BY: Keith S. Shikowitz, Editor in Chief/Investigative Reporter
As a journalist, I don’t give my opinion in my stories. But sometimes I find out something that NEEDS me to express it. This is one of those times. I am not taking one side over the other, I would be saying this regardless of who was being boycotted. We need to support our community and the businesses in it to the benefit of us all. I am simply pointing out what can happen by the following action and the effect is can have on the community in general. I saw a post that someone put up telling people to boycott businesses who support the Republican Party and the candidates on their ticket. I have never not gone into a business because they support a political party who I disagree with.
Our country was set up on the foundation of CIVILLY disagreeing with each other and DISCUSSING those differences and coming to a reasonable conclusion to the issue that all can accept.
Compromising on political issues is also a part of the foundation of the USA. Remember this, a good compromise is when both sides come to an agreement that no one is completely happy with, but each side got something they wanted.
Boycotting businesses and governmental actions has been a part of American history since before we were the United States. It has been a time-tested way of solving problems when businesses have done things that have HURT people or communities. Nothing the businesses on this list have done warrants boycotting them and trying to hurt them financially, other than support a political ideology that some disagree with.
Put yourself in their spot. Would you want someone to not frequent your business and tell others not to either simply because they disagree with something you have said, or a position you have taken? I don’t think so.
But our founding fathers NEVER intended boycotting as a way of expressing political differences because you disagree with whom a particular business supports politically. Small businesses are the heart of our communities and if they fail, we lose a major part of our local economy. Small businesses in Rockland have suffered enough because of things that were and are beyond their control, beginning with COVID and moving on to the disastrous effects of the CHPE project that cost businesses along the 9W corridor from Stony Point to Congers, 10’s of millions of dollars in revenue because their customers had no way of getting to them for commerce. One restaurant in Stony Point lost a $10,000 party because the people were afraid they would get lost on the way to the restaurant with all of the detours and road closures. This has put these businesses in a fragile place where any other major hit to their finances could ruin them and force them out of business. This would do a lot of damage to the communities they service.
To not frequent a business because you don’t like the political support they give to a party you disagree with is childish, unreasonable and goes against EVERYTHING this country stands for in the history of American political discourse. The other thing is that YOU are the loser in this circumstance. You are the one who is missing out on the foods you have come to like, services from people who you have come to rely on and trust. Not utilizing these businesses will cause you to have to find new people to take up the slack and space YOU have created in your life. You could end up with someone who is not as good as what you had and go to restaurants where the food is not as good, and the service might not be as good as it is in the places you have frequented for a long time.
Remember this statement: YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’VE GOT UNTIL IT’S GONE.