Letter to Publix CEO Re Adam Putnam

In the way of background for those on my friends list who do not live in Florida allow me to explain this letter. Florida headquartered Publix Super Markets, has contributed nearly $670k to Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Putnam ($250K of the recently), now the Commissioner of Agriculture who recently hid, and then completely changed the sanitation rating system for super markets after Publix had a couple of stores fail. Putnam is a Trump wannabe posting lots of hateful rhetoric about immigrants most recently. He’s no fan of any minority, especially the LGBT community. 

The Tampa Bay Times has recently published an article calling this to the attention of everyone, and Publix’s has been in damage control ever since, issuing the typical PR-written, Lawyer-approved bullshit form letter. I’ve written my own letter in response to the form letter I’ve seen posted all over social media. Let’s see if Publix gets the message.

Todd Jones, CEO
Publix Corporate Headquarters
3300 Publix Corporate Parkway
Lakeland, FL 33811

Dear Mr. Jones:

I’m writing you concerning Publix support of Adam Putnam for Governor of Florida. I’m sure your organization has received much communication since the story was published, and I would appreciate it if you (or whoever reads this letter) would forego the standard PR-written, Lawyer-approved corporate clap-trap. I’ve seen the letter a dozen times on social media.

To make it easy for you, I’ll use your standard response letter to address my concerns. Let’s start with: “We are a company that cares about our associates, our customers and the communities we serve.” Especially here in Florida immigrant communities are a huge part of your base of customers and associates, and yet you are supporting a candidate who would denigrate and encourage discrimination against those communities.  Let’s look at some of what he’s had to say about immigrants:

Some cities are not only allowing violent illegal aliens to remain within their boundaries without the threat of getting caught but are going so far as to grant illegal aliens the right to vote. They have lost their American values and have been overrun by liberals. The right to vote should not be allowed to anyone not born in our country or who has not become a citizen of our nation. It is too precious to grant to those who have not earned it.
Source: 2018 Florida Gubernatorial website AdamPutnam.com, Sep 1, 2017

Weakened border security endangers the lives of Americans. As governor, we’ll work with President Trump to cut funding for sanctuary cities.
Source: YouTube video, “Immigration Reform and Border Security” , May 16, 2017

He also has a voting record that affects many of the people who are your customers:

• Voted YES on building a fence along the Mexican border. (Sep 2006)
• Voted YES on preventing tipping off Mexicans about Minuteman Project. (Jun 2006)
• Voted NO on reporting illegal aliens who receive hospital treatment. (May 2004)
• Voted NO on extending Immigrant Residency rules. (May 2001)
• Rated 100% by FAIR, indicating a voting record restricting immigration. (Dec 2003)
• Rated 92% by USBC, indicating a sealed-border stance. (Dec 2006)
• Declare English as the official language of the US. (Feb 2007)
• Voted NO on expanding the Children’s Health Insurance Program. (Jan 2009)
• Voted NO on $84 million in grants for Black and Hispanic colleges. (Mar 2006)

I talked last week with Jennifer Young, your store manager at my usual Publix in Britton Plaza, Tampa. I explained to her how I liked the store and the employees and had taken the time over the years to write headquarters to provide complimentary feedback. I pointed out to her a recent instance I’d witnessed of a young man being very patient with and helpful to an elderly customer. Ms. Young, thinking it would help her defense of your organization, pointed out that the young man and his parents had immigrated from (I believe) Peru, and that he was a great employee. I pointed out to her that in Mr. Putnam’s world, that immigration would not have happened, and you wouldn’t have that young man working for you. How is that in the best business interest of Publix?

Adam Putnam has a record of anti-immigrant statements, amplified now by the current demagoguery and hate speech emanating from the Trump administration and the Republican party. As a Congressman he was active in taking steps toward obstructing minority votes through lies and distortions to justify duplicitous Voter ID laws and doing everything he could to weaken the protections of the Voting Rights Act. He is a staunch Trump loyalist, advocating the policies and rhetoric of Donald Trump who just last week in a meeting attacking sanctuary cities in California referred to immigrants as “animals.”

Neither has Mr. Putnam been a friend to the LGBT community, but then again, this may be a characteristic that fits with Publix culture. You are the only Fortune 1000 company to refuse to respond to the HRC Equality Index each year. There have been charges of discrimination. You were late to provide domestic partner benefits and it took tremendous public pressure for you to cover PReP for your associates. But with that said, Mr. Putnam’s record is again one of hate and exclusion:

• Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation. (Nov 2007)
• Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman. (Jul 2006)
• Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage. (Sep 2004)
• Rated 7% by the ACLU, indicating an anti-civil rights voting record. (Dec 2002)
• Rated 0% by the HRC, indicating an anti-gay-rights stance. (Dec 2006)
• Rated 19% by the NAACP, indicating an anti-affirmative-action stance. (Dec 2006)
• Voted NO on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes. (Apr 2009)

Last week, Reveal, a project of the Center for Investigative Reporting, identified 150 incidents of verbal harassment or physical violence over the past 18 months in which the perpetrator explicitly mentioned Donald Trump. Reveal’s Will Carless wrote that “nearly every metric of intolerance in the U.S. has surged over [that time period], from reported anti-Semitism and Islamophobia to violent hate crimes based on skin color, nationality or sexual orientation.”

A new, unpublished study presented to the Midwest Political Science Association last month, suggests that there’s a causal relationship between Trump’s demagoguery and those reports of racialized abuses. Brian Schaffner, a scholar at UMass Amherst, found empirical evidence that Trump’s rhetoric did indeed lead non-Hispanic whites to express more bigoted views of “the other.” (“Yes, Donald Trump Is Making White People More Hateful;” The Nation; Joshua Holland; May 2, 2018)

Mr. Putnam has, time and again allied himself with Donald Trump and Trump’s tweets. He’s reposted them, commented on them, and used them as the basis for “surveys.” The flames of hate are being fanned in this nation by Trump, and politicians like Adam Putnam are just as guilty.

As a Gay man who grew up in the 60s and 70s, I understand how that language works, and the harm it does. I’ve had to face some difficult situations. I spent the last 40 years of my life protesting, organizing, marching and voting to make it so that other young people do not have to experience that, whether they be LGBT, Hispanic, Black, physically challenged. I thought we’d made some progress, but I see the clock being turned back by people who talk about others in the way Adam Putnam does, and I will be damned if I will stand by and watch us revert back to those days. I WILL NOT SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS THAT SUPPORT CANDIDATES WHO ARE FANNING THOSE FLAMES OF HATE FOR THEIR OWN POLITICAL AND BUSINESS ENDS.

Perhaps that is why I find this part of your statement most appalling, “We support bi-partisan, business-friendly candidates, regardless of political affiliation, and we remain neutral on issues outside of our core business.” Here’s my question for you, I like Kellogg’s Raisin Crunch Bran Flakes, but I just like the crunch clusters and the raisins. Next time I’m in your store (if I ever shop there again), may I open a box, take out the clusters and raisins and pay only for them? After all, that’s all I’m really interested in. I suspect you’ll say “no,” but that’s a perfect analogy to your statement above.

Ms. Young, in her spirited defense of your decision to support Putnam said that (and I am paraphrasing, but this is very close), Publix has been successful for over 70 years because we take care of our associates and our customers, and we’ll continue to do that regardless of who’s Governor. I thanked her for making my point for me. I asked her, as I ask you, will Publix have to declare bankruptcy and close if Adam Putnam isn’t elected Governor? Will Publix be materially damaged as a corporation if Adam Putnam isn’t elected Governor? I suspect you’ll say, “No, of course not.” Which is exactly the point of all this.

You don’t get to wash your hands and pretend that your choice and the boatload of money you give is of no consequence. You are not just empowering “a business-friendly candidate” you are buying the whole hate-filled, corrupt package, and you should expect to be held accountable. It is disappointing that you don’t believe the other things matter, because they do. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “The time is always right to do the right thing.”

At the end of the day, unless you expect to have to declare bankruptcy, why not just stay out of it. Why not avoid intentionally alienating a significant portion of the population that shops at Publix? I’m not asking you to support someone else, I’m suggesting, stay out of it.

To paraphase a quote attributed to Winston Churchill, “Publix can always be relied upon to do the right thing — having first exhausted all possible alternatives.” Let’s hope Publix comes around to do the right thing sooner rather than later. I look forward to your response.

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