by Pa Rock
Idealist Consumer
I read it as I stumbled past, considered how offensive it was on multiple levels, and then thought to myself, "Praise Jesus and Allah for online shopping!"
Idealist Consumer
I usually don’t shop with businesses that support Republican candidates or conservative causes – or those who want to indoctrinate the public with their religious beliefs. I stay out of Hobby Lobby, give Home Depot a wide berth, and Walmart hasn’t gotten one of my dollars into its cash registers in more than thirty years. And even though I used to love the chicken sandwiches at Chick-fil-A, I now buy all of my chicken sandwiches elsewhere.
It’s tough being an idealist, and I’m not there yet, but I’m working on it!
Jim Walton, one of Walmart Sam’s spawn, owns the bank where I do business, and I am not proud of banking with him – but I did not get into that situation voluntarily. Walton, as the sole owner of the Bank of Bentonville (Arkansas) began buying up other small town banks in the Midwest a couple of decades ago and eventually bought the bank where I had done business for most of my life. Walton’s Arvest Bank bought my bank – and my accounts along with it. I should change banks - and would - except for the fact that Walton’s serfs who work at the Arvest Banks are such nice and caring people that I don’t feel right in taking my business elsewhere and putting their employment at risk.
So I remain with Arvest and grind my teeth with disgust each year when I donate to their “Million Meals” campaign to fund area food pantry’s because I know that the Walton family itself is one of the least charitable in America.
I also try to avoid local businesses and service providers who show open hostility toward humanity. People who place bumper stickers or signs on their business vehicles or businesses are sure to piss somebody off, and, out here in the woods, that somebody is usually me.
There is a small, independent business in my town that sported several Trump stickers on its windows back during the 2016 election cycle. From the outside it was dark and forbidding, and looked as though it might be a place gun violence was laughed about and glorified. The Trump stickers disappeared not long after the election, but yesterday and I was walking by, I noticed a new bumper sticker at the base of the door glass. It said: “Are you ready to play Cowboys and Muslims?”
1 comment:
Generally I am in agreement, but there is always the exception to the rule. Here in Merriam it is the nicest barber with a shop on Merriam Drive. Marv's Barber Shop is at the corner of Merriam Drive and West 50th Terrace. Going north on Antioch there is no left turn allowed onto Merriam Drive. So folks take 50th Terrace. The Feng Shui people would say that Marv's location has a lot of Chi.
I have to admit I thought he was a mean old reprobate republican when first I moved to the area. That's because his lot was full of mean old reprobate republican campaign signs. What little did I know. Marv doesn't really care about politics. He cares about business. As elections came and went I noticed kind caring democratic campaign signs sprouting up in his high energy location.
At the end of one campaign a teacher I know was looking for abandoned signs to use as material for art projects for her students. They cut up the different colored signs and glued them into something magically transformation by a child's imagination.
So I asked old Marv if I could take the signs he had. He said I could have all but the ones for one candidate, a democrat in the next state house district to the west. Her husband was like a machine collecting her signs and using them over, and over, and over; well you get the idea.
So now I try not to judge a book by its cover. Most the time the cover is correct. But there's always going to be a nice guy like Marv who only wants to make his customers happy.
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