Posted on 04/19/2016 6:17:47 AM PDT by Kaslin
Dear Wells Fargo Customer Service:
Recently, a friend sent me a picture of your 54-story Charlotte headquarters lit up with the colors of the transgendered pride flag. I attempted to contact you privately to register my strong objection to your company’s decision to take the wrong side in the nation’s raging cultural war. Unfortunately, your website was not sufficiently inclusive. It only allowed me 1,000 characters of space to leave a comment. It’s going to take a lot more than that so I decided to make this issue the subject of my weekly opinion column.
This isn’t my first negative experience with Wells Fargo’s aggressive activism. Several months ago, I walked into one of your branch offices to make a quick deposit. I made the mistake of wearing a black and purple tie, which one of your tellers mistakenly interpreted as a show of support for so-called anti-bullying legislation. Had I known that wearing purple was somehow supportive of “anti-bullying” measures I would have tossed that tie in the wastebasket long ago.
Nonetheless, the bank teller decided to invite me to wear the tie again the following week in support of anti-bullying measures designed to protect the LGBT community. Given that I am a teacher I decided to seize on this as a teachable moment.
First, I explained to your teller that I am a college professor who teaches a class on the subject of crime and the First Amendment. The course deals with constitutional limitations on the advocacy of illegal conduct, the definition and regulation of obscenity, and specific topics like “hate crime” penalty enhancement statutes.
After letting the teller know about my experience teaching on free speech issues, I informed him that I oppose so-called anti-bullying legislation. I briefly explain that such measures are often thinly veiled efforts to curb speech that is clearly protected by the First Amendment.
The response of the bank teller shocked me. Rather than becoming angry like most gay activists he responded by saying, “Well, that’s also unacceptable.” In other words, the teller gave the right answer!
For the record, I commend your employee for calmly responding to criticism of measures he obviously supports. That shows me he has some understanding and appreciation of the free exchange of ideas. Nonetheless, our exchange raises a serious question about professional protocol.
The First Amendment clearly protects the teller’s right to lobby for legislation against bullying. Whether the specific measures that flow from his advocacy pass constitutional muster is another matter. Whether it is appropriate to pursue this advocacy in the workplace with customers who are there to do business unrelated to politics is another matter still.
It in no way conflicts with my First Amendment advocacy to tell you that it’s just not appropriate to try to recruit people into support of your pet political causes while doing business in a crowded line at a bank. If the generalization seems harsh or unwarranted then please consider the following hypothetical questions:
*If your teller sees someone wearing a Christian cross around her neck would it be appropriate for him to seize the moment and invite her to a Christian Coalition banquet while she is trying to make a simple deposit?
*If your teller sees a customer wearing a maternity blouse would it be appropriate for him to seize the moment and invite her to a pro-life rally while she is trying to cash a check?
*If your teller sees a customer wearing a yarmulke would it be appropriate for him to seize the moment and invite him a pro-Israel rally while he is trying to make a transfer of funds?
I suspect that you would not accept one of your tellers doing any of these things in the workplace. In fact, you would deem them to be unnecessary invitations to controversy. You would also wonder how the person made such leaping inferences about the customer’s politics based on their manner of dress.
Of course, in your world you view gay activism differently than you view the causes represented in those hypothetical questions. You see gay activism as being entirely uncontroversial. It’s just the kind of thing any fair-minded person would accept. But the banking world is no longer the same as the rest of the world.
A few years ago, Bank of America fired my friend Frank Turek from his position as a management consultant simply because he had written a book expressing opposition to same-sex marriage. The consequence of this kind of intolerance in the banking industry has become obvious: Your industry is now becoming an ideological echo chamber, rather than a place of true diversity.
Ideological echo chambers are dangerous places. When people simply sit around reinforcing each other’s beliefs rather than challenging them bad decisions inevitably follow. One day you’re advocating for a government imposed end to bullying. The next day you’re firing people who refuse to accept your definition of marriage. In the end, you’re lighting up the sky in celebration of those who pay surgeons vast sums to mutilate their genitals.
So I would like to conclude this letter with just two simple requests. First, when I come through the line at one of your banks could you just process my request without trying to show me how I can help you rally in support for the homosexual agenda? Second, could you please demonstrate real courage by flying that transgendered flag from another Wells Fargo building?
You can start with your corporate office in Qatar.
Thanks and have a blessed day,
Mike S. Adams
Dr Adams is always a good read
I pay my light bill, cablebill, and phone bill for my smartphone on line via electronic fund transfer from my checking account. The only thing I pay in person is my water bill which I either pay in cash, check or my card.
cont.
Because the water department is not far from my house
I do but it’s like spitting in the wind.
The other side knows how and where to pressure. Plus they have all the propaganda organs to greatly amplify their pressure.
Why are they so much more successful than us? Because they are much more motivated to their cause than we are to ours. It’s really that simple.
I left Wells Faggo many years ago for similar activism (started with BSA over a decade ago) and just recent dropped my long-time GayPal account. It was fun letting them know why.
There is a lot more dumping we need to do, if we'd get off our lazy behinds.
You may want to recheck your history. The problem started when Clinton and Reno threatened to prosecute banks for refusing loans to deadbeats. GWB tried to stop it and was rebuffed by Barney Frank and Congress.
Bingo. Conservatives have such potential marketplace and political power, they could shut down the economy and have these corporations eating from our hands if we really wanted to push that power. But we're incorrigibly lazy, comfortable and cowardly.
I believe conservatives are every bit as motivated to protect their values as liberals are to destroy them. But it's always easier to tear down than to build up.
Conservatives have jobs and commitments. They can't be out standing on street corners promoting their causes 24 X 7. Liberals are unemployable douchebags who will gladly sacrifice their minimum-wage jobs to attend a perv rally.
Conservatives also have an aversion to getting arrested. And they tend to live and let live, whereas libs are determined to force their agenda upon everyone, even if it means using force. At heart, they're all just petty tyrants.
And finally, libs recognize no rules. Anything they have to do to advance their agenda is acceptable. Conservatives have principles that transcend any pedestrian need to win. Libs know that and exploit the morality of our side to their advantage.
So no, it's not that we're not motivated. It's that we're crippled by the very values we cherish.
Have you been looking for alternatives to PayPal? I’ve done some e-com business through PP, but before scaling it up, I would like to move to a different platform.
Being a Realtor during the run up, during the real estate crash and now in the recovery, 16 years full time, the bureaucrats and their fricking regulations demanding everyone has a right to a house, crashed the country.
Once again unintended consequences. When will they ever learn, some people just should not have a mortgage. You should see the houses these "renters" turned homeowner looked like when they were done with them, rode hard and put away wet x10!!!
If you thirst for truth, you won’t accuse someone of blaming something on GWB if in fact they don’t.
I don’t damn like you damn, therefore you damn me?
You call that Christian?
This wasn’t Fargo defrauding anyone except Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. To issue a loan too easily defrauds nobody else.
Maybe your values are not tied to God, if you are “crippled” by them. This is the difference between evangelism and being nice.
Thank you for making my point.
You’ve identified some of the reasons (excuses) that we use to not defend what we believe in.
The other side doesn’t mind getting arrested, breaking the law skipping work for their cause.
We are simply not bothered enough surrendering to the other side to fight as hard as they do. Considering how much we outnumber them, it would take a lot less effort than they put up.
But we don’t because we’re don’t hold our values as dearly as they do theirs.
You are certainly crippled in the fight with any enemy if you can’t kill those who are trying to kill you. To the degree Christian morality prohibits conservatives from fighting back using the same techniques liberals use, liberals are hamstringing us.
That almost makes it sounds like it’s better to be a liberal, there isn’t this pesky moral God to bother with.
“You call that Christian?”
Yes, it is what it is HiTechRedNeck...I don’t make reality, I just follow God and the reality He created. I don’t dislike you at all...sorry if I came across that way.
What comes out of Satan’s mouth comes out of Satan’s mouth but you jolly well don’t have to parrot it, and then you call it Christian on top of everything else?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.