Boycotting Target and Best Buy


I'm not big on boycotts. In my opinion, they seldom work on a national or international level any longer. Because Minnesota has some very strict laws about financial disclosure in political campaigns, we know that the CEO of Target, Gregg Steinhafel, donated $150,000 to a pro-business Minnesota political action committee which in turn has given financial support to GOP candidate for Minnesota governor, Tom Emmer. Pretty tenuous connection so far, eh? Gregg even went so far as to write a letter to the employees of Target Stores stating that Target's support for its employees who are Gay and Lesbian is "unwavering." That's nice to hear. Even better to hear is that Target doesn't just "talk the talk," but also "walks the walk."

"In the context of this contribution, some of you have raised questions regarding our commitment to diversity, and more specifically, the GLBT community. Let me be very clear, Target’s support of the GLBT community is unwavering, and inclusiveness remains a core value of our company. Some current examples of that support include:

• Domestic Partner Benefits

• Sponsorship of Twin Cities Pride

• Sponsorship of Minnesota AIDS Walk

In addition, Target’s rating of 100% on the 2009 and 2010 Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index further demonstrates the reputation our company has earned.
"


Why then is there so much anger at Target in the Gay and Lesbian community at one of our corporate success stories? A closer examination of Tom Emmer is necessary to understand why Gays and Lesbians might feel betrayed by Gregg's indifference to Gay Rights.  Emmer isn't just against same-sex marriage, he is passionately obsessed by it.   Emmer is a male Minnesota version of Sarah Palin.  There's no subject which he cannot reduce to a simplistic jingo.  Emmer has "positions are jarringly reactionary for a state where even the right prides itself on some degree of progressiveness."  He thinks the U.S.Constitution guarantees you the right to smoke tobacco, but not the right to control your own body, as in abortion.  No surprise there, eh?

So again, why should Gays and Lesbians be bothered by Gregg Steinhafel's contribution to the PAC Minnesota Forward which in turn supports Tom Emmer?  Since this contribution came to light, it's also been disclosed that Gregg and his wife both gave the maximum personal donation to Emmer's campaign, and also maxed out contributions to Michele Bachman, ol' miss crazy eyes.

While I have  no intention of boycotting Target, I don't think I'll go shopping there anytime in the near future.  Same with Best Buy.  Both corporations are exercising their Constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech according to the interpretation of the U.S. Constitution by the Roberts' Court, a concept our founding fathers would probably find ludicrous, and I'm all for free speech.  I am not, however, inclined to give my money to corporations which support nativist Do-Nothings.  It leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

As for explaining his donation as being simply "pro-business," I'd like to remind Gregg that "Mussolini may have done many brutal and tyrannical things; he may have destroyed human freedom in Italy; he may have murdered and tortured citizens whose only crime was to oppose Mussolini; but 'one had to admit' one thing about the Dictator: he 'made the trains run on time.'”  (Ashley Montague and Edward Darling writing tongue in cheek in The Ignorance of Certainty, 1970)

The Problem with Immigration Laws

All of the branches of my family were in the Americas before there was a United States of America.  I'm not bragging, I'm just explaining our limited experience with immigration laws.  Oh, there was one exception:  my mother's people crossed into Texas illegally as early as 1807.  They didn't speak Spanish, weren't Catholic, and didn't have permission from the Spanish government of Texas, or from its successor, the Republic of Mexico.  They ended up rebelling against the lawful government and oppressing the Spanish speaking earlier inhabitants.  If turn about is fair play, no wonder my cousins in Texas and Louisiana are worried about the influx of Mexicans coming into the country.

I Used to Be a Writer

But that was then and this is now.  Writers write.  I'm having difficulty stringing half a dozen words together, much less sentences, and god forbid, paragraphs.  Hopefully, it's just a faze I'm going through.  Time will tell.

Meahwhile, I'll go and read some more.

The Threat of Communism

The Republican Party of 2009 reminds of me of the Republican Party of 1954.  Here's a little clip someone put together that brings the point home.

L'Shana Tova

May we all live in peace and have health insurance.

The March on Washington, 9/12/09

Je me souviens Katrina

NUDE PICTURES OF BRAD PITT!

(That's called blog whoring. I don't have any pictures of Brad Pitt. Despite his rather beautiful body, I don't have any interest in pictures of Brad Pitt. I do, however, think that he is a very interesting man.)

Take his taste in women, for example. What's the name of his first wife, Jennifer Something-or-Another? That's not fair. I know who she is. She's all right. She just happened to be caught unawares when her man found another woman more stimulating. That's tough. Who among us haven't been caught there? Okay, so maybe it doesn't happen to everyone.

But back to Brad Pitt. You know what I find depressing? Brad Pitt is now playing parts I always imagined were filled by older, mature men. Men I looked up to when I was growing up. Fuck! I'm a hundred years older than Brad Pitt. He will always be the hitchhiker in Thelma and Louise. You have to appreciate his marketing of himself. First, he casts himself in that reverse aging movie which his people and Hollywood rewrote after appropriating the title of that story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Oh shit, you know the one. Something... Something ... Something... Oh yeah, now I remember: Something something or another an Benjamin Buttons. It's about someone who was born old and grew younger while everyone else grew older. I know I read that story about forty years ago, and I have no conscious memory of it, but I know that the movie subsequently made, only used the concept as they imagined it from the title of the story. Sort of like reading a book by its cover. I can't begin to tell you howmany times I made book reports in high school based on that idea. Oh sure, I read a lot of books in high school, hundreds if not thousands. Even so, I did not read every book for which I got credit. What can I say? I come from three hundred years (that we know of) of outlaws and con artists. It's in my blog, er, I mean, my blood.


I'm not sure where I'm going here, but what must we always be going somewheres? My point is, Brad Pitt should not be playing older, "mature" men. WTF does that make me? Dirt?

Okay, this is an aside: Brad Pitt impresses the hell out of me. I don't know him from shit, but he seems to be using his fame and celebrity to focus attention on areas that would otherwise never get any light. Take post-Katrina New Orleans. A lot of people "talk the talk," but not nearly as many "walk the walk." Thank you, Mr. Pitt.

I haven't written a fan letter since I was twelve, but bear witness, world, this is a fan letter to a remarkable young man who has done much to make the world a better place. Right on! Brother.