How We Live our Lives

In my new role as chair of the Ethical Action Committee for the Ethical Society of Austin, I had to give a report for this month's semi-annual membership meeting.  The last such meeting was only the second or third ESOA meeting that I had attended, and I learned a lot about the society.  I really wanted my report to be just as informative and meaningful so that anyone who might be in the same situation I was last year (interested but cautious) would get some reassurance from my report.  Plus I was excited to have bunches of stuff to report.

You can go to the ESOA website to see how I break down Ethical Action into categories, so I won't repeat that here.  I did want to think a little bit more about the section on Living as ethical action in that report.  I threw in some stuff that I thought maybe folks might not have really thought about:  co-location with Workers Defense Project (we rent meeting space from them), the weekly discussions of ethical dilemmas in our lives, and the big question of how we live our lives.

I counted the latter as ethical action because we all, more or less, subscribe, more or less, to the Eight Commitments of Ethical Culture.  By doing so we make ethics central to our lives and actions and we actively seek to improve ourselves, our communities, our world.  Sometimes that is as small an "action" as treating someone we interact with so that we bring out their best.  Each time we choose to act ethically, we have performed an ethical action.  A simple concept, but I felt it was worth mentioning lest we think of Ethical Action as something that can only be done at the organizational level.  Very often it's just personal.

This point has been brought home to me today.  As I've been catching up on some news and generally procrastinating on some actual work that needs to be done (a serious talent of mine--wish someone would pay me to procrastinate--I am really good at it), I ran across an article about the boycott of Target being undertaken by a half a million people.

Hey!  I boycott Target.  Have been since 2010.  The CEO donated Target money to support an anti-gay gubernatorial candidate (in Minnesota).  I have gay family members.  I have married gay family members.  I was really angry to see that kind of money being used to promote inequality.  So I quit shopping at Target. As I recall,  Target later repudiated this fellow's action and distanced the company from the whole thing.  But I was pissed. So I never went back to Target.  It wasn't as hard as giving up Hobby Lobby anyway (yes, I boycott them, too).

Now it seems others have jumped on my bandwagon (not that I ever mentioned it to many people).  When I followed the headline, I discovered that I should have paid more attention.  The people boycotting Target are all upset because the company has adopted a policy that allows people to pee in the restroom that fits their gender identity.  Target is standing up to the wave of hate and discrimination that seems to be sweeping across our country in this electoral season of madness with a nationwide policy that says that transgender people can at least feel safe from that kind of stress while dealing with a basic human function.

Well, I guess my boycott is over.  All is forgiven, Target.  Well, not forgiven. That was a dumb "business decision" way back in 2010.  Still, I need to stop looking at that red target sign as a symbol of discrimination and now read it as a symbol of inclusion and rationality and, well, courage.  My perspective has changed, and my actions will now follow.

We make choices.  How we treat people is an ethical choice.  How we spend our money is another one.  It's also personal.  I didn't shop at Target for personal--and ethical--reasons.  I do shop at Walmart--for personal and ethical reasons.  Not everyone would agree with my decision to shop at Walmart, but I am content in the knowledge that a beloved family member has a stable job in a supportive (yes!) environment that matches her skills and abilities.  It's important to me to be able to "support" this family member in a positive way just as it was important for me to be able to "support" my gay cousin and his husband by not spending money with a company that I perceived as contributing to a hostile environment for their lives.

Now I need to learn the lesson about not holding a grudge.

And go shopping.