What is the Message? — Janet Szabo

This blog post has been marinating for a few days. No doubt someone will take offense at it, as being offended seems to be an Olympic-level sport nowadays. Whatever. I pay for the ability to write in this space and I am going to use it.

Should business and politics mix? I’m not talking about corporate cronyism here—which definitely should not exist—but rather, should a business owner’s political beliefs be front and center as part of his or her daily operations? The short answer is that the owner is in charge of running the business and is responsible for making the business decisions. However, I am reminded of something that a friend of mine said after visiting the Flathead Valley. Many of the churches here have large, prominent signs of the Ten Commandments or other religious quotations on display on their properties. After driving around town for a couple of days, my friend noted that “Perhaps these churches aren’t sending the message they think they are sending.” How astute. When pressed to put a similar sign on our church property, our pastor responded that if we did put up a sign, it would say, “Love Thy Neighbor.”

I went to a small, independently-owned business the other day to pick up a specific product. This store had social justice-themed signs plastered all over the front window. Displays within the store called attention to minority suppliers. There was a sign on the bathroom door stating, “Gender Neutral.” (Not in icons, but in words.) I understand that the owner feels strongly about social issues and wants to make that concern known, but I came out of that store feeling like the product the store wanted to sell was not the product I went in there to get. In the words of my friend, “Perhaps this store wasn’t sending the message it thought it was sending.” I am sure that part of the intended message was that discrimination would not be tolerated, but would I have been welcomed in the store had I been wearing the “wrong” political attire? The knife of discrimination cuts both ways, coughRavelrycough.

I am going to be sexist here for a moment, too, and note that these kinds of things tend to happen in women-owned businesses (as this one was), and it is women who tend to care about this kind of virtue-signaling. I have never heard a man say, “I’m not going to shop at that hardware store because it hasn’t made its position on Issue XYZ clear.” Never. The husband isn’t interested in the voting record of the general contractor who hires him, nor is he going to grill homeowners on their political affiliations.

Actions are always going to be more important than words. A large majority of my mother’s employee workforce at her metal stamping plant is made up of minorities and always has been. A couple of them have worked at the plant for more than a decade. She draws from the area around her shop and those are the people who live there. She has never once felt the need to put up a sign proclaiming that Black Lives Matter.

Voting by pocketbook certainly is a way to effect change. I have the choice to spend my dollars at a business or not. I have had a few people tell me that they wouldn’t shop at a store like that. I understand that position, but product availability where I live is also a factor. I don’t have the choice of 15 stores in a major metropolitan area. If I want a store to be viable where I live and carry the products I want, I have to be willing to support it.

So those are my thoughts. You are welcome to weigh in on the comments. Be civil.

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The husband is putting in the water line to the new shop so that he can finish plumbing the bathroom.

We sited the shop to take advantage of the existing septic system in that part of the property. The 14’ x 70’ trailer where we lived for a few years while building our house was on that system. The husband has to run the water line from the well head to the shop, which is a distance of about 75 feet, and it has to be at least six feet deep. That backhoe certainly has paid for itself in the year that we’ve had it.

One of our friends has a shop and he told the husband that one of his favorite purchases was a heated bidet toilet seat for the bathroom. Every so often, I tease the husband and say I am going to order one for him.