Boycott Spotting - 2

This has now come under the heading of "Things that make you say, hmmmmm..."

Yesterday, I snapped a picture of a small protest being done outside of Walgreens at Park and Chandler, and then posted about it. What I didn't spot yesterday, though, was the small print on the "Boycott Walgreens" banner. Today, they were there again and I got close enough to squint and just barely make out a reference to the New England Regional Council of Carpenters on the banner.

Huh?

So, I jotted it down and when I got home I got online and did a Google search for the New England Regional Council of Carpenters. The very first hit on the list was "The New England Regional Council of Carpenters," oddly enough. This looked like it was going to be easy.

After perusing their website for several minutes, however, I could find no mention of Walgreens...

I did some more poking around and finally came up with a WoMag article from February that explains what their particular protest is all about.

Apparently, not only is Walgreens firing pharmicists for their eithical and moral refusal to dispense chemicals that, essentially, are used to induce abortions (according to the sources that I cited in yesterday's post), but Walgreens is also passively contributing to the hiring and exploitation of illegal immigrant labor in their new store construction projects (according to the sources cited in the WoMag article).

Plainly, this writer is completely out of the loop...

I had no idea about any of this until yesterday.

My only scruple with any drugstore is that they sell drugs. (You can get the gist of how my sensibilities run on that sort of thing here, where I usually do my in depth rants and musings.)

When I see a protest sign that says "Boycott" something, I really would like to know why. If I wasn't posting about Worcester, I wouldn't have bothered with this, and I'm pretty sure that the majority of people who drove by that "Boycott Walgreens" banner yesterday and today have no answer to the question of why they should boycott that particular drugstore, either.

I still haven't figured out what all those "Boycott Polar" signs were all about, from a few years ago...

I might suggest that a banner calling for a boycott of anything should also provide a short, readable, compelling and concise reason to do so. Something concise enough that it can be read by people driving by. Otherwise, why bother?

I mean, the people whose business at any particular drugstore would actually have an impact if they went elsewhere in droves are the VERY PEOPLE that will, in all likelihood, see that "Boycott Walgreens" banner, immediately not think of any reason to do so, and end up having a NEGATIVE REACTION to the protest!

Consequently, I felt that I should do a rant about this, because I do feel that a boycott of Walgreens for both the pharmacists' AND the carpenters' issues deserve the exposure. But sheesh! If yer gonna try to get the word out to the public, guys, ...those banners just preach to the choir.