I must admit when I feel like a hypocrite, if only to myself. Not all hypocrisy is bad, ask any parent who has told their child, "Do as I say and not as I do." For years I've been a humongous hypocrite and have admitted it to myself and discussed it with others. My father and I share a similar hypocrisy with regard to our Union.
Being a Philadelphia Flyers fanatic, I've spent more money than I could imagine on my passion for the sport of ice hockey. Mr. Ed Snider has owned the team since it's inception in 1967, and I suspect he has held his current political convictions for a lot longer. Our views are diametrically opposed to one another, yet I continue to add to his bank account.
Even though I stopped shopping at Wal*Mart years ago because of their stance on Unions, I am none the less adding to their profit margin everyday of my life. That is something that I have little to no control over, though I have tried to change that fact.
More below the bottom line...
Ed Snider, Chairman of Comcast-Spectacor and owner of my beloved "Broad Street Bullies", invited Caribou Barbie to drop the ceremonial first puck in October, 2008. I was there and booed long and loud with thousands of other Flyers fans. I knew for years the owner of my favorite sports team was right wing and I had never considered him to be a wingnut. He had never publicly mixed his political views with his love of sports, as blatantly as he did that night.
Now I find out that Mr. Snider may be financing a new right wing network, RightNetwork, and I'm having a difficult time trying to reconcile my feelings. If the story is true, how large of a hypocrite can I allow myself to be? After all, I had no problem when I was installing the elevators and escalators in the Core States Center (later to be renamed the First Union Center and now the Wachovia Center, all banks) indirectly taking my paychecks from him. I continue to go to Flyers games and buy Flyers merchandise, all the time knowing where that money goes. Am I helping to fund a wingnut enterprise or just supporting my favorite sport?
Speaking of buying merchandise, I will not buy any from Wal*Mart as long as they continue their union busting ways. Here again, I'm a hypocrite because my union pension plan invests my contributions in the stock market. One of the stocks we are heavily invested in is Wal*Mart. It's proven to be a wise investment over the years, and particularly with the Wall Street meltdown, Wal*Mart continues to be a good return. I may not buy anything from them, but I sure take something from them, all the while moaning about their attitude regarding unions.
My union puts out a monthly Journal that used to contain a "Boycott List" of Companies and products that weren't union friendly. I always liked that feature as it eased my sense of hypocrisy if I didn't patronize anything on the list. My Pop followed the list "religiously", except for his pipe tobacco, which I used to bust his stones about constantly. We laughed.
The list disappeared around the time that it became common knowledge that our pension fund was heavily invested in Wal*Mart. They had been on the list for years and was the height of hypocrisy to ask the membership not to shop there, but to invest in the company. I love and trust my union and it was nice to see that they realized their hypocrisy. Even if the only thing they did about it was to stop publishing a list that was very useful.
I am waiting to watch the Flyers VS. Devils game on Comcast later tonight. While I'm waiting, my pension investment in Wal*Mart is growing. Even though I'm a Flyers fan, I must include this poor quality video clip...
You know, support the team