I was forwarded an email today that I had to share. It was a vitriolic attack on Target Corporation as having an anti-veteran policy... oh, and that they were owned by a French company. *GASP* Of course, it was one of those things that had been forwarded a million times. It pulls on the heart-strings of people who want to stand by our military veterans, but who don't take the time to question the content. They read it. Get incensed by the content. And forward it to 20,000 friends.
And the beat goes on.
Here's the email. The words and punctuation are the same. I removed all of the colors, giant fonts and spacing to make it fit.
Wasn't it last Christmas that Target refused to let the Salvation Army ring their bells in front of their stores? Dick Forrey of the Vietnam Veterans Association wrote. "Recently we asked the local TARGET store to be a proud sponsor of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall during our spring recognition event. We received the following reply from the local TARGET management: "Veterans do not meet our area of giving. We only donate to the arts, social action groups, gay & lesbian causes, and education." So I'm thinking, if the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and veterans in general, do not meet their donation criteria, then something is really wrong at this TARGET store. We were not asking for thousands of dollars, not even hundreds, just a small sponsorship for a memorial remembrance. As a follow-up, I E-mailed the TARGET U.S. Corporate Headquarters and their response was the same. That's their national policy. Then I looked into the company further. They will not allow the Marines to collect for 'Toys for Tots' at any of their stores. And during the recent Iraq deployment, they would not allow families of employees who were called up for active duty to continue their insurance coverage while they were on military service. Then as I dig further, TARGET is a French-owned corporation. Now, I'm thinking again. If TARGET cannot support American Veterans, then why should my family and I support their stores by spending our hard earned American dollars! And,have their profits sent to France. Without the American Vets, where would France be today? "They, most likely would be speaking German and trading in Deutsch Marks" Sincerely, Dick Forrey, Veterans Helping Veterans. Please send this on to everyone you know to let Target know we don't need them either.
*******
Now all of this crap didn't exactly ring true. So I took 3 minutes, checked into it and found this:
http://sites.target.com/site/en/corporate/page.jsp?contentId=PRD03-001461
It's a page on Target's corporate site that addresses exactly what they do for veterans. And they do a lot. It also mentions this vitriolic email campaign in particular.
Of course, I copied everyone in the email that had been sent to me with the proof that it was false. It also happened to list the name of the person who had forwarded it to my sender. She's an executive assistant to a Chief Marketing Officer for a MAJOR U.S. CORPORATION.
It never ceases to amaze me that people, even those that should be smart and educated, will continue to propigate lies without question because it pushes their emotional buttons.
Wow.
6 comments:
My first stop (when I actually care to correct such a message)
is snopes.com.
A quick search there on "target veterans" turns up a number
of fairly detailed histories, not only of the events, but also of
the rumor emails that get sent around.
They are not a primary source, but they generally do list their
primary sources.
MadMartian
Ah! Another Crusader!
I do the same. It really annoys me when I get stuff from my SIL, my friends or even from my church Secretary that are along the same lines as your example.
My favorite (ha) is the one with the Muslim Stamp stating they (The Muslims) shouldn't have their own for the Christmas holiday. That we are getting "slapped in the face" yadayada ... it is full of anti-Muslim hate.
That same email has been around for at least three years. Old Hat.
The odd thing about correcting people? They get INSULTED that you DARE tell them these patriotic sludge fests are untrue, greatly exaggerated or pure myth, feeding on our "patriotic" ferver or paranoia.
Well, excuse me! Isn't it better to stand up for TRUTH than someone's version of it?
I'm glad you did what you did. If more people investigated and stopped the "forwarding" the nonsense, we'd have time for the real issues.
Cyber-bigotry. *shudder*
Mad Martian -
I placed a comment on here right after yours in reply... but it's not there now! Augh!
Anywho - I did check a few different sources, but wanted to keep my post shorter. I've used snopes.com in the past, but forgot about it! Thanks for the reminder!
Michele -
>Isn't it better to stand up for TRUTH than someone's version of it?
One would THINK so. But that's the problem. People react emotionally and don't think about it.
Thanks for reading!
K
Nerdwife and I have been boycotting Target for over a year now. Our reason was because of their smear campaign against Planned Parenthood when PP sent out notices calling for a letter writing campaign because Target had 'Pharmacist's choice'. I still have their response somewhere from when I wrote them. It was basically 'this is our policy, tough.'
For the record, Kmart has a policy where Pharmacists are let go for refusing to fill any prescription.
The boycott has been tough, yet good, we used to drop $100 at least once a month there, and while it has been harder to source somethings locally, we have found our recreational spending is a bit more under control.
Wow, Geistx. I wasn't aware of that move by Target. That's brings them down a notch or four in my estimation.
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