I've always prided myself on being the most radical spoke in the Ukiah Rotary Wheel- at 30, I'm the 2nd youngest in the club (the other guy being a hospital administrator, and everyone else being quite a bit my senior), I'm a bearded longhair (alone on the long hair, a couple others with better-groomed beards), and I'm in the business of alternative fuel. I figure, Rotary needs me, the way Argentina needs vegetarians. I can represent, well, the dKossack community, for one.
Recently, I noticed that the manager at the local Wal-Mart had started coming to our club as a guest. This bothered me, as the pattern seemed to fit with a "prospective member". Why shouldn't Wal-Mart be represented in Rotary? Consider the famous "4-Way Test" which is supposed to influence how we as Rotarians think, say or do:
* Is it the Truth?
* Is it fair to all Concerned?
* Will it build good will and better Friendships?
* Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
cont'd...
Rotary, at its core, is about businesses giving back to the community. You can see how there's a wee bit of a problem, where Wal-Mart is concerned. The new guy seemed like a standup citizen, but at Rotary, he is a representative of his business, which doesn't fit with what Rotary is about.
I had been mulling over the best way to deal with my anxiety- lately, I haven't attended a lot of meetings, I'm still relatively new to the club, and I don't want to just flat-out alienate myself. How could I register a protest? He was going to be approved anyway.
So... he became a member, and that's when the most surprising thing happened. Our club does things very traditionally, and one thing that happens at Rotary meetings is "happy and sad dollars" are given. These are another way (Rotary has many) of raising money for the projects that the local clubs and Rotary International sponsor.
Jack, an 84 yr-old with deeper roots in the community than ANYONE (his men's store goes back well into the 1800s), who rarely says much, stood up and said he had a "bell-ringer", which means he was going to give a full $25 (reserved for special occasions) for something happy and something sad. Jack said, "I'm happy that __ has joined our club, but I'm sad about the company that he works for. Has anyone seen the recent special on 60 Minutes? It was very good". Jack had taken a lot of effort standing up, and slowly sat back down. The room was pretty quiet. I never thought I'd be taking lessons in protest from an 84 yr-old Rotarian, but there you go.