To B or not to B, That is the Question

OK, so I don't know what has come of Billy's call to boycott the Wyndham Classic. But seeing as I voted for Billy for mayor, and more or less agree with him about corruption in our local political system, I wanted to explain to him why I won't join the boycott.

The first reason is that I don't go to the tournament anyway. It's just too expensive, and I'd rather watch golf on TV.

Secondly, I think the GGO (in its various iterations) has been good for Greensboro over the years.

Thirdly, the GGO is much older than the current leadership of Greensboro.

Fourthly, and most importantly for me, I don't do boycotts unless there are extreme, unambiguous, and reprehensible, moral and/or human life issues at stake.

I've come to this position or approach through the ad-infinitum calls for boycotts from conservative Christian and liberal environmental groups over the years. The thing is, once I really start to get nit picky about it, it is hard to find any product that is not tainted by some policy or behavior I find objectionable. It's like the Kevin Bacon thing, except that for most of us our purchasing decisions place us less than six degrees from evil of some kind. I do believe I would have to remove myself from the world altogether not to need a good moral shower everyday.

But it is into a fallen broken sinful often wicked world I have been cast. Rider on a storm I am. If there is a clear unambiguous way I can keep money out of the hands of wicked men and women who would corrupt and despoil and kill, well, I would, and I suppose that by not buying porn, drugs, AK 47's, men's club memberships, and the like, well, I do what I can. But generally boycotting (with a mind and a conscience) just sucks me deeper and deeper into a dark abyss.

I am reminded of Isaiah's words:

"Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips"