The Sushi Conflict

The Moonies are involved with sushi, which may mean having to give it up. Granted, this isn't that huge of a sacrifice--since I'm allergic to fish with gills--but it's an annoying one.

The other option is drilling every place that I go to about who their supplier is, and life is too damn short.

I don't know why this is a boycott I'm going to follow. In general, I believe boycotts can be a slippery slope, because oftentimes they don't take into account the shades of gray at work. For example, although ABC/Disney airs The 700 Club on ABC Family (and that whole Focus on the Family episode of Extreme Makeover), it's also a company that employs probably the most visible contingent of out gay reporters, and has been at the forefront of gay programming going all the way back to thirtysomething. Let's not even start with Gay Days--this company is defintiely on our side.

Another prime example, the Caribbean: While I agree with the boycott of Jamaica, The Cayman Islands, and The Bahamas, I have trouble buying the St. Martin/Maarten boycott and the extremists that call for a boycott of the entire region. Now, I definitely sympathise with families and friends of Jefferson and Smith, and I have issues with the nature of Caribbean tourism itself, but from what I've read and heard so far--and I say this, fully aware that testimony/-ies may arise that might cause me to reverse this opinion--it strikes me as boycotting France and The Netherlands. Chris Crain was bashed in Amsterdam last year and there wasn't the same sort of outcry. I don't know if it has to do with the fact that it's in "our backyard" or if there is some type of subconscious racial politicking playing out, but it just doesn't seem to add up in my head.

Yes, the attackers should be brought to justice, as quickly and as strictly as allowed under the law. I needn't mention that. Yet, let us remember that there have been vicious attacks here in New York as recently as last year. Even after Sakia Gunn's tragic murder, we haven't heard of people refusing to visit the Greater New York area. We haven't heard of people refusing to visit Northern California because of what happened to Gwen Araujo, and unless I've been missing something, there was no boycott of Austin.

I watch NBC, even though I know General Electric is one of the biggest supporters of the GOP. I've stayed in Marriott hotels even though the Marriott family is extremely and financially close to the Mormons. I don't give anybody any grief about using Bayer, despite their checkered past, nor do I shun the merchants in my hometown in Wisconsin, even though they have continually put Sensenbrenner back in power for years.

So it comes back to why isn't sushi given this same exception.

Perhaps on some level, it is guilt. I agree that the concept of a boycott is a noble one. I've participated in several, one of which was a wholly personal one against GNC after a hysterical and bigoted shop clerk called the local police on my father under the misguided belief that he was "casing the joint" in order to rob them. (Little did she know that my father was a good friend of many of the officers and the police department in general due to his work as a Rotary member.) Even though I still go out of my way to avoid using GNC anywhere in the world, I do know that not all of the franchises are to blame.

Maybe, sometimes, enough is enough, and maybe it's worth the effort to ask who the supplier is.