GOYA Vey!

I begin this piece by stating openly that I have never once consumed any Goya product.  I have nothing against it.  These are simply items that I do not reach for in my daily consumption. 

That being said:  Goya Foods, Inc. is an American producer of a brand of foods sold in the United States and many Hispanic countries. It has facilities in different parts of the United States, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Spain. (Wikipedia, 2020) As of 2018 the company had approximately 4000 employees. 

The CEO of GOYA praised Trump and minutes later twitter exploded with most notably AOC calling for a boycott of the company.

My take on this is that we have become a society that is more interested in the number of followers (aptly named) one has on social media and how much influence one can yield every time someone utters a comment we do not agree with or approve of.  The land of the free (and I mean that in every sense of the word) is a myth of days gone by and our elected officials are leading the charge to control our every thought, every spoken word and every opinion.

What I fail to understand, however is that this two year novice politician has garnered enough of a following to do such a thing without giving a hint of a thought to the families of those 4000 employees of this company.  Nor did she give two hoots about the potential jobs Amazon would bring to New York City at a time when those jobs were so desperately needed.  Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who opposed the campus, blamed Amazon for seeking $3 billion in tax breaks and incentives that she said should have been spent elsewhere. (NY Times, 2020)

Tax abatements are nothing new.  Companies have received enticements to locate into areas to boost local economies often and it is a proven successful tool.  Yet, AOC was very vocal about her disapproval.  She is very vocal about everything she disapproves of.  She gleans much satisfaction from swaying public opinion.  But is that her role?  I was under the impression that she was an elected official; a representative of NY speaking for those in her district.  Her behavior resembles more of a lobbyist than a representative. 

What of the people in your district that could have obtained employment as a result of Amazon coming to NY?  What about those already employed by GOYA?  Would you like them to fall to the ranks of the unemployed simply because the man at the helm of the company voiced his support for the president of the United States?  Let’s think about that.  One man supports a seated president of our country and AOC calls for a boycott of that companies products.  Yes, let’s punish 4000 families to make a statement to the one man at the top who spoke out of turn (according to you).

How old are you?  Twelve?  Does everyone in the schoolyard have to agree with you or you bully your way around until they do?  I love your enthusiasm – I really do.  But if you don’t take a step or two back and start looking at the bigger picture here you just might single-handedly dismantle what is left of the NY economy and that is not exactly something you would want to have on your resume’.

Here’s a suggestion:  Put pictures of the families of all the GOYA employees on your office walls; those families you are about to destroy every time you open your mouth in a high spirited dissent of the president.  Perhaps if you focus on their faces rather than the face of Donald Trump whom you obviously hate so much you cannot see past him you will be able to put them first before you lash out on twitter to dismantle everything they worked for. After all, it’s Trump you hate – not the American people – right? 

Better yet, be careful that your constituents don’t begin to hate you because of who you work for.  It’s not only possible.  It’s likely. 

R-O-A-R!!!!

References

NY Times retrieved from the world wide web on July 10, 2020 from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/19/nyregion/newyorktoday/AOC-Amazon-nyc.html

Wikipedia, retrieved from the world wide web on July 10, 2020 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goya_Foods