For McDonalds

To the editor:

I just wanted to respond to Mr. Wakeham’s letter that The Daily Mining Gazette published on May 9 which talked about McDonald’s, entitled “New direction.”

I am unsure what nonexistent time period Mr. Wakeham was trying to get us to harken back to when he talks about what he may see as the “good ‘ol days” when he thought McDonald’s did not support its gay and lesbian employees.

McDonald’s, as well as the majority of all Fortune 500 companies, understands the importance of supporting diversity, and not allowing discrimination based on how two consenting adults fall in love and create families together.

Corporations will continue to refuse to cave to the wants of groups like the American Family Association who have a small (and growing smaller) group of people in their organizations who want to encourage discrimination and harm people, their families, and loved ones because they are gay or lesbian.

Anyone who supports these specific goals inside supposedly “family-supportive” organizations and doesn’t want to support companies that respect, honor and value their gay and lesbian employees is going to have a pretty short shopping list.

They should stop buying things like cars (foreign and domestic), technology (computers, TV’s, cell phones), any form of entertainment (broadcast and cable television, movies, etc) and should absolutely stop taking all their medications because all but a very few of the major manufactures in those fields fully support their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees.

As the founder of McDonald’s, Ray Kroc, said “None of Us is as good as All of Us.” All of us have to stand up against discrimination; we all deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

Not only does McDonald’s Corporation recognize this in its treatment of employees, but it is what hundreds of the top companies in the world rely on every day.

If you are looking for a place to live that allows discrimination based on a particular translation/interpretation of a religious faith and has its hooks in the government I recommend packing up the family and moving to most places in Eastern Europe, Iraq, Iran, or their neighbors.

However; that move will probably only buy you a decade or two, because those countries, like most civilized industrial nations, are changing for the better as I write this.

PATRICK HOPP

Houghton