Kathy and I just got back from JC Penney.
What did we need?
Absolutely nothing.
That is, there was nothing we needed to buy. Not a single thing. Nor did we feel much like doing any recreational shopping tonight, thanks to the snow, wind, and freezing cold. Once we’d had dinner at Applebee’s with Bob, Mark and Lorelai, nothing sounded more wonderful than just heading home, turning on the fireplace, and enjoying our first quiet Friday night at home with the dogs in over a month.
That’s what we’re doing now. But first, we stopped by JC Penney and didn’t leave until we had bought slacks and a sweater for me and a top for Kathy. Again, none of it was needed. None of it was even particularly wanted. But it felt so good, because it was our little gesture of defiance against a certain group of one million moms who seem to have an issue with JC Penney hooking up with Ellen DeGeneres. They have called for the retail giant to fire her, a move that I suspect may backfire big time if there are many people out there like Kathy and me who both enjoy and admire Ellen and who appreciate JC Penney’s decision to stand by her in the face of this threat.
I have to confess that I am not exactly Mr. Social Justice when it comes to the spending choices I make. I tend to be a bit too oblivious about such things, except when my brother Steve yells at me for eating at Cracker Barrel or ordering Domino’s – or when a certain Carthage faculty colleague cites the corporate misdeeds of Exxon or Pepsi – and even then, it takes a lot for me to completely boycott something. For one thing, I tend to get hung up in the complicated matter of how most companies are responsible for doing both good and ill, and one has to decide what’s a Deal Breaker . . . and for another, I really hate to give up stuff I like (to be perfectly frank.) But there certainly are plenty of instances in which I incline towards certain choices (Target / Builder’s Square) and away from another (Wal-Mart / Menard’s) over what sort of a corporate citizen a given business seems to be. . . and it certainly feels right to do so. Where all of this gets messy is when we find ourselves at odds with our fellow Americans over who the heroes and villains around us actually are.
And that brings us right back to JC Penney, whose choice of Ellen DeGeneres as their spokeswoman has inspired One Million Moms to demand that the company fire her or face a boycott from them. One of the things which America stands for is freedom, including the freedom to voice one’s opinion, the freedom to hold fast to one’s own religious and moral convictions, and even the right to organize protests and boycotts over such concerns. It’s part of what we’re about, and I don’t see how anyone can fault this group for speaking out about something that they find deeply troubling or for acting on their convictions. But really, One Million Moms. . . Ellen DeGeneres is your Deal Breaker? I find it so hard to wrap my head and my heart around that. I consider Ellen to be an amazing force for good – someone who genuinely cares about others, who has worked so tirelessly on behalf of people less fortunate than she is, and who makes the world a brighter and more interesting place for all of us. Just ask the people of New Orleans. No one single person has done more for that beleaguered city and its citizens than Ellen – and I find it really telling that New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, a born again Christian of fairly conservative stock, does not hesitate to call Ellen a close friend and someone he deeply and sincerely admires. The fact that she is gay seems not to matter much at all to him – or if it does, it doesn’t matter nearly as much as everything else about her. As Ellen herself stated so beautifully on her own program Wednesday, “I stand for honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you want to be treated, and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values.” Sounds remarkably reminiscent of the teachings of a certain Galilean Carpenter I know, whose central teachings were all about loving one another.
If you are deeply bothered by the fact that Ellen DeGeneres is the new spokesperson for JC Penney, then by all means refuse to shop there. (I would do the same if a store I loved such as Barnes & Noble were suddenly to hire Howard Stern as a spokesman.) Meanwhile, I have a lovely new sweater from JC Penney to try on – and I look forward to wearing it with a special sort of pride.