Vision vs Corporation
It always disturbs me when I see the dreams and convictions of a good man turned into fodder for a money-grubbing Corporation whose only interest in this world is in lining their own greedy pockets – all the while hiding behind the morals and ethics of those they pretend to follow.
For instance, today there isn't a single person who doesn't feel strongly one way or the other about the Wal-Mart Corporation. Either you think that they are the best thing to happen to Western Civilization, or, like me, you think that they are nothing more than a overzealous, power-hungry Corporation bent on world domination. But even at that, that is not how I see the company's founder – Sam Walton. I think, or I like to think, that Mr. Walton had a vision. He wanted to see American-made products sold at a price that everyone could afford. He himself started out as a small-town business man. I don't think that he would approve of the unethical, underhanded business practices that the company he started adheres to – the practices that are putting every small-town Mom-and-Pop store out of business in pursuit of the Almighty Dollar. Practices like selling products at a loss, just so that the local competition, who has been in business serving their community for maybe fifty years, has to close their doors when they can no longer afford to compete with the mighty Wal-Mart.
I don't know how many of you are familiar with Bob Ross. He was a fantastic artist who created his own style of “wet-on-wet” painting techniques. If you know him, whether you love his art work or think it's an abomination of the classical art world, you have to admit that he was the most gentle, generous soul this side of Mother Theresa. After years in the military, yelling and giving orders, he vowed to “never yell again.” Watching his shows, he always talks about how you should paint, not to make money, but because it makes you happy. He never says you can only do this with my brand of paints, my brand of brushes or my brand of supplies. What he did do was to tell you how to tell if the brand of paint you bought would work. He told you to use a plastic garbage can and a shelf rack as a brush cleaner – not to go out and spend ten dollars on his brand cleaning bucket. But yet, after his death, the Corporation that he left behind has made it their business to claim just that – that you have to buy his (overpriced) brand or else your paintings will never work.
And not to leave anyone out – Martin Luther King, Jr. Reverend King was a good man who had a great vision. All he wanted was equality for all men, regardless of race – which is rightly deserved. Never did I hear him claim that the 'white man' owed his people anything. Never did I hear him claim that his people should be given special consideration because of their color or their past. He wanted “little black boys and black girls [to] be able to to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” Today, we still have segregation. Only now it is self-imposed. There are black colleges, black Miss America pageants, black churches, there's even an Internet Black Pages – a black version of the Yellow Pages listing only black business and organizations. But God forbid that there is an all white school. Or an organization that grants scholarships to white students. If Martin Luther King, Jr were to see what the world has become since he left it, I believe that he would be rolling over in his grave.
I can only speak for myself, but I thank God that there have, in the course of human history, been such great men as Reverend Martin Luther King, Sam Walton and even Bob Ross. Men of great vision and concern for the human race – be it on a grand scale or in the most seemingly insignificant detail. But damn those who so easily corrupt the ideals that these men stood for during their lives.
