Fixing America In 500 Words Or
Less
Chapter 19
IS BOYCOTTING EXXON/
MOBILE A GOOD
IDEA?
Once again, there is a misguided token effort being pushed on the web, to protest high fuel
prices, encouraging consumers to not purchase gasoline on a specific date.
Organizing consumers to not purchase gasoline for a day is a totally ineffective way to protest
and a big waste of valuable time and energy. Just not buying fuel for a day or, just not
purchasing at Wal-Mart for a weekend, will not serve to reform greedy corporations long holding
a corrupt stranglehold on the American political and economic reality.
A much more effective way to protest would be for consumers to target boycott Exxon/Mobile and
Wal-Mart, agreeing to purchase only from their competitors. Almost every consumer could
easily stand up for America, just by agreeing to not purchase from the two worst economic-war
profiteering, environmental polluting and human rights debasing offenders.
Anyone can complain about a problem. It is quite another thing to act wisely to actually
correct a problem. If American consumers had already united in wise activism, as
demonstrated by Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks and Mohandas Gandhi, we
could long ago have corrected several of our worst 21st Century problems.
Attempting to boycott every offending corporation on a widespread basis is obviously an
impossible task. However, if consumers would join together and agree to permanently
boycott just Exxon/Mobile and Wal-Mart, until such time as they meet reasonable human rights
and environmental friendly demands, major reform in America would soon be achieved. That
is all it would take.
Target boycotting of salt by Gandhi in India resulted in substantial positive gains for poor
people who were in effect, slaves of the British Empire. Target boycotting of city buses
in Montgomery eventually resulted in a Southern president signing the 1964 Civil Rights
Act. And target boycotting of grapes in California by Cesar Chavez resulted in
substantial wage and other improvements for migrant farm workers.
Target boycotting not only serves to reform the targeted industry or company but also, it
serves notice on all other companies that if they fail to treat workers and consumers
fairly, they will be next. There is no reason for violence here in the 21st Century, in
order to achieve substantial positive human and civil rights gains. We the people hold
the power of the consumer purse and as such, we have the power to bring greedy corporations
and their equally corrupt political pawns to their nefarious knees, without firing a
single shot.
Until Americans stop voting for corporate stooges, stop listening to divisive political and
religious pundits and, start practicing wise united activism on a large scale, we're likely
to continue treading on down the road to historical oblivion. It doesn't take much
courage to complain about problems. It takes courage and perhaps a little personal
sacrifice, to stand up for actually fixing America. Where are great leaders of courage
and sacrifice, like King, Parks, Chavez and Gandhi, when we need them the most?
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