Yes, the Target Corporation made a political donation from their employee-funded Political Action Committee. And yes this donation went to an organization and candidate who, while supporting a pro-business platform, also actively campaigns against marriage equality in the state of Minnesota. Yes, Target has specifically not asked that this political contribution be returned. And yes, I know Target has tried to donate money to the Human Rights Campaign to “make up” for their prior donation.

I’m not arguing with any of these points. Target’s behavior is lame at best, reprehensible at worst. I tend to side with the latter.

That said, I’m still going to keep on shopping at Target, and here’s why.

Simply put, Target has one of the largest, best-documented charitable giving programs in the United States, of any corporation or retailer.

Each week, Target gives $3,000,000 away. That’s right, 3 million dollars to the focus areas of education, arts and culture, and social services. I know (from experience) that the American Red Cross’ Disaster Relief operations are a major recipient. That’s the ‘people that show up at your house at 3 a.m. when it goes up in flames and take you to a hotel and give you clothing and shampoo when you’ve lost everything’ branch of the Red Cross. Or the hurricane/earthquake/blizzard relief people.

At over 3 million dollars a week, that’s conservatively $156,000,000 a year. That awful political contribution? $150,000.

I’ve made a helpful bar graph to demonstrate:

As you can see, the numbers aren’t even close. If you’re not good with math, the PAC contribution is literally 1/10^th of 1% compared to the charitable giving they do each year. The dollar amount of good that Target, (a for-profit company), puts into our community each year far outweighs the dollar amount they’ve given to an anti-marriage-equality person running for Governor of Minnesota.

Do they have to give back 5% of their profits back to the community? Absolutely not, but it’s their corporate culture. Does this make the political donation okay? Absolutely not! I’m upset that a company I patronize frequently has decided to make a major political contribution, and that it’s to a candidate who sees the need to attack my being as a person. It makes me very angry.

However, let’s look at the alternatives. Should I shop at Walmart, a retailer with a history of institutionalized discrimination against minority groups? Should I shop at Kmart, which is just gross? Of course not.

The fact is that Target consistently gives back to the communities where its stores are located. Give me a list of any other retailers who has “giving back 5% of our profits” as part of their mission statement, and I’ll be happy to shop there. But you won’t be able to, because Target is the rare company that is both wildly successful, and civically-minded. Have they made a major error in allowing their employee-funded PAC to make this donation? Of course. Should I not shop there anymore? It’s all a matter of perspective.

Maybe it’s time we start boycotting the companies that give nothing back, who hold onto their profits like Ebenezer Scrooge, instead of a socially conscious and active company. Maybe we boycott the retailers who won’t let black men or women out of the stock room because they don’t fit the store’s shirtless preppy “image.” Maybe we boycott the retailer that systematically prevents women from advancing up the management ladder, and locks migrant workers in their stores overnight to restock shelves.

I’m choosing to support a company that actually allows small businesses the opportunity to test-sell products in their stores for possible distribution nationwide. A company that goes to schools and renovates libraries. A retailer with a (shockingly) progressive attitude towards the gay community, offering domestic partnership benefits, which is almost unheard of on the retail level. A store, that frankly, I feel really good about shopping at.

If I could use a debit card that automatically gave 5% of what I spent back to charitable organizations, I would. Each time I shop at Target, that’s essentially what happens. The money I spend at Target never goes to a political candidate, but it does go to causes I support implicitly, both with time and money.

If the TargetPAC decides they want to use their employee’s contributions to support a candidate for governor that doesn’t support marriage equality, I’m certainly not happy with it. It’s horrible, and I want to be clear on that. Does that donation overshadow the incredibly positive and socially-responsible things Target has done as a company for years, and continues to do? Not at all.

And that’s why I’m going to keep pushing my red cart through the aisles of Target.

In Buffalo, we strive to tie ourselves to national stories. Plane crashes, natural disasters, human interest: as they like to say in Buffalo media, there’s always a local connection.

So it came as no surprise to me when I read on Gawker this week about a woman pressing charges against Walt Disney World, and specifically Donald Duck, for allegedly groping her inappropriately. The local connection? It happened to me.

I was a victim of character assault, at a Disney theme park. It ruined a best vacation memory for scores of families, and I think I kinda liked it. Here is my story.

—

It all happened innocently enough. After a long day in the Magic Kingdom, we’d staked out our spots for the Main Street Electrical Parade early in the evening. Sitting on the curb in Frontierland, the crowd begins to fill in. On either side of me, families with young children pack strollers in tightly as the sun starts to go down. Eventually, the lights go out, the music rises, and the floats roll down the street. Anticipation is palpable.

—

I’m not sure if you’ve ever been to a Disney nighttime parade, but it’s kind of epic. There’s so much going on, it’s hard to focus on any one thing. We’re talking millions of sparkling lights, costumes that change color, and soaring music. Each float is themed to a different Disney animated classic, and seems packed with hundreds of characters.

One difference compared to a normal meet-and-greet in the park, is that the characters make a point to stay on the floats. Unlike the carefully orchestrated photo opportunities with Disney handlers that happen out in the parks each day, the parades are strictly a spectator affair. Or so I thought.

—

The usual suspects are here: Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, the gigantic Blue Fairy. They all lumber down the street on their respective floats, sparkling with lights, waving cheerfully to the amassed crowds. Since the characters can’t speak, they gesticulate wildly, almost comically. “Oh no… I’m scared and covering my eyes!” “I’m so excited to see you all… blowing kisses to each of you!” “Look out for what’s right over there…. see me pointing?!” The throng eats this up, cheering louder the more animated they become.

Down the street, I notice a change in the demeanor of the crowd. Rather, I hear a change. While the cheers were polite and enthusiastic before, they begin to take on a higher pitch. A more histrionic screech, like a 60’s era Beetles concert, populated by six year olds. Around the corner rolls the direct cause of the sea-change in the audience: Winnie the Pooh.

—

Rather, a Winnie the Pooh float, populated by the denizens of the 100 Acre Woods: Eeyore, Kanga, Pigglet, Rabbit, Owl. And Tigger.

If you haven’t heard, Tigger is pretty much the superstar of the Disney universe these days. He’s the Justin Bieber of the animated world, with kids clamoring for his autograph, or the chance to say hi. The important thing to keep in mind is that while Tigger (the animated character) is goofy, bouncy and gregarious, Tigger (the costumed performer) is inhabited by a tall, lean male with dance and movement training.

As the Pooh entourage moves up the street, the kids surrounding me collectively lose their breath, and then release a primal squeal. “It’s Winnie the Pooh!! Tigger!! Arg!!!” The little girl next to me begins to tremble with anticipation. While the other characters are frantically working the crowd into a frenzy, Tigger waves to my side of the street. In my general direction. “That’s weird,” I think.

As the float slows down a bit, Tigger releases his grip on the float, and starts to climb down. Realizing there must be a child in a wheelchair somewhere in my vicinity, I scan the curb.

Tigger ambles over to the handicapped child I can’t identify, and the assembled tots go berserk. “Tigger! Tigger!! TIGGER!!!” The child next to me has tears welling up in her eyes, only compounded by the dazzling lights. “Tih-ih-ger,” she wails, half-crying, half-hyperventilating.

The parents of the kids on either side of me beam. As Disney would call it, this is a “magical moment.” That special theme park occurrence you’d reminisce over for years to come: “Remember when Tigger got off his float during the parade to say hi to you? Wasn’t that amazing?” This moment, this very second, is what every parent who hauls their kids off to Disney World hopes for. Something that makes all of the tears, and sweating, and running around the parks worthwhile. This moment of character clarity, when their progeny would be the center of the Happiest Place on Earth, if for only a second. This is their moment.

Tigger, waving to the crowd, makes a beeline for where I’m sitting on the curb. The screams grow louder. How did I miss the wheelchair kid? What child is about to have their dreams come true? Who gets the surge of childhood adrenaline from an oversized character? Who is about to have their “Magical Moment?”

—

About 10 seconds before Tigger touched me, I had a sinking feeling. At first, I noticed Tigger’s body language, which seemed weirdly… suggestive, like I was being checked out at the bar. By a large orange and black striped thing, whose eyes I can’t see. Immediately, this feeling turns to dread. No, no, no. I’m about to be hit on by a plushie, in a crowd full of families.

I can’t look away.

—

Tigger approaches me, and my eyes go wide, as if to say “please, don’t do this. Not here.” He reaches out his paw. I grab my knees, and pull them in tight to my chest to shield me from what’s about to happen. The screaming children stop, and everyone turns to look.

An orange and white paw gingerly touches my head. I hold my breath. This is not happening. He tousles my messy hair. This is not happening. He slides the paw down my face, as I close my eyes, and brushes my cheek gently, tenderly, with affection. This is not happening. His fur is warm and smells faintly of sweat. This is not happening.

Tigger says nothing, because he can’t. It’s the rules. There’s no “you’re cute, “ or “call me.” The parents stare, slack jawed. I hear nothing. No music, no screaming. Just nothing. His paw traces my jawline, tilts my head up softly, and pulls away. I finally breathe in. The 100 Acre Woods is leaving. And Tigger has to be on it. This is not happening.

—

The children on both sides of me are confused and disappointed. The parents are irate. “What the hell was that?” Damned if I know.

Tigger begins to flail to key the crowd back up. He animatedly gestures, and the kids forget the last 30 seconds. The squeals begin again in earnest. I breathe again.

I look over, and one mother gives me dagger eyes in the darkness. She probably thinks I was complicit in some kind of character cosplay. I give her a shrug and a “gosh if I know” kind of look.

She doesn’t buy it. I don’t either.

I may have ruined her magical moment.

But I got mine.

Coffey’s support of the anti-lgbt candidate comes as quite a shock to me. He supports marriage equality, and a 45 minute discussion with him several weeks ago, revealed that the former Naval Officer has always been against the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy espoused by the federal government.

Why support bigotry then? Politics. Coffey says that it boils down to Steve Pigeon, and since Tim Kennedy is the Pigeon back candidate,  he has to be against him, right? Well, sure, that theoretically makes sense. But what he’s really trying to do is highlight the very loose ties that his opponent, Kathleen Rice, has to Steve Pigeon. No one is seriously claiming that Rice is a minion of Steve Pigeon, and her very sizable campaign war chest proves she enjoys wide spread support, but Coffey would like to muddle that.

More importantly, however, this appear to be a tit-for-tat. The Erie County Democratic Committee isn’t a big fan of losing, but they are also fiercely loyal, so when detested Stachowski stubbornly decides he’s going to stay in the race, what is ECDC to do? They get an AG candidate that is courting them to back their guy. Sadly, the AG candidate does it…

You can’t very well go to Albany claiming to be a reformer while you back 30 years of failed, bigoted leadership. Not to mention that fact that Stachowski is almost single-handedly responsible for holding up the New York State budget. And, he has denied civil rights to lgbt families and individuals time and time again. Coffey’s endorsement of him shows a lack of moral conviction, commitment to equality, and quite frankly, politics as usual.