Rob
Sherman Advocacy
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Rob
Sherman Advocacy
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"Fighting injustice, one victory at a time."
It didn't take long, this time. Three hours after receiving a request from Rob Sherman Advocacy to pull "Old Glory" door mats from its stores, Sears The Great Indoors stores agreed to remove the product nationwide.
As reported in yesterday's Liberal News & Commentary, The Great Indoors stores had placed an advertisement in Sunday newspapers promoting the sale of Old Glory door mats at their thirteen stores across the country. The Great Indoors is a chain of free-standing stores that is owned by America's all-time greatest retailer, Sears, Roebuck & Co. The Great Indoors sells upscale housewares.
At 9:15 yesterday morning, just after the start of the first business day of the work week, Rob Sherman Advocacy contacted both the local store, here, and the president of the chain to call for the immediate termination of the sale of the doormat because use of the product constitutes both a desecration of the flag and dishonors the memory of every soldier who has ever died defending our flag. I spoke with Chris Wozniak, manager of the Schaumburg, Illinois store. I also left a message for Bob Rodgers, president of The Great Indoors, at the Hoffman Estates, Illinois, world headquarters of Sears. Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates and Buffalo Grove, where Rob Sherman Advocacy is located, are all near each other in the northwest suburbs of Chicago.
In my discussions with officials of The Great Indoors, I stressed that the flag is desecrated when a person wipes his feet on the image of the flag, and that wiping one's feet on the flag also dishonors the memory of every soldier who ever died defending the flag.
Mr. Wozniak responded that it is not an actual flag that is on the door mat, but that he would refer my concern to Corporate and that he would implement whatever decision they make on the matter.
I replied that it makes no difference whether it is an actual flag or an image that represents the design of the flag, but I agreed with him that the proper thing for him to do was to refer the matter to Corporate for a decision.
At 12:17 p.m. yesterday, just three hours after I left word at corporate headquarters, Mr. Rodgers personally called me back. He said that The Great Indoors and Sears agreed with me, so he has ordered the immediate removal of the Old Glory door mat from all stores nationwide. I thanked him for his cooperation in addressing the matter and for the very prompt way in which the matter was resolved.
At 2:00 p.m. yesterday, I held a news conference as scheduled near the entrance to the Schaumburg store to announce that the issue had been satisfactorily and speedily resolved. The news conference was attended by reporters from the Daily Herald (the largest suburban daily and Illinois' third largest newspaper), the Chicago Tribune (Illinois' largest newspaper), the Pioneer Press (publisher of forty-eight weekly community newspapers in suburbs of Chicago) and WLS-TV, the ABC-owned television station in Chicago. The Daily Herald and the Pioneer Press also sent photographers and WLS sent a camera crew.
At the news conference, I stressed that this controversy, like most of the controversies that Rob Sherman Advocacy addresses, arose because of the difference between intent and effect. While the intent of having an American flag door mat was to express patriotism, the effect was to desecrate of the flag. As soon as I offered that perspective to The Great Indoors officials, they recognized the merit of my perspective and responded promptly and appropriately.
For those of you who do not live in the Chicago area, here is a library/archive image of the Daily Herald story that appeared on Page 4 of Section 1 of today's newspaper. If you do live in Chicagoland, go out and buy a copy of the newspaper yourself. (You may need to scroll to the right to see the whole thing.)
Notice how the story states merely that the door mat contains the three colors of red, white and blue. The story refuses to mention that those three colors are fashioned in a way to symbolize the American flag and that the advertisement
specifically states that that this coir mat is a "Door mat honoring Old Glory."
The Daily Herald story also claims that Sears "had already decided to pull it before we heard from Mr. Sherman." Sure, they did! Of course, they did! They gathered all the information, had their meetings and made the decision in the sixteen minutes between 9:00 a.m. and the time that I called at 9:17 a.m. At 10:00 a.m., I announced to the news media that I was going to hold a 2:00 p.m. news conference about this issue. You don't suppose that all those subsequent calls for comment from the newspapers and television stations had anything to do with Sears making the decision "before I called," do you?
The quick resolution demonstrates the effectiveness of Rob Sherman Advocacy in addressing civic issues, and why you should consider becoming a sponsor of Rob Sherman Advocacy. After thirty-one years of advocating for change with respect to civic issues, I have gained a wide reputation as having the ability to identify those issues where there is a legitimate controversy, clearly articulating the nature of the problem, developing a solution which is fair and just, generating public support for implementing the change and demonstrating persistence and tenacity in seeing to it that the problem gets resolved.
I hope you will choose to sponsor these efforts. Please contact me to get involved. Thank you, in advance, for your support.