out of our way this much to insult and spread prejudice?
I don't like feeling sorry for a large multi-national corporation like Wal-Mart, but this makes me feel sorry for these guys. They've steam rolled all smaller stores and manage to bully the other large chain stores. But these conservative types seem to have a mad on for Wal-Mart's blood.
First it was the fact that they didn't say "Merry Christmas", causing conservatives to scream out, "Secular Plot!" Now they've returned to saying, "Merry Christmas" and still conservatives want more blood.
Someone found out that Wal-Mart paid $25,000 this summer to become a member of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and donated $60,000 to Out and Equal, which promotes gay-rights advances in the workplace.
Shock!
Outrage!
How dare they not spit at gays that enter their stores, or at least greet customers with a good, "May your children grow with God and never become gay."
Who's leading this charge of ignorance?
That would be the American Family Association, which was founded in 1977 by one Rev. Donald Wildmon. (Wildmon is also known to have raised hell in his fight against, then popular TV show, Three's Company for promoting gay lifestyles.)
These are the same people that had boycotts against Abercombie & Fitch for using "porno" in it's ads, Movie Gallery for distributing porno to adults, KMart for selling adult lyrical music, and Nike for somehow trying promote gay marriage. Don't ask me, I don't even want to read about that argument.
They also tried to get rid of the National Endowment for the Arts, which funds artistic ventures. They did succeed at cutting the NEA $99.5 million from it's budget in 1996. I wonder if that's one of the reasons today's blockbuster movies have no heart in them?
So it seems we have the right group doing this. Their win record? Well...they haven't won anything through these boycotts, and I can't help but wonder why?
I don't like preaching and I'm not the type to preach to others, but this is one of those times that I just have to preach on.
This is America. We're supposed to be the most forward thinking country on the map (I guess we are if you're looking at a Map of the South). But it's special interest groups like this one that keep us in a culturally devoid state.
Homosexuality is not a choice. Why would someone willingly make themselves different? Make themselves targets to groups like this? Make themselves targets for hate crimes?
Most conservatives say something to the degree of, "The media makes it cool and acceptable, and they want to be cool."
What?
I knew a guy in college who over the course of that year discovered that he was gay. He did not want to be, he tried not to be. He had a girlfriend he did not love, nor could he even consummate their relationship. When he realized what he was, he was dreadfully afraid of what his parents would do. Fearing above all, that they would reject him as their son and abandon him. He was in denial over it, he didn't want to be gay. But it's like me hating the fact one of my eyes are slightly larger than the other. I was born that way, and he was born gay.
If it were his choice, I have no doubt in my mind he would be straight.
These groups spread their ignorance and hate-mongering under the banner of "Family Welfare" and "Christian Values". Which says quite simply that no true family could ever have a gay member or support gays in any way, and that there's no such thing as a Gay Christan. (The person I mentioned above would prove both statements wrong).
Before I wrap this up, I want to tell you all one last thing.
And that's a thing called tolerance.
TOLERANCE.
Now tolerance doesn't mean at all that you have to embrace the gay lifestyle or listen to Gangsta rap, or even study the Muslim religion, although I can testify that Gangsta rap and some knowledge of most religions would help some people.
Tolerance means that you tolerate others. You don't like gays? Well, ok. Go your path and don't like them, that's your right as an American and a human being. But that does not mean you can protest against them, no one ever protests against the straight lifestyle or country music.
And trust me, if I were to protest anything, country music would be high on my list of protest worthy items.
Tolerate each other. We're a melting pot of a nation. You don't like blacks, go ahead don't like them, but don't act on your dislike and kick them out of our schools. You don't like gays, ok don't but don't rally and have agendas made to "cleanse" America of them. You don't like CSI then don't watch it, but don't call the network and demand it's taken off the air.
As devil's advocate, the same standard works both ways. But I've never seen blacks rallying against whites (at least not anymore), or gays rallying against straights. I do, however, see the religious infighting and rallies which sadden me to no end.
Some simple tolerance would go a long, long way.
And I know some more reasonable people reading this wouldn't even like that message. But let's face it, we'll never be free of racism, sexism, homophobia, and general hatred and distrust of anyone different. So the next best thing is simple tolerance, and there's not enough of it to go around.
