Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Take These Cookies, Please!

Due to a series of events, I ended up with six boxes of gluten-free cookies. (It's a long story.) I opened one box of cookies, didn't like the taste of them, and pitched them. So that left five boxes for me to deal with. If I was working at the office of my day job, I would have taken those cookies and left them in the break room for someone to take. But, since I'm working from home, I can't do that. So I decided to give these cookies a good home and donate them to a church or food bank. I had no idea how much of an ordeal this would be. First I went to my city's website and looked for organizations that accepted food donations. I found a local church that would. I went there Monday to take the cookies, but they had a sign on the door that said donations were only accepted Tuesday-Friday. I went back to the church this morning to take the cookies and was told by a church worker that I had to send an email to the church and tell them what food items I wanted to donate and then wait for a response to let me know if they'd accept the food. Really? Yes, really. I left that church and went to another one and that church accepted my five boxes of gluten-free cookies without any hassle. They thanked me, said they'd add the cookies to their pantry, asked me if I needed a tax donation receipt (I didn't), and told me to have a blessed day. Thank you, church that accepted my cookies.

I never thought it would be such a hassle to give a food donation. Given the dire straits many Americans are in with Covid and record unemployment, I know a lot of people are struggling to put food on the table. Granted, cookies aren't healthy staples like rice and canned goods, but we all could use a sweet treat every now and then and it wasn't like I was peddling Twinkies and Ding Dongs. Plus, these were fancy organic, gluten-free cookies! Not junk! People shouldn't have to jump through hurtles to try and give to those in need. I understand there's a pandemic going on and donation systems have changed as a result, but institutions like the first church I visited need to be a little more accepting of help offered to them. I'm glad those cookies found a good home.

In other food-related news, why has it taken until 2020 for someone to realize the Aunt Jemima brand is past its prime? (Uncle Ben, your time is up too!)

Friday, June 12, 2020

YOU Be the Change!

With everyone jumping on the bandwagon for justice these days following George Floyd's death, I wasn't surprised that one of the corporate honchos on my day job encouraged employees like myself to "be the change." Huh? My response to that was, "YOU be the change!" There are people, including this guy, who sit back and allow an old boys' network to spread like wildfire and run rampant in some areas of the company, yet they tell employees like myself , who have virtually no power, to "be the change." How about instituting some change in the E suite? How about encouraging some of your company buddies to hire a more diverse staff or, better yet, showing some of these geezers the door so a more diverse workforce can be hired in their place?

It annoys me to see companies turn a blind eye to real problems in their businesses while spitting out granola-crunchy platitudes like "be the change" or saying that black lives matter when they've got no blacks in power positions at their organizations.

Don't tell ME to be the change. YOU be the change!

Friday, June 5, 2020

Paul Robeson

The answer to injustice is not to silence the critic, but to end the injustice.

Paul Robeson

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Some Good News

Despite the fact that we've been bombarded with bad news for what seems like forever, there is some good news to share.

1. Frank Rizzo's statue in Philly has finally come down. Woo hoo! I didn't live in Philly during the Rizzo years (thank God), but I did live there when that freaking statue stood in front of the Municipal Services Building. I used to wait for the bus in front of that thing. Ugh. I'm glad the status is finally gone. It should have been removed a long time ago given Rizzo's history of racism.

2. Steve King was defeated in his Congressional reelected bid. Good. He's another one who should have been thrown out (like Rizzo's statue) years ago.

Even small victories are still victorious!