This morning, while working on an unrelated blog post, I decided to check my Facebook feed. And at that point, I saw this post from my daughter Cassaundra. And she wasn’t happy.
I was told I was um-compassionate to animals because I chose to eat their flesh when all they wanted to do was live. That because I chose to drink dairy and eggs I was raping the mothers of their babies.
No I choose to eat meat because my body burns too much protein, because I choose to help local farmers. My shopping habits/ my dietary habits seem to make me insensitive to the abuse and torture of animals. I don’t wear fur. Nor do I give certain fast food places my money. I also choose to put my money and donations into actual places that make changes for more then just kitties and puppies as its concerned. Therefore I still choose to eat these “pitiful poor creatures” for my selfish benefits. Please don’t tell me you choose to make your canine be vegan also.
And it occurred to me. We make a lot of personal choices based on our beliefs in life. We choose to eat at certain places and we refuse to eat at others, for reasons that are specifically our own. Sometimes our choices are based on our upbringing, sometimes there’s a religious tenet to our decisions, other times it’s due to health reasons that we pick what we pick.
Trust me. I also base a lot of my decisions on what I believe and what I support. Examples:
For many years, I would only purchase a pair of sneakers if they were manufactured in the United States. This was based on stories I had read about sneaker manufacturers paying miniscule wages in the Far East to their workers. What this meant was – the only sneakers I would purchase were Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars, which were at the time still manufactured in North Carolina. Well, that lasted until Nike bought Converse and shipped the Chuck Taylor production to Vietnam. Urgh. In fact, I only purchased the Nikes that I currently wear because they were at an outlet mall and they were at a heavily discounted price.
For several years, I refused to play competitive team trivia at any of the Recovery Room Bar and Grilles, based on what I perceived to be a personal slight. At one time, the Recovery Room in Albany was offering free NFL football tickets for winning teams, and I was winning those tickets on a regular basis. Eventually the owner of the Recovery Room told me that I was winning them too often, that I wasn’t a “team” (at that time, I was playing solo), and that I didn’t eat enough food or drink enough alcohol to make it worth their money. I was so offended, that I personally boycotted their establishment – and let everyone else know the reason why. The upside? I went to another location that hosted trivia – Brown’s Brewing – and had the best time ever, made a ton of friends, won lots of food, and started feeling better about myself. In 2011, I decided it was time to end the boycott – and I came back to Recovery Room for a trivia game, led from wire to wire, and won about $300 in Recovery Room gift cards. I don’t play very often at Recovery Room – maybe once in a while on a Wednesday if I feel like it – but the boycott, as far as I was concerned, was important to me.
I will not eat at a Burger King restaurant, or drink any Dr. Pepper products, for so long as those companies sponsor NASCAR driver Travis Kvapil. Why is that? During the 2013 NASCAR season, Kvapil was arrested for domestic abuse. He actually raced later that weekend, and competed for the rest of the season. He drove cars that were decorated with the Burger King logo; his firesuit was festooned with logos of Burger King and Dr. Pepper. If those companies feel that they can support someone who was arrested for hitting his wife… then I cannot support purchasing even a morsel of food or a drop of beverage from their establishments.
Now because of this, there are some of you who are trying to find a way to split hairs. To view what I eschew, and say, “Well Chuck, you’re currently wearing Nikes now, they’re made overseas, what kind of hypocrite are you?” And I say to you, it’s tough. Sometimes I don’t have a choice, or I can’t find a better choice at the moment. Sometimes I have to compromise. Yeah, I wear Nikes. I didn’t pay full price for them, they were heavily discounted, so Nike’s not making $200/pair off of my wallet. And if someone knows of a sneaker company whose products are made in the United States by union men and women earning a union wage, please let me know and I’ll swap my sneaks in nothing flat.
Sometimes my choices are based on brand loyalty. The cars I drive? All three were General Motors cars and I refuse to change my brand loyalty. My phones? Almost all of them were BlackBerry models, including my current Q10. Camera gear? My digitals have all been Nikon, my film cameras a mix – but none have been, nor will there ever be, a Canon in my collection.
That’s me. Like it or not, love it or hate it, that’s what makes me who I am. We may not have a choice in our lives… but when we do, we can exercise that choice as often as we want.
And I’m sure there are products that you either refuse to purchase, or that you will seek out and purchase every day. You have your reasons, and those reasons are more than “it tastes good” or “it feels good” or “I look cool when my purse has that logo on it.”
That, my blog readers, is what the comment section is for. Please share.
And one last thing. Anybody who gives my daughter grief about what she eats or how she eats it… anybody who gives my daughter a problem about what she wears or how she wears it…
May I please offer you a nice big plate of Spam Stroganoff. Delicious and nutritious.
Chuck The Writer 
I will not shop at WalMart. I do not support their employment policies or their undercutting of local stores that puts the locals out of business. This becomes a real issue for me when a recording artist I like releases a WalMart only recording. But, I have learned to do without & I always send the artist an email explaining why I was unable to purchase their latest recording (like they care). As you can tell, my refusal to shop at WalMart has crippled the retail giant – but I don’t care. It is a decision that makes me feel good. I don’t preach to others who DO shop at WalMart, that is their decision to make. But, I will share my reasons for refusing to shop there. If it changes their minds about the store, so be it, if not, that is their decision. What it boils down to is YOU are the person that has to live with yourself 24/7 – if you refuse to eat meat for ethical reasons, or you do eat meat, but not foods like veal, or you buy cage free eggs – fine. Be respectful of other peoples decisions & live your life in a way that makes you proud of yourself.
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I won’t shop at WalMart either. I decided to stop after I watched a documentary in college about how they cheat employees out of overtime, employ Chinese workers overseas for $3 a day, and the Walton family each has a bomb shelter in their backyard and donates less than 1% of their yearly income to charity. Makes me mad. Although I still shop at Target (and often wonder if their practices are really that different from WalMart), I feel good for not supporting something I am against.
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New Balance sneakers are still Made in USA
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“Justagirl” is absolutely right. We ALL make decisions every minute of our lives. But we have no right to impose those choices on anyone else. I have said myriad times in comments to various articles/blogs & on Facebook, if you don’t like Walmart–or any other establishment–don’t shop there, don’t work there. But don’t impose your decision on anyone else. Indeed, be respectful of our choices. And we, then, will respect yours. That being said, I do have to say I am weary of the PETA people and their anthropomorphism. It has to be disturbing to children when they go to a circus at the TU Center, e.g., and are confronted with noisy, even obnoxious protestors. You come across as no better and as offensive as the Westboro Baptist folks, and some of us question if youre doing it because the media pays too much attention to people protesting something. (Note to the Media at large: that’s a HINT. Someone ahs a demonstration at Capitol Park, e.g. and the media are all over it like flies on horse manure. what would happen if someone had a demonstration about ANYTHING & the media didn’t show up?)
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Great post, Chuck. There are only a few businesses I avoid for because I disagree with their practices or lack of ethics. Hobby Lobby and Walmart top that list. I avoid 90% of fast food joints simply because what they serve for food is incredibly unhealthy and bordering on poisonous. I haven’t found a pair of New Balance sneakers made in the USA for a couple of years now, and when I did, I knew that they were only assembled here from components made in some far east country.
We all do what we can, when we can, and how we can, and the reality of that is that we also occasionally have to sacrifice our principles no matter how much it sucks. But in the end the only standards we have to adhere to or expectations we have to live up to are our own.
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There is a reason they’re called “personal choices”. They’re PERSONAL!!! I don’t care if you don’t like what I eat, wear, or drive, or where I shop. It’s none of your business!
By the way, I have two pair of New Balance sneakers here in my office and they both say they are made in China. Both in English and French!
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Boycotts almost never work. The only ones usually deprived in a boycott are those doing the boycotting.
I used to boycott Wal-Mart too, but then I realized what a bourgeois response that was – or rather as my family grew and my income shank I expanded the options I allowed myself to consider. The fact is the economy sucks, people aren’t earning what they once did and Wal-Mart provides cheaply made goods at a cheap price. The less money I spend at the store, the more money I have to take care of my family in other ways. That’s my concern. You want to save the world by not buying Chinese goods, that’s your concern.
In the end though, as Americans, we need to all sit down at the same table and respect each others personal decisions, be they where to shop, what to eat, or who to love.
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