A Memo to All Who Sell A Product from America

MEMO TO: All those who work so hard to put food on their family’s tables by learning, working and slaving to provide a service or product, or propose to win my brief attention to their talent or cause, in exchange for that for which I have worked equally hard

FROM: America

RE: Resetting our relationship

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As a Patriot, your strong negative opinions about the worth of the United States Of America and all that she enshrines causes me to swell with pride great enough that it offsets the tear I shed when I hear you shred my country and all the human opportunity and ideals she protects. The source of my pride is that you are not only free to speak as you do but that freedom is sacred. That Right was endowed to you upon birth, as surely as any genetic trait passed on to you. Indeed, it is the very reason why we established a government to rule over a new Nation... to protect that and your other Rights from the abuses we had eternally suffered.

Your political beliefs and personal hangups are just that, though. Your personal beliefs and hangups. How you pursue scratching those itches is entirely up to you but you really should know something very important first. I celebrate all that you do to advance that which you believe is moral and right, and that you do to resist and fight all that you think is evil and destructive. Welcome to the fight. But DO not let your cause become something that you seek to force upon me. That makes you an enemy of Rights. Lobby legislative bodies, wage political and social campaigns, stage demonstrations… do all that you can to persuade either me or our legislative bodies to your point of view and you are a fellow Patriot.

If profits from your sale to me contribute to your cause then that is all the more commendable because you are denying yourself some of the worldly benefits that you and no one else has earned. If you are that dedicated to your cause then you have my full respect.

What you do not have the Right to do is turn our transaction into a scene from Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. Take my money, give me that for which I have paid. If I am satisfied then I will revisit you with my business and perhaps even pass on the good word. If, however, you decide that our transaction should extend to cramming something down my throat then we have a different situation.

Notice I didn’t say that we have a “problem.” That is because “we” do not.

No, I will not #Boycott I will not stage a protest, write an angry letter to the editor or do more than probably make a snarky to mean (depending on my general mood) crack about you on social media. And that’s all dependent on if+ your aggression was offensive enough to draw my notice and even then that it be outrageous.

I will simply cease responding to your pleas for my business. I will not have to go out of my way to deny you my contribution to both your profit and your cause because there are many in line behind you hungry to provide the same good or service. Heck, they may even be an oppressed and struggling immigrant! I treat our business relationship as I treat ALL of my business relationships. If our dealings are unsatisfactory, and that deficiency cannot be remedied than our relationship simply ends. You may never even know why and probably not even your accountants could quantify the loss of my few dollars but I don’t care. You are a ghost.