Today I was at a large chain grocery store with my seven year old daughter. As we got in line to checkout, the headline of the National Enquirer caught my eye.
Growing up in the 1980’s, the National Enquirer taught me that lying in print is protected under the First Amendment. I never quite understood it, nor rested easily with it, but lies are what the National Enquirer sells.
This week’s headline is different. The headline reads, “Muslim Spies in Obama’s CIA!” and “Torture: Why we must not stop waterboarding or close Guantanamo!” The main picture is of Trump, and on the bottom is a logo that reads “Secret list of traitors inside.” It doesn’t take much thinking to see how this crosses a line from the usual slandering of paparazzi to inciting hate for a religious group. I wasn’t personally offended, I was concerned for our country. This is the type of discourse that leads us down the path toward McCarthyism, and potentially a holocaust. On the heels of a bitter election in which Donald Trump won the electoral college with a campaign of rhetoric that was openly hostile to a variety of ethnic and religious groups, the National Enquirer printed a cover story that crosses yet another dangerous line.
At that moment, standing in the grocery store with my daughter, I was deeply bothered, and could hardly focus on paying for my groceries. I couldn’t respond to my daughter’s innocent chatter. As we walked toward the exit, I had a moment of clarity, and turned with my daughter back to the checkstand. I asked to speak to the manager.
The manager did not appear right away, and I began to feel antsy, wondering “Is this really worth my time?” As the minutes ticked by waiting for the manager, my doubt quieted and settled into a resolve to take action, to not stay silent.
My daughter looked up at me and finally said, “Daddy, this is kind of boring.” I said, “Yeah, it is. But this is important. Thank you for being patient.”
When the manager finally arrived, I was cordial. "Hey man, this is not your fault, and I think your store is great. Here's the deal: We all know the National Enquirer prints things that aren’t true, and we all put up with it. But this here,” I pointed to the magazine, “this is flat out dangerous."
He stopped, took a moment to digest the cover of the magazine, and without further hesitation said, "If that's how you feel, we'll pull them all from the racks." With one hand he grabbed the entire stock of National Enquirer from the checkstand. Then he started down the aisle to remove them from the other stands. I expressed my deep gratitude, and he looked back at me with a serious expression and said, “Thank you very much for bringing it to my attention.” That was it. Immediate action.
It is interesting to consider whether he chose his response to satisfy a customer with bags of paid groceries in hand, or whether he also believed it was the right thing to do. My sense was that the former made him respond quickly, but the latter was also true and made him confident in his response.
I am grateful to that store and that manager for stepping up to do the right thing. A newspaper like the one published today by the National Enquirer is, by any reasonable standard, a threat to the future of our democracy. Yet in the course of “business as usual,” these things can make it onto store shelves even under the management of reasonable people. It is up to us to be active right where we are and point out what we see. We must not be silent for the sake of avoiding a scene. We must confront injustice, albeit with compassion, dignity and the benefit of the doubt for those involved. But we must not let things slide.
On the way home, you can bet I had a very interesting conversation with my daughter. She had many questions I struggled to answer about the world today. But one thing I did not struggle with: I called out injustice when I saw it. I will continue to strive to catch the opportunities for easy action, knowing that it takes each of us to make a collective change.