I was tempted to let this go since the news cycle is winding down, but I do want my feelings on the record on this…

Not all that long ago, I was having a conversation with some friends about the pros and cons of having beef with a laid back person.  The pro obviously is the laid back person isn’t looking for a fight, so the odds of landing the first punch are pretty high.  Now here are some of the cons in no particular order…

1. No one likes a sneak attack.

While few of us enjoy fighting in general, part of the thrill of sport is when you have two sides who are both planning for battle, and watching each side come up with a strategy to win.  But if you turn around and BAM!, you find yourself already in the middle of a fight, strategy takes a back seat to our most basic, primal instinct: survival. 

2. You have no idea what you’re getting into.

As Tyler Durden prophetically asked, “How much do you really know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight?”  If someone goes on a five hour poutfest when they accidentally spill coffee at their desk, that’s a pretty good sneak preview of what you’ll see when they get angry in another situation. But what about the vast majority of people who (wisely) try to restrain or politic when they reveal their anger?  Do you really know how they’ll react?  How do you plan or come up with a plan when you really don’t know what the counter will be?  Which leads to…

3. Grudges

Everybody remembers when they’ve been crossed.  The resolution of the conversation I had with friends about fighting a laid back person is that’s it’s a double jeopardy type of situation.  Even after the the conflict has been resolved one way or another, you’ve placed a new note on the permanent record of your reputation: “This person/group put forth the necessary effort to create a problem where one didn’t exist.”  We’re all adults here, we know everyone isn’t going to like or respect everyone else.  If you’re not trying to be about someone, generally speaking you just deal with them only when you have to and keep it moving. And stay in your lane.

Which brings us to Lowe’s and ‘All-American Muslim’.  In a comical PR blunder that made David Stern blush, Lowe’s basically went from ‘quietly having ad time on a progressive reality show,’ to being seen as the company whose CEO said, “Wait, what?!?  You’re telling me we’re advertising our company on a show that promotes religious tolerance?  During the Christmas season?!?  FUCK. THAT.”

For the sake of this post, I’ll skip over explaining how logistically, it’s impossible for any company to have advertising on prime time cable television and have NO idea on what block of programming their ads might play on.  It’s just too expensive.  What’s appalling to me in this fiasco isn’t even the revelation that there’s still a barely hidden Islamophobia running wild in this country. That’s the exact reason this show exists, it’s the exact reason I write this series and my allies in various outlets speak out against blatant ‘boogeyman-ism’ (for lack of a better term).  It’s the exact reason (thankfully) Congressmen, celebs, other corporations have caught on to this story and said, “Waiiiiiiiit a minute…”

What is appalling to me in this situation, is that for every corporation and bank that turned a blind eye to their customers and the ‘Occupy’ movement, THIS is the situation where a small group of protestors forces the hands of the Giant?  Ugh…

Well Lowe’s, make sure you send a nice Christmas card to the Florida Family Association.  You notice no one is protesting them, they’re protesting YOU.

Seriously, every time I get lulled into thinking people are going to let us be…