Doin' the Depot Again

A week ago I wrote about Lowe’s, the Big Box home improvement store, capitulating to bigotry by pulling its advertising from “All-American Muslim” – the reality television show depicting Muslim families in Dearborn, Michigan as being just like everybody else – at the request of the small-brained, knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing dimwits at the Florida Family Association.

I mentioned that Anita and I have dropped lots of cash at Lowe’s in recent months but would be taking our business elsewhere in light of the corporation’s decision to endorse ignorance and prejudice.

So in addition to ramping up the amount of time and money we spend at Michigan-based ACO Hardware, we’ve decided to give Home Depot another chance since for the past year company officials have ignored the American Family Association’s repeated attempts to persuade ‘em via a boycott to stop publicly backing gay rights. (The Atlanta-based company continues to participate in the city's gay pride parade, as it has done for years.)

What is it with these frikkin’ “family associations” anyway? They sure don’t represent any of the families I know. As I’ve written before, “family” means “togetherness,” not “separation” and “force others to embrace my narrow religious beliefs.”

I’m aware that Home Depot isn’t perfect – its political action committee has donated to Eric Cantor, John Boehner and other pond scum GOP politicians – but we’ve got to pick our battles, right? Home Depot has worked hard to improve its environmental record, curbing the sale of lumber from endangered forests in Indonesia and Chile, planting trees to offset carbon emissions and spending big bucks to build green, affordable homes.

And the American Family Association, which brags that it’s been on "the frontlines of America's culture war" since 1977, makes me sick. An AFA stooge said, “Home Depot should be like a lot of Fortune 500 companies and simply remain neutral in the culture war – don’t give money, don't give vehicles, don't lend employee support to homosexual activities on Main Street USA.”

First of all, the “culture war” is b*llsh*t made up by conservatives to distract the myopic masses from the illegal, immoral, unethical actions of politicians in their pockets. (“Look! They’re building a mosque on hallowed Ground Zero, people!” “Barack Obama is taking Christ out of Christmas!” “Radical feminists want to turn your little girls into lesbians!”)

Secondly, I don’t want any one individual or organization, conservative or progressive, telling everybody else what they should and shouldn’t think, do, support or oppose.

And lastly, I haven’t seen any homosexual activity on Main Street USA but I have seen a lot of empty buildings and boarded-up windows because Mom and Pop couldn’t compete with the corporate playas who ran ‘em out of business and laughed all the way to the unscrupulous banks. (Yes, Lowe’s and Home Depot, I’m talking about you too.)

You gonna do anything about that, American Family Association?

See you at ACO and Home Depot.


Sources: Change.org, Daily Finance.