Lowe's and Lightbulbs

Today RantWoman could stand to buy some lightbulbs. The RantWoman home sweatshop is in operation, which also means RantWoman is periodically tempted to digress, er take a break.

RantWoman needs lightbulbs. RantWoman will at some point go on at extravagant length about how different people with different vision issues have really different lighting needs. RantWoman needs lighting from the selection of options at her neighborhood Lowe's, not from the less than adequate range of choices and some other nearby retail options.

RantWoman would be plenty happy to walk a few blocks to her neighborhood Lowe's. RantWoman in slovenly couch potato mode might grumble that the most direct walking route takes RantWoman to paths that are not very pedestrian-friendly. RantWoman in walk because it saves having to go to the gym mode should be perfectly happy that there is a tolerably pedestrian-friendly routing and that RantWoman can work in a few extra steps of exercise on her way to the door.

Then RantWoman read the following item from Diversity Inc.
http://diversityinc.com/generaldiversityinformation/lowes-publicity-gaffe-snowballs-company-appears-paralyzed/?mgs1=b1266sRhaj

The FL Family Association complained that TLC's All-American Muslim, RantWoman's paraphrase, fails to depict Muslims as enemies of all that America or at least the FL Family Association holds dear. In response Lowe's and one other advertiser RantWoman has never heard of and thus has no opinion about options for neighborhood visits pulled their ads from the show.

Then Lowe's committed various other public relations ineptitudes including let their Facebook page get filled with vile anti-Muslim sentiments, wait several days to do anything, and seem grossly deficient in diversity awareness. RantWoman is not in a position to evaluate matters behind the scenes at her neighborhood Lowe's but lack of sensitivity to diversity is definitely a thing that would cause RantWoman to try to take her business elsewhere. RantWoman's neighborhood Lowe's definitely reflects the area's demographics in both shoppers and staff so RantWoman hopes this post is grist to tell Lowe's in other parts of the country and corporate management to get a grip.

Then RantWoman's mind wanted to wander further: this is a matter of different faith communities views of each other and of what US society should be about so RantWoman poked a little at what her search engine had to say about reaction from other faither communities. What RantWoman skimmed was interesting but unhelpful as to decisions about where to buy lightbulbs.

Then RantWoman had another "wait a minute" moment, this time about Lowe's taking down all the offensive comments. RantWoman knows this practice is the norm for many modes of participatory media. RantWoman is not a lawyer or a risk management geek. RantWoman does not even approve of, RantWoman's characterization, hateful bilge.

However, RantWoman wants to know who the people are who are posting hateful bilge and then to know that someone is evaluating various issues in the content of the hateful bilge. RantWoman also knows that SOMETIMES people who post hateful bilge experience profound dialogue, come to new understandings and ecven change their minds. Just deleting hateful bilge short-circuits that process.

RantWoman feels so strongly about this that she wishes content managers would try a different approach: don't delete the hateful bilge. Just flag it, hide it from the first view and give readers the option of clicking through if they really, really want to read. RantWoman thinks this, but RantWoman HAS to get back to what is already on today's to-do list.