Stand Up and Say Something

Earlier this month, my wife and I went to our local grocery store (national chain) to pick up some much-needed groceries. It was a usual Saturday afternoon and I sat on a bench in front of the store while she shopped. 

While sitting there, I noticed that a few young female workers (18 years of age or so) were happily removing American flags out of the flowerpots in front of the store and tossing them into the trash cans. 

I was enraged, to say the least. 

I thought about my and my fellow soldier’s years in the USA Armed Forces Service defending the flag, sovereignty, and even dying whilst serving. The worker’s actions showed total disrespect, disregard, and ignorance of what the flag stands for. 

I spoke out loudly to stop and asked why they were tossing the flags into the trash. They responded, “It’s after Memorial Day so we were told to toss them all out.” They told me to go speak with the store’s assistant manager as he told them to do this.

I grabbed a bunch of soiled USA flags from the trash and went into the store to find the assistant manager. When I found him and asked very loudly why he was doing this. I explained that as a 10-year Veteran of the Michigan Army National Guard, I was offended by this action. 

His shocked and shaky response was that they were wet. “You’re crazy!” I said. He told me not to talk to him like that and when I tried to leave, he told me to give him the flags that I took out of the trash because they still belonged to the store. I declined to hand them over mentioning that “You’re going to toss them out anyway.”

The assistant manager told me to get out of his store and not come back as I was now banned from the store!

I placed the flags on a display and left while loudly saying, “Shame on (store name) for disrespecting the USA Flag by throwing them out in the trash!” 

Several people walked out with me saying they supported my position.

The next day I called and left a message at the Michigan Headquarters for this national grocery chain. I was contacted by the Marketing Director a day later. He apologized profusely and explained that this was not their policy and that he was going to contact the store and make it right. 

He had the store manager call me back. He explained that both the assistant store manager and employees had been dealt with and apologized again. He also invited me to visit the store again.

I have been to this store three times since then and the assistant store manager is no longer there. I don’t like seeing someone get fired but, in this case, his actions were way out of line for me.

What is the lesson here? 

Some groups scream longer and louder than others to extend their narrative. They make sure their voices are heard and they push hard for things they know are wrong. 

When we see something going on like this, we must stand up and push back hard to make our voices heard as well. If you just sit back, do nothing, and become complacent because it is scary, then you are just as much at fault as the people doing the bad things. 

GOD gave us our freedoms so GET UP, STAND UP, AND GET INVOLVED. If we don’t fight for it now, we may lose it.

 

Submitted by Mike Ruiz, COS Michigan District #9 Captain