One Depot Under God
I’ve only stepped foot in a Home Depot like twice in my life. The place makes me break out in hives. It is noisy. It is dusty. It is full of people fighting over the last can of signature coral reef paint. (To be fair, it’s not as bad as Costco, where you can’t walk out of the store without a lifelong supply of mini quiches.) So obviously I’m the last to know that there is something even more special than the perfect ceiling fan that you can find in Home Depot. God.
Trevor Keezer, a former cashier at Home Depot’s beautiful Okeechobee, Florida location, was fired for wearing a “One nation under God, indivisible” button on his signature bright orange apron. The company says that employees are not allowed to express personal beliefs, and if you want to wear flair, there’s a job with your name on it at T.G.I. Friday’s.
“I’ve worn [the button] for well over a year and I support my country and God,” Keezer said. “I was just doing what I think every American should do, just love my country.” Why does Home Depot hate America? Keezer said he started bringing a Bible to work every day to read during lunch and that’s when management told him he’d have to lose the button. “It feels kind of like a punishment, like I was punished for just loving my country,” Keezer said. Well, maybe you were punished for taking a lunch break. I eat lunch at my computer every damn day and you don’t hear me complaining except OH MY GOD IT’S SO HARD TO BE ME.
Home Depot spokesman Craig Fishel said Keezer was fired because he violated the company’s dress code, pointing to the company’s long-standing policy that only company-provided pins and badges can be worn on the aprons. In fact, they offered Keezer a pin that said “United We Stand” but he said no. Because he is on a mission from God. Meanwhile Keezer is planning to sue the company claiming religious discrimination.
So Home Depot is risking a lawsuit all because of a button that uses a phrase from the Pledge of Allegiance? I guess this means “Jesus is my Homeboy” tees are out of the question.
Tagged: home depot, trevor keezer.
Cindy A says:
I’m for separation of church and state, also for separation of greedy, lecherous, war-mongering Republicans from claiming some kind of cornered market on God.
“I always distrust people who know so much about what God wants them to do to their fellows.”
– Susan B. Anthony –
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ReaderX says:
Hate America? Ridiculous!
Home Depot is protecting its client base against verbal spam from religious nutjobs. Your duty in life is not to convert everyone you meet or slap them in the face with the Proverb of the Day. Let them buy lumber without hearing your nonsense.
Not everyone believes Jesus was a messiah. Not everyone believes there is a god. Stop bothering us while we shop.
Additionally, being obnoxiously religious is not patriotic. Devotion to prostletizing dogma does not in any way bear influence on whether or not you “love your country.”
Plenty of Jews love this country. Plenty of Buddists. Plenty of atheists. Plenty of muslims. It seems only the Christians feel the need to proclaim in-your-face blathering about “Deity X” somehow makes one patriotic, proves one loves their country, or is otherwise a better person than the rest.
Keep your smarmy smug psychobabble out of my Home Depot. They have every right to tell this guy to shut his trap while on the job, keep his bible at home, and stop wearing offensive buttons.
If he wants to prove how holy he is, how patriotic he is, or how right he is, then that nutjob is welcome to stand on a street corner of a busy intersection of a public area and spew drivel to an uninterested citizenry.
This editorial was ridiculous.
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Eileen Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Hi. Welcome to satire. We’re glad you’re here.
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Leon says:
Oh, that imaginary figure again!
Loving your country has nothing to do with religion, it’s just another thing that shows how arbitrary religious people can be in their assigning everything to god, as if god is at the basis and an excuse for everything.
If he wants to convert the other people or show off to everybody what great a believer he is, let him do it on his own time, not on the time paid by Home Depot. It is the more preposterous that he wants to sue them.
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treehugger says:
Its a great place to buy equipment for your power-washing nannies.
But Lowe’s has a better selection of organic gardening supplies. IJS.
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potted meat says:
It’s not even a full moon.
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Prince Royal says:
And God likes Lowe’s a lot better.
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all_hail_the_pink says:
It IS hard to be you…especially since you only have Parmesan Goldfish in your desk for lunch…
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John Johnson says:
I’m one of those “Christianites”. Don’t wear it on my sleeve or feel a need to wear a badge on my chest to let everyone know that I am one.
If HomeDepot has rules, the guy needs to abide by the rules. “Give to Ceasar what is Ceasar’s”. I’m sure that he signed some goofy agreement when he accpeted employment.
There are radical Christians, radical Islamists, radical Jews, radical Republicans and radical Democrats. They are all just asking for a fight.
It’s not the rational way of going about getting converts.
The old adage “action speaks louder than words” (or bumper stickers, or lapel pins)comes to mind here.
Wish more would heed old adages.
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potted meat Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Christianistas?
Make mine frozen, no salt.
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West Texas Hillbilly Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
I think the term is Christianist, as in Jesus is my Lord but fuck the poor sot who has no health insurance because they don’t have a real job or have a pre-existing condition like infant obesity or have been sexually assaulted.
They better pray that Jesus doesn’t come back and find them in bed with Haliburton, Blackwater, Exxon/Mobil and UnitedHealth. Religion, business and politics are strange bedfellows.
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John Johnson Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Well, I for one don’t lump all Democrats into one bucket. Some, I find reasonable, open to differing opinions, and respectful debate; others are narrow-minded twits. I should also point out that all Republicans are not Christians; some are narrow minded twits.
Painting every group with one wide brush is just plain wrong, yet you seem to get pleasure from it.
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John Johnson Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Correction … I meant to state that “some Republican Christians are narrow minded twits”.
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West Texas Hillbilly Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
I’m not saying that all Christians are Christianists. I am saying that the party that polls Palin and Huckabee way out front is the same party that will fight to the death to stop health insurance reform. WWJD?
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potted meat Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
WWJD? not take the flu vaccine, but be for the public option?
IMHO
/great new avatar, btw. I still think PL’s is some sort of leftovers in the fridge. maybe it’s my eyes.
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John Johnson Reply:
October 29th, 2009 at 12:50 am
If the shoe fits ….
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OldMediaMan says:
You’re all missing the main flaw in Eileen’s “editorial.” Wandering the aisle’s of Home Depot is a pleasure second only to meandering around a sporting goods store. And open 24 hours! I love the smell of sawdust in the morning.
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potted meat says:
OMM…..
I feel too guilty in H depot. Too many things there I actually use.
Now, OFFICE depot; the hope of perfect files, instant access to paperwork from 1998……oh, heck I’ve got enough paperclips to repair a suspension bridge, that is, IF the god of your choice wants me to.
/PL should at least hang at the HD garden center. Nothing more spritual that growing stuff, or sometimes not growing stuff, with dire results.
//Why don’t petunias lke me?
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treehugger Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Petunias are annuals, bloom and die, replant, repeat. Get you some native perennials. Feed the critters. S and W Austin has lots of good nurseries. Plant a tree or 2 while you’re at it. HD plants are mostly crap. Decent hard goods and bagged stuff though.
I’ll see your Home Depot and raise you most any decent hardware store. Sometimes you feel like a nut, not a whole plastic-wrapped lifetime supply package of them.
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West Texas Hillbilly says:
I find God to have helpful advice in the plumbing aisle.
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Pinkles says:
I must off to confession then, because He didn’t know squat the day Dad sent me there for some tubing. Huh. Figures.
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potted meat says:
*Petunias are annuals*…..no, TH, the problem is me and sun loving flowering plants. If it grows in the shade , or partial sun, I’m good.
YES Real hardware stores! with Julia Roberts helping me , nevermind….
Tke existance of God subject to imdoor plumbing brings in to question the “kansas dilemna’…..
just as the earth is only 5000 years old, so then how could God have existed before the crapper and other more recent home improvements.
Maybe he worked in a livery stable, having to shovel thru all that far right stuff to reveal, the simple truth.
Fade to plumbing……..
The Golden Rule……..apply to all except as WTH noted. Hypocrites. May they have 4 trips to get the right fitting.
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treehugger says:
PM, native perennials will do the trick…could be your salv(ia)ation. Or you could plant rosemary or lavender and get herbal with it. Sun is good. If you’re successful at shady or semi-shade, then sun’s no problem.
The HC will be wearing her finest colors this Spring. Ya’ll come.
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potted meat says:
rosamary and lavender: RIP.
problem is simple: improper watering results in shock……a drip system is my solution. I have bought 2 runs of drip stuff, but did not install it or plant(this year) with the drought….maybe in the spring.
BTW: I have been agood steward with trees, including difficlt transplants.
/in other news: I got a mint copy of “It’s a Beautiful Day” recently…..amazing: music could fix the world.
//Phillies in 5 or 6
White Bird/Girl with No Eyes…… I’m there.
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treehugger Reply:
October 29th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Well, you do have to water in all plants, including the drought tolerant, to get them started. Drip is okay but some plants dont’ like wet feet. Otherwise I can get you all kinds of cactus that’s bulletproof. I saw David Laflamme playing in a band in a random bar in Durango, Colorado in about 1985…a strange place to hear White Bird, for sure. Those LP’s are hard to find, so congrats.
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ftwsteve says:
F’ing A – I’m out with a little cold and all hell breaks loose. Now I’m feeling the love here.
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Pinkles says:
boatload of chicken soup, juice and clear liquids
tequila is optional, but it might make you feel better quicker ;)
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Home Despot says:
I love God. Please, don’t have me fired.
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Florida says:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/10/29/trevor-keezer-fired-pin-home-depot/
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