All-American Stupidity

You've no doubt heard about it by now.

A decision by retail giant Lowe's Home Improvement to pull ads from a reality show
about American Muslims following protests from an evangelical Christian group
has sparked criticism and calls for a boycott against the chain.

The retailer stopped advertising on TLC's "All-American Muslim" after a conservative group known as the Florida Family Association complained, saying the program was "propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda's clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values."

It seems to me that among all that tooling, hardware and fixtures the cowardly bastards at Lowe's were unable to find a pair of steel balls.

Instead, they offer up this excuse:

"Individuals and groups have strong political and societal views on this topic, and this program became a lightning rod for many of those views," the statement said. "As a result we did pull our advertising on this program. We believe it is best to respectfully defer to communities, individuals and groups to discuss and consider such issues of importance."

I wouldn't expect a consumer relations department to tell flatly tell bible waving bigots to go pound sand, but maybe a "We respect all aspects of an honest marketplace" or something like that.
Instead, they effectively told millions of American Muslims to pound sand, instead. I will be boycotting Lowe's along with my Muslim friends and neighbors. Too bad for me as I preferred Lowe's over Home Depot, and will now have to drive another 10 minutes to do my shopping in a store where I can never find what I'm looking for after dodging a phalanx of eager Mexicans asking for work.

A *friend sums it best when he wrote on Facebook...

You know, Lowe's can spend their ad budget however they like. I am frankly less bothered by the decision that they've made here than the reality that it reflects: they are more concerned about losing the business of bigots than they are about losing the business of American Muslims (and their friends and neighbors who give a shit).

Which suggests to me that there are an awful lot of bigots buying lumber and light fixtures. And not enough people who give a shit.

I hope he's wrong on the last part.


*I'll attribute when quoting from another blog. Blogs are fully public writings. Facebook is not, and I want to respect the limited audience Facebook allows those who broadcast their opinions on it.