Wal-Mart Gift Wraps Me Another Reason to Hate Them (March 18, 2010)

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walmart_bingo_card_1

I have been calling this retailer “The Evil Empire” for years. I know they have everything, and they have it on the cheap, but I won’t shop there.

Let’s leave aside the unfair business practices, and predatory assault on regional Mom and Pop stores the chain unleashed in the 1980s and 90s. Let’s forget about their sweat shop labor practices: the abuse of needy seniors, the unfair pay raises awarded to men over women. I can even try to overlook some of their most glaring PR gaffes, say two Christmases ago when a man did a nice thing and bought hundreds of $10 store gift cards to pass out at his local outlet, only to be kicked out of the place by management, worried that the benvolent gift might decrease recipient spending.

On the whole, no matter how many lovey dovey ad campaigns they launch, Wal-Mart appears to me to be the very eptiome of the heartless corporation. Daley and I don’t see eye to eye on much, but I for one am thrilled he has thus far kept Wal-Mart out of City limits. May it always remain that way. I would rather spend an additional five cents on my body wash at the far more civic minded Target.

Incidentally, if you doubt the veracity of any of my claims thus far, feel free to take to the Web. The truth is out there, as Mulder might say.

However, last evening while watching CNN, and again this morning, when I booted up my computer, I came across a story that managed to shock me, though I had long given up on Wal-Mart having any shame:

Black people must leave, NJ Walmart announcer says
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Black-people-must-leave-NJ-apf-1749619349.html?x=0

Now, before any of you jump on my back, yes, I know this was one rogue employee, and this behavior is not explicitly condoned by corporate. Wal-Mart execs are falling all over themselves to snuff this PR mess, vowing to get to the bottom of the “unacceptable” behavior. That’s wonderful, except this is nowhere near the first time complaints of racism have been leveled at the retail giant. This latest example, perhaps arguably the most egregious, is just one of many.

1. November 16, 2009

Arrest at Walmart triggers charges of racism
Incident with white customers and workers could land black teacher in jail
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33963193/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

2. May 2009

Wal-Mart Charged with Racism…Again, and Other News
http://www.racewire.org/archives/2009/05/walmart_charged_with_racismaga.html

3. December 2, 2005

Racism alive and well at your neighborhood Wal-Mart
http://www.thoughtcrimes.org/s9/index.php?/archives/380-Racism-alive-and-well-at-your-neighborhood-Wal-Mart.html
If we expect the President of the United States to be held accountable for the direction of our nation, down to the smallest detail, then we must hold the chiefs of Wal-Mart to the same standard.

I bet New York wishes it could create some literal distance between itself and the white trash Garden State right about now.

I refused to be dazzled by dollar bargains when my social conscience knows better. As I detailed, it’s more than just systemic racism that irks me about the company. But this pattern has to be fixed, and fixed now. And “yes, we can” shop at another store until Wal-Mart cleans up it’s act – recession or not.

Young Texans Are About To Get A Whole Lot Dumber – And Your Kids Might Get Stupider Too (March 16, 2010)

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Texas

Instead of galvanizing me to act (though I’m not sure yet what I can do), this latest news story makes me want to sit down and release my frustration via a good cry:

U.S. history textbooks could soon be flavored heavily with Texas conservatism
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts1253

The item made me painfully aware of two truths of which I remained ignorant to this point. First, it seems that the Texas education system is such a large consumer of new textbooks, it is able, quite literally, to determine the curriculum and ideology imbibed by the rest of the nation’s students. And in the second place, the Lone Star State apparently has no regard at all for the fundamental U.S. principle of the separation of Church and State. Unhappy with what they view as the “liberal leanings” of our children’s schoolbooks, they have decided to cherry pick the facts they like, excise the ones they don’t. And most disturbingly, it seems no one is going to stop them.

Among the new conceptions of our nation’s history that students will be told to embrace:

1. “A greater emphasis on ‘the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s.'”

In other words, less Bill Clinton, or the successful work of activists in creating awareness and containing the AIDS epidemic that threatened our populace 30 years ago. Instead, more Reaganomics, more Newt Gingrinch, more O’Reilly and Limbaugh.

2. “A reduced scope for Latino history and culture.”

As of 2009, Latinos represented a full 15% of the American population. That percentage is considerably higher in Texas. Nevermind that the State was once part of Mexico, Latinos will be marginalized in favor of the compelling influence of crusty old white men in the nation’s development. Tragic.

3. “Thomas Jefferson no longer included among writers influencing the nation’s intellectual origins.”

By the time I reached this outrage, I was tempted to start slapping anyone wearing a cowboy hat. Among the intellectual forerunners to be highlighted in Jefferson’s place: medieval Catholic philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas, Puritan theologian John Calvin and conservative British law scholar William Blackstone. Two of these three were never even colonists, let alone Americans. I realize Jefferson, a slave owner, was hardly perfect, but it’s impossible to overstate his importance in the U.S. origin story. Believe it or not, I am wiping tears from my eyes as I continue to contemplate this atrocity.

I could go on, but I will let you folks read the rest of this insanity for yourselves. The good news is that a final vote to implement these changes will not come until May. There is still time to stop the crazy. I just need to figure out how. Any ideas? If Rosebud runs up to me in six years, insisting that Joe McCarthy was really just a misunderstood patriot/martyr, I don’t know what I’ll do.

Stimulating the Economy (March 13, 2010)

Becky SarwateLeave a comment

economy

Eddie and I are doing our part this month, and I suppose every dollar counts since most Americans have rethought their free spending ways since the economy buckled in 2008. A massive depression and record unemployment will do that to a country. In some ways that is for the best. Our national debt has been closely rivaled only by our collective personal deficits. 2009/2010 has been a painful, but in some ways needed period of adjusting expectations and fiscal habits.

With me mostly out of work (I freelance, but that ain’t paying no gas bill), my husband and I have also responded to the new economic realities of this decade. Much discussed plans to buy our first condo have been scuttled in favor of renting a bigger place. We’re heading to Rogers Park in two weeks. I don’t believe we’ll be engaging in any real estate transactions for a few years. Home prices need to stop falling, and credit markets need to release their chokehold.

Then there’s the depressed auto market. Eddie and I planned to stay away from that too, having just paid off his 2004 Mazda 6 last month. However, the old clunker, my hubby’s convoy as he moved around from Arizona, to California to Illinois after grad school, had different ideas. In the last year, we’ve dumped over $3,000 in repairs, the final $900 coming this week. It stopped making sense to prop the old girl up any longer.

As of Monday evening, we are the new owners of a Mazda EX-L:

http://automobiles.honda.com/tools/build-price/summary.aspx?ModelName=Civic%20Sedan&ModelYear=2010&ModelID=FA1F9AJNW&EColor=R-525P&IColor=BE

I know, I know, we didn’t buy American or a Hybrid. I thought about both and do feel some guilt on those scores, but Honda is reliable, affordable and throughout March, giving 1.9% APR financing to qualified buyers. We didn’t plan to purchase this year – funds and time were limited. Sue us.

So I am off to celebrate my personal boost to the stalled American economy with a logical reward: a pig out Indian buffet lunch. See – we’re helping small immigrant business owners too. We’re givers.

Corey Haim Continues a Bad Run for People Born in the 70s (March 11, 2010)

Becky SarwateLeave a comment

Corey-Haim

http://movies.yahoo.com/photos/collections/gallery/2441/corey-haim-obit-%20gallery/fp#photo0

I would like to share a couple hypotheses that have been rolling around in my brain for the last year or so, in the wake of a number of celebrity deaths, as well as real world afflications for my age and peer group:

1. The 30s are the new 20s – In the real sense that adolescence now seems to run on ad nauseum, no matter what one’s ostensible responsibilities are: parenthood, career, et al. I feel, with certain exceptions, that my generation has taken “Peter Pan” syndrome to the next level – creating feelings of entitlement and invincibility. When drugs enter into that picture, as they did for Heath Ledger, Brittany Murphy, and Corey Haim – all people old enough to know better than to mix medications – the results are carelessly deadly. Instead of a 23 year-old River Phoenix collapsing in front of the Viper Room after a coke binge, in the 21st century, we see delayed Hollywood hedonists going to sleep in their own beds and never waking up.

2. Simultaneously, and somewhat paradoxically, the 30s and are also the new 40s. – Though Peter Pan may never want to grow up, there does come a time when self-awareness creeps in, no matter how long one has fought against it. If one if 38 years old, living with his mother, as Haim was, and a Hollywood hasbeen with a pill problem, he must occasionally experience twin realizations: what has been lost as well as what will never be again. I would argue that nothing is more soul deadening than the combination of youth and failure, a sense that you have years in front of you, only to remember what you’ve already missed. No wonder so many of these sad individuals turn to the easy coping strategy of self-medication. For them, the cliche midlife crisis comes a decade early.

Lindsay Lohan would seem to be a candidate for succumbing to the combination of an ever unencumbered adulthood, and the knowledge that she has already seen her professional peak. At only 23, she is ramping up the new Hollywood breakdown cycle.

However, I think my hypotheses are applicable to 30-somethings outside of Hollywood as well. On a much smaller scale, I am not immune to waffling between the idea that I am not fully formed, yet should have accomplished something bigger by now. But what I have, that I fear Heath, Brittany and Corey did not, is a proper support network, people who genuinely care about me. For my sister, husband, family and friends, there would be no fear or enabling if I went off track. They would try to pull me back, because their own fortunes are not tied to my professional solvency (I am talking to you Simon Monjack!). Money and selflessness are two words rarely viewed in the same sentence.

I started this post with the intention of waxing nostalgic about Corey Haim’s memorable performances – Lucas, The Lost Boys, License to Drive and other staples of the 1980s. However, there are plenty of web and TV tributes of that sort already.

I like to think this spate of young celebrity overdoses presents a learning opportunity. A platform for discussing how we, as a society, can help reverse the trend of avoidable prescription drug deaths amongst young people, both famous and not. Deaths that I postulate are brought about in part by a combination of being told as a child that you will own the world (I think generations before were taught to think a bit smaller), then realizing well into your adulthood that you might just be a regular person. Why is that so tough to accept in the media age? There is no pill you can pop which cures normalcy.

Baby Fever (March 9, 2010)

Becky SarwateLeave a comment

Babies

While I was having dinner with Jen and Eddie last Thursday, my friend Wyatt gave me a ring and asked me to call him back right away. It sounded urgent and any number of awful scenarios sprang to my mind, in large part because it seems so many people in my peer group have become afflicted with out of the ordinary traumas and ailments. But it turns out Wyatt, my former co-worker from 2005-2007, had some good news to report: he and his new bride Monica, married last August, are expecting.

Once I recovered from the immense dread that weighed in my chest as I dialed the phone, I experienced a strange brew of joy and shock. I guess I shouldn’t have been so surprised as the 37 year-old Wyatt, who declared he’d never remarry when I met him, had obviously waived away that vow. So naturally, I should have seen the claim that he’d never procreate was also in jeopardy. I found my equilibrium and gave he and the Mrs. my most genuine congrats.

But here is the problem this creates for me: for each friend of mine, no matter how wild a partier in their former lives, who takes a step toward parenthood, my own excuses for abstaining, presented to my in-laws in a weekly web chat, become more and more flimsy. First I was just too young, then I was too newlywed, Eddie was traveling, I was attempting to get this writing career off the ground (still true), we were moving, etc. As I sit here rounding the corner toward 32, husband firmly on the ground and home each night, about to move into a fabulous condo, even I can see that the sands in the in-law filibustering hourglass have nearly run out.

So what’s next? It seems, gulp, honesty. The truth: I do not want kids and probably never will. Eddie almost entirely echoes my sentiments (though the vain part of him is curious about a mini-Bon Jovi or Bon Joviette). But we have talked endlessly and we just don’t, for a variety of reasons, think childrearing is for us.

However, we have not been brave enough yet to say this out loud, definitely, to stand down the intimidating force of the Indian parental unit. Call it a cultural difference if you want, although Eddie is not subject, but native Indian parents just do not see the point of getting married without the “blessing” of children. They feel that life (naturally, mostly for the wife) can never be complete without procreation.

Once we gather up the sack to make clear that the likelihood of Boop Jr. is minimal, I expect horror, tears, pleas, anger, not the least because Eddie is my in-laws only viable option in terms of grandchildren. Eddie has an older brother, Sonu, who has been bedridden since the age of two (a sad story for another time). I have complete sympthy for my in-laws desire to move forward with the future generation after a lifetime of taking care of their own sick child. I just can’t share their desire, and in the end, it isn’t right to bring a baby into the world to make someone else happy.

I really have no ending argument for this post. I am simply sharing my fears of a confrontation that is soon to come, one in which I must hold my ground. In the past, I have been known to buckle and take certain steps in my endless quest for others approval, but I know instinctively, this is not a time for ingratiating myself at the sake of my own vision.