.check your morality at the drive-thru. August 18, 2008

.authored by something.of.substance.

Perusing the local newspaper at my parent’s house during my last visit, I came across this stunner of a letter submitted to the editor:

“We Cannot Support Restaurant Chain

From time to time, my wife and I used to enjoy taking our grandchildren to McDonald’s.
However, we will no longer be doing that. The reason? McDonald’s has become one of the
proud sponsors of the homosexual agenda, including the gay and lesbian pride parade held in
San Francisco every June.

Since we cannot knowingly and in good conscience support a business that helps promote themoral demise of our culture, we will no longer be frequenting McDonald’s. It is my hope that thoseof you who read this will also carefully consider what your response should be to the disappointingaction that been taken by this organization.” -Don Smith

After re-reading this marvel of modern society and taking a few moments to pace back-and-forth heatedly, I composed the following letter and submitted it to the same editor:

“Check Your Morality at the Drive-Thru

I didn’t flinch when, in his letter to the editor on August 18^th, Don Smith announced that he and his family have renounced patronizing McDonald’s for “moral” reasons. However, I was certainly dismayed when he cited McDonald’s support of gay civil rights as their (supposedly) only dip into immoral territory. Perhaps Mr. Smith doesn’t realize that McDonald’s had, for many years, deceived the American public about the ingredients and nutritional information of its food. Or, maybe he hasn’t been aware that McDonald’s submits its female employees to purse searches for cell phones while allowing male employees to go unchecked. Or, what about the charge that the corporation uses illegal immigrants to clean after hours and pays them well under minimum wage? Or, that the fast food giant bullies its teenage employees into not unionizing with a corporate anti-union task force?

Perhaps, if we’re going to start criticizing huge corporations for their ethical practices, Mr. Smith would also not care to shop at Wal-Mart -which tells their employees how to vote upon penalty of termination as well as routinely fails to provide health benefits by keeping employees just under full-time- or Nike -who uses child sweatshop labor to produce shoes- as these practices seem to scream “immoral!”.

Addressing homosexuality as an “agenda” that requires bolstering aside, it’s hard to think that giving your money to a corporation which has been voted LEAST ethical in the world- even in front of Nike with their sweatshop labor!- is supporting any kind of specific cause. McDonald’s does not support anyone except McDonald’s and their constant marketing to any and every demographic reinforces and reflects that. So, the next time an issue of “morality” invades consumerism, perhaps we need to go back to thinking about what is truly immoral in the businesses we choose to patronize.

In fact, perhaps the true “moral demise of our culture” comes in teaching your friends and family hatred and intolerance of others with different opinions and orientations as a family value.”

Then, I signed it with my first and last name. I don’t hide behind my flame-thrower.

Reading the small-town newspaper at my parent’s house generally provides amusement (three pages of coverage on the local cow patty toss. Really?), repugnance (four articles about how Muslims are ruining America next to glowing puff pieces about George W. Bush’s competence in his current position) and over-all dismay over the intellectual decline of our society (“we was gonna go to that them fair over there, but we don’t want to see no people that look like fairies so we watched a four-wheeler race instead”). And, usually, I mind my own business and don’t- publicly- respond. Arguing with people who base all of their life choices on some form of Scripture aren’t generally the most open to interpretation.

But, reading nothing about how Jesus has led this man away from McDonald’s and, by association, the homosexuals of America, I chose to ignore the implied religious affiliation and plow ahead as if I had a shot in hell of convincing someone that there are far greater “moral” concerns than what people are doing with their genitalia. For a country that claims to be so sexually-conservative we certainly spend most of our time either flaunting our body parts on television or in magazines or checking out each other’s sexual prowess-on-display while simultaneously bashing said behavior and concentrating our major life decisions (elected officials, anyone?) on the sexual proclivities of others. Certainly, banning together as a nation to act as a barometer of all things “moral” paints us as hypocrites. We condemned Bill Clinton for his dalliances while accepting the same behavior from Brad Pitt when he started seeing Angelina. We watch the Ellen Degeneres show and dance along with her while dissing our local Pride parades. We condemn corporations for their “sponsorship” of different segments of society- as a marketing technique- rather than take note of the same racist and gender-sexist discrimination of the same corporations. We have made hatred and intolerance our family values.

If we are going to hold ourselves in an un-definable “moral majority”, let it not be based on sexual orientation or any kind of generalized intolerance. After all, if you hold yourself to these moral standards, you probably never expect anyone to investigate what goes on in your bedroom. If your sense of value comes from an interpretation of the teachings of Jesus Christ, take time in your sanctified bed each night to re-read your Scripture so that you understand the essence of what he’s saying. The morality our country so esteems was based on our tolerance and acceptance of those who were different and our ability to act selflessly to help those less fortunate. The sad fact remains that the “moral demise of our culture” started sometime around the advent of McDonald’s- which, historically- came well after the homosexuals. Having just submitted my response, I don’t know if it will be printed. But, I can tell you that my dislike of things truly unethical will put me in the minority.