Local Sobeys Refuses to Post Notice on World Religion Day yet Posts Notice on Philosophy. Should Religion be renamed as World Philosophy Day

Lynn, et al ...

Funny strange and disturbing story .. I am ... 

As some people know, I volunteered to work on the advertising for Partners in Learning and also set up a shared Facebook page. My approach has been to work out a route by which all the notices, flyers and bulletins can be distributed easily without crossing roads. I also said that I would run round flyers for World Religion Day. 

In my first attempt, I listed all the entities that I found on the East side of Highway 21 that  had public bulletin boards that non profits could display. My outcome was that I could not find such boards at NoFrills and Sobeys. This fact irritated me so I asked Anne what her experience was. She said that both groceries had bulletin boards. I was mystified. How had I missed them.

This morning, I returned to NoFrills and found a board that I had earlier decided was user unfriendly. I left without discovering another board even though I went through the checkout. I am now thinking I made a mistake because the Librarian told me that there was one at the exit. She said it was user friendly, then proceeded to advise me on all the boards in town. 

Now Sobeys was interesting and for me disturbing. I found a glassed-in bulletin board there hidden in the busy entrance way behind five feet of fresh gluten bread and quite user unfriendly. A smokes shop would have loads of advertising of addictive bad things, but no board showing how or offering advice on to escape the addictions. What I saw as Sobeys' bulletin board did not meet my standards of lowest community user friendly.

I asked for the manager at Sobeys and a tall man appeared. I showed him the brochures that I wanted posted. He glanced at the two of them. Partners passed the test, but he said he would not, repeat not, post the flyer promoting World Religion Day on the 17th. I was in a state of extreme shock. I told him that I would tell everyone that Sobeys had refused to post the notice. He asked "who". I repeated, "everyone".  Then, I added that I was an activist. (What a stupid thing to say, but probably true given I just love swimming against the stream.. It's in the name ...) 

The Independent in Exeter was a completely different story. Everything is allowed, but on the maturity date the brochure is removed. The manager of facilities there offered me a splendid well lit room saying that Partners could use it for free as we are a non profit. We just need to book with her. It has a kitchen and small TV and tables arranged in a circle, a regular King Arthur's room with supplies for coffee! It's just above the Joes sign. 

So, me being me, has gone all quiet for a while. I am plotting. SOBEYS is my target and I am considering how to get my ethics across. My point is that while they will post a brochure clearly advertising philosophy, and Everyone is a Philosopher, they won't allow one to advertise World Religion Day which is all about philosophy. I imagined an image with a NAZI sitting at a desk deciding my fate. Philosophy "ya", religion "nein". Please follow the left side passage where all the music is playing and work makes one free. 

So there it is ... my Saturday morning ... I am drawing up my list of everyone ... Who is the GM/CEO of Grocers Magazine, not my old boss Garfield "W"? 

Arthur

On 8 Jan 2016, at 8:10 pm, Lynn <lynn.larouche@hay.net> wrote: