Open Letter to Michael Ellis, President of Fred Meyer, Inc.

Hello! Sorry it has been so long since my last post! It's been very hectic over the last few months as I have been dealing with the final convulsions of a renovation on our house and moving back into that house from a temporary apartment. It's good to be home and good to have the renovation done, but oh what a process!

Recently I went into a local Fred Meyer grocery store and was confronted with a table in their lobby with Boy Scouts conducting a fundraiser. As you may know, the Boy Scouts of America have a policy of discrimination against gay and lesbian people. There have been a number of a occurrences in the last decade of gay boy scouts and boy scout leaders being drummed out of the organization as a reflection of that bigoted policy. Here is my letter to the president of Fred Meyer stores:

Mr. Michael Ellis, president
Fred Meyer, Inc.
3800 SE 22nd Ave.
Portland, OR 97202-2918


Dear Mr. Ellis,

On March 23, 2007 at about 4:30pm I went to the Fred Meyer store in my neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. I was very disappointed to see a group of Boy Scouts selling food items for a fund raiser. I approached the assistant manager on duty, a Mr. Hansen, and expressed my disappointment that Fred Meyer would allow a group that has policies of discrimination to stage a fundraiser in their lobby. He asked me what I meant as he was not aware of any discrimination issues. I informed him that the Boy Scouts of America have a policy to discriminate against gay and lesbian people. It is a group that teaches children that it is acceptable to promote bigotry against a minority group. He said that it was not up to him or the individual store to make the decision to allow groups like the Boy Scouts to hold fundraisers in their store lobbies. He said that Fred Meyer's head office made those decisions. He also informed me that if they allow the Girl Scouts to sell their cookies then they have to allow the Boy Scouts to do the same thing or that would be discrimination against the Boy Scouts. My response to that is, would Fred Meyer allow the Ku Klux Klan to have a fundraiser in their lobby? I think not. The Girl Scouts do not share the Boy Scouts exclusionary policy. In fact their policy is to teach the girls that diversity is a good thing. They make a point of being open to all girls.

By allowing groups like the Boy Scouts to use their store lobbies for fund raising, Fred Meyer is supporting their policies of bigotry. I find that offensive. The Fred Meyer store here is in a very unique neighborhood which has a diverse population including many gay and lesbian families. Allowing the Boy Scouts to have fund raising activities on Fred Meyer property is a slap in the face to those families. I'm hardly surprised that Fred Meyer would do this as they continue to allow the Salvation Army to have their bell ringers on their store properties during the holidays. The Salvation Army is another organization that promotes bigotry against the gay and lesbian community. Kroger Stores, your corporate owner, has a diversity value policy which reads:

Diversity : Reflecting a workplace that includes a variety of people from different backgrounds and cultures, diversity of opinions and thoughts.

Promoting groups that have policies against diversity shows a lack of respect to a discriminated minority. This includes your own gay and lesbian employees. I would urge you to change your policy of allowing bigoted groups like the Boy Scouts of America to conduct their activities on Fred Meyer property. I will be informing my friends and neighbors about this matter. If Fred Meyer continues to allow this activity, I will be giving my business to Safeway.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

The Real Face of Conservatism

There was a time that I have said that I would only vote for the best candidate for any political office, regardless of party. I tend to vote more Democratic but I would have chosen a Republican if I thought they were the better candidate. Not any more. Over the weekend, right-wing pundit, best selling author, and popular conservative speaker, AnnCoulter was invited by Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, to speak at the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Committee) convention. This convention is considered a really big deal in conservative circles. After a rousing introduction full of praise by former GovernorRomney, Ms. Coulter in her usual repulsive charm, made this statement:

"I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot,’ so I — so kind of an impasse, can’t really talk about Edwards."

Reacting to Coulter, the CPAC crowd cheered and clapped. I find this very interesting, not Coulter's hateful slur but the crowd's reaction. Coulter regularly spews this kind of hate-filled bile, that's to be expected. The fact that this crowd found her remarks worthy of cheering and clapping paints a very ugly picture of the state of conservative politics in America. What would have happened ifCoulter was talking about Barack Obama and said the "N" word? Derogatory name-calling never sounded so loathsome. Social conservatives are doing a great job of stripping away the veneer of what they think is civilized debate to reveal that their anti-gay rhetoric is little more than bigotry, discrimination and homophobia. As Coretta Scott King said: "bigotry ...seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood," So, really and truly, the Republican party is the party of bigotry. Honoring people who use shameful epithets like "faggot" is pretty pathetic. I think, and hope this points out to the American public that the debate on gay/lesbian issues is one about discrimination and not about preserving "traditional values'. Such pretty words for an ugly issue. Maybe this will bring the real issues out of the closet and we can see this debate for what it really is.

Meanwhile, I see the Republican party embrace people like Ann Coulter, Mitt Romney and Rush Limbaugh, in all their hateful glory. I see them shove Christianism down voter's throats and embrace corrupted political figures like Tom Delay, Bob Ney and Duke Cunningham. I watch their colossally incompetent president lie about intelligence and bungle a war we should never have gotten into. I think I can pretty safely say I WILL NEVER VOTE FOR A REPUBLICAN EVER!!!