Gay Pride Oreo
Obama broke a seal. He said “I support gay marriage.” He did
it and immediately pissed off a large portion of America. He did it and
immediately thrilled a large portion of America. Regardless of where you stand
on the issue (and if it’s not with Obama then I shall kindly ask of you to leave,
and come back when the part of your brain that’s not yet zombified stands up in
opposition and lobotomizes the zombie right out of your skullspace) the hugely
important thing in all of this is that he did it. He just did it.
We can be a nation of individuals that know in our hearts
what is right. But we don't say it out loud. Like screaming loud. Loud enough to really be heard. We discuss it on a small scale, sharing our sentiment as
individuals. In our facebook posts, on our bumper stickers, and maybe among
friends. Actually, among friends is not likely. Cause if it’s a hot-button issue (is that nerdy?)
people throw their opinions to the masses in a safe realm of anonymity. But
when it becomes a face to face situation, we quiet our heartfelt opinions on
the issue. We don’t want to feel alienated. We want to belong, and we want to feel validated. And when there is a threat to either of those things, we'll kill it. And in this case, by just not talking about it. To quote a badass chick I know, “Because alienation
wasn't just an eighties tv show..."
What we need is our “Yop!” That tiny voice that climbs to the top of
the city and belts out the sound, just a fraction of a decimal higher, that
finally makes the collective sound break through the atmosphere and fly through
space to be heard by the giant gentle elephant on the other end. That one extra
voice that can make all the individual voices below become strong enough to
break through for change.
Obama was the Yop.
Maybe it was a campaign strategy. Maybe it was a marketing gamble.
Maybe it was legitimately just something he said “I have to do this cause this
is just what is right for people.” It doesn’t matter. What matters is that he
did it.
And now others will do it as well. Oreo just did it. They weighed
the gamble of gain and loss and decided, I'm assuming, we can’t accurately predict how this
will truly affect our business. There’s just no way that marketing and sales
analysts could adequately predict whether or not definitive consumer isolation
would make up the loss by acquiring new consumers en masse in the process. So
without that hard-math-science-whatever, what do they really have to go on? “We
have to do this cause this is what is right for people.” Right?
As dirty as this feels to say to me, corporations have a larger
circle of influence than most individuals. (blech. spit. patooey.) So when corporations start speaking
to issues that are outside of their bottom line, making decisions that are
better for people, that influence can only go outward. And that’s a damn good
influence.
We’ll watch how this unfolds. I’d say predictably. In typical
polarizing fashion. The same political and religious rhetoric. That will all
happen. But then something else is going to happen. And it’s exciting. More
people or corporations will start expressing in their business practices their
true beliefs about what is best for people, people now and in future
generations, what is best for the environment, what is best for moving us
evolutionarily forward, instead of stagnant.
Obama broke that seal. But he never would have if it weren’t for the
massive swell of beautiful people beneath his banner of influence, people who
have been increasingly raising their voices, publicly, not veiled in just
bumper stickers and anonymous social media. Raising them loudly, logically, and
not always politically correctly.
We’re on the verge of a truth revolution.
And I don’t give a shit if that makes me an optimistic hippie.
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