Rob
Sherman Advocacy
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Rob
Sherman Advocacy
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"Fighting injustice, one victory at a time."
Rob Sherman Advocacy today calls on The Great Indoors stores to suspend the sale of their "Old Glory" door mats. Use of the door mats constitutes a desecration of the American flag, dishonoring the memory of those who died defending the flag.
The Great Indoors is a new chain of upscale housewares stores that is owned by one of America's all-time great retailers, Sears, Roebuck & Company. Sears has opened thirteen Great Indoors stores so far and is building five more at the present time.
The Great Indoors promotes its business by including advertising circulars in the Sunday newspapers in the towns where it has stores. The multi-page ad inserts are similar in style to the ones that are placed in Sunday papers by such companies as Wal-mart, Target, Best Buy, Circuit City, Office Depot, Office Max and Sears.
Yesterday's Great Indoors ad circular contained twenty-four pages. Page 5 was entitled, "Stars & Stripes. Accent your home with red, white an blue."
In the lower right-hand corner, Great Indoors offered a "Stars and Stripes coir mat. Door mat honoring Old Glory." The price of the Old Glory door mat is $24.99.
Here is what the door mat looks like:
I was immediately shocked and appalled when I saw it. Wipe your feet on Old Glory? What an abomination of patriotism!
Title 4, Chapter 1 of the United States Code is The Flag Code of the United States. The Flag Code is unambiguous in making it explicitly clear that the flag of the United States is an inappropriate and unacceptable design for a door mat.
Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 8 is entitled: Respect for flag. This section begins as follows: "No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America." Wiping your shoes on the image of the flag surely is grossly disrespectful.
Paragraph (b) of this section states: "The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor..." Most people put door mats on the floor by the front door to a building.
Paragraph (e) of this section states, in pertinent part, that "the flag should never be displayed or used in such a manner as to permit it to be easily soiled in any way." The whole purpose of a door mat is to remove dirt from your shoes and transfer the dirt onto and into the door mat.
Paragraph (h) of this section states, in pertinent part, that "The flag should never be used as a receptacle for receiving or holding anything." That includes the dirt off of your shoes!
Paragraph (i) states, in pertinent part, that "The flag should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions and the like nor printed on anything that is designed for temporary use and discard." When a door mat gets really dirty, you throw it away and buy another one.
Alright, I think I've made my point.
This morning, I will be contacting Chris Wozniak, manager of the Schaumburg, Illinois, Great Indoors store (which is located relatively close to the office of Rob Sherman Advocacy) and Bob Rodgers, President of The Great Indoors. I will ask that they pull the Old Glory door mat product from sale at all Great Indoors stores throughout the nation. I will also ask that The Great Indoors offer a refund to customers who wish to return their Old Glory door mats because they didn't realize when they purchased it that use of such a product constitutes dishonor to the memory of every soldier who ever died defending the flag.
At 2:00 this afternoon, I will hold a news conference near the entrance to the Schaumburg Great Indoors store to announce the results of my efforts to get this product removed from sale nationwide and offer refunds to those who have purchased it. If you are a veteran or a civilian patriot and would like to demonstrate your support for my efforts on this issue, please join me at 2:00 this afternoon by the entrance to the Schaumburg Great Indoors store. Come in your military uniform if you still fit in it. Bring a flag if you have one. If you don't have one, buy one before you show up and bring it with you.
If you can't make it this afternoon, perhaps you can send a monetary contribution to help support this patriotism project of Rob Sherman Advocacy.
Click here to find out how to contact me.
Update 2/18/02 at 1:00 pm: Great Indoors president Bob Rodgers has ordered that the door mats be pulled from sale at all stores in response to the request to do so by Rob Sherman Advocacy. Details in tomorrow's Liberal News & Commentary.
Update 2/18/02 at 3:30 pm: The Daily Herald and the Pioneer Press newspapers both had a reporter and a photographer attend the news conference. The Chicago Tribune sent a reporter to the news conference. WLS-TV ABC Channel 7 sent a camera crew to cover the news conference. Watch for coverage, tonight, on one or more of the Channel 7 Eyewitness Newscasts at 4, 5, 6 and/or 10, and tomorrow morning between 5 and 7 AM. Watch for coverage in tomorrow's Tribune and Daily Herald. Watch for coverage in Thursday's editions of the Pioneer Press newspapers.