Shoved to Them
I’ve had enough. Will someone tell the religious right and the Conservative caucuses? I agree with 99% of what they say they believe (I don’t actually know what percentage I agree with, but it’s certainly most of it), but I can’t take the boycotts any more. I just can’t do it.
It stated innocently enough 10 years back or so when the owner of Hormel foods made some anti-Catholic remarks and even funded an anti-Catholic group. I’ve never been a huge fan of canned chili anyway (the homemade stuff is easy and cheap enough) and other people make pepperoni, so it was easy enough to keep his products out of my shopping cart.
Then a friend told me that she didn’t buy Proctor & Gamble products because they were cruel to the animals they test stuff on, which is why I shouldn’t buy them. I’m not in favor of harming sweet little bunnies, so I checked the list of stuff they make (holy buckets they make a lot of stuff!), and heaved a sigh of relief. We were poor and their stuff was too expensive for us except for Crest toothpaste. I switched to Colgate and congratulated myself for my moral superiority.
I read about the mean things KFC does to chickens (I couldn’t find a link that wasn’t disturbing. I’m not linking to that. I don’t think it’s necessary to show it in its glory. Google it yourself.). I resolved that Popeye’s was the place for us.
Susan G Komen funded Planned Parenthood and I stopped buying anything pink (except girl clothes). I didn’t even look for the dumb ribbon. If it was that SGK shade of pink, I just left it on the shelf. It killed me not to get the cute mixer, but I like babies better. I got the green one instead. (Yay me!)
Then Disney offered benefits to the same sex partners of their employees, and gay groups started having Family Pride Day at the parks. The Christians I knew started throwing out their VHS tapes and banning all things Disney from their homes. I tried to kick it out of my house, and mostly succeeded…..except for my 2 year old who loved Cinderella. She had an old tape she watched daily, and a tattered costume she had worn until the hem fell out. I let her keep them. I simply resolved to buy nothing new……
……which left us with very little for her to play with and very few house where she could go. What was the alternative? Bratz? No thank you. I’ll take Cinderella and Snow White any day of the week. We weren’t buying any more….but I wasn’t going to take away the make believe she loved.
So grandma bought it for her. (We weren’t on great terms at the time. A civil war wasn’t worth risking.)
I tried to keep up with what we weren’t buying now, but the list kept growing. We had to stay away from all toothpaste manufacturers. I can’t find a single one who doesn’t support gay marriage, planned parenthood, or test on animals. (In fact, that torturing animals thing is starting to look minor. I’m beginning to shrug my shoulders at it. Animals testing? eh. Worse things happen at sea.)
I can’t figure out where to go on date night with my husband any longer. Red Lobster, Olive Garden, etc all support Planned Parenthood. McDonald’s has pink slime, and there’s only so much Chick Fil A a girl can eat.
The truth is I can’t keep track of them all. There are too many things to boycott and I no longer think it makes a difference. Companies would rather tick of the conservatives among us than be called intolerant. They’ve also reached a saturation point at which we have run out of options. We can sit around with funky breath, rank laundry, stinky bodies, and no oreos……or we can come up with something new.
I vote for new, because this boycott thing isn’t working.
A friend of mine told me that this was all a cop out because it was too hard for me and I just don’t want to make the effort. She’s right. I’m copping out. I’m not going to burn all of this time, effort, and energy on something that makes no difference at all. I’m willing to make my own laundry detergent and eat the store brand of cookies….but Wal Mart is killing small business and the fluoride in the water is killing us all!
In just the past week, I’ve gotten emails calling for me to boycott 37 companies, products, television shows, and media outlets. That’s just one week. It wasn’t a special week. It’s the average of what I get in my inbox.
It’s too much.
So here’s what I’m doing. I’m not buying the pink stuff because their flip-flop earlier this year just ticked me off. My daughter won’t be a Girl Scout ….because don’t use my kid to push your political agenda, that’s why. And I’m still not buying Hormel. That dude is crazy, and I try to stay away from crazy folks.
Other than that…I’m buying what I like. The boycotters have overwhelmed me and made my life impossible if I try to get with the program. It would be worth it if it worked…..
so here’s the deal……come up with something new and let me know what it is. Until then, I’m praying and doing my best to raise moral children. It’s the best I can do.
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