Hidden Messages, Hear What is Really Being Said

Today I opened up my email and saw a forward from my mom. Now, I wasn't alarmed because she sends these about once a week. Some of them are cute, funny and some I admit I delete without even opening. Today the subject line caught my eye, "Tyson Foods".

So, I opened it and began reading.....

The initial line said " verified by Snopes and Fox" which peeked my curiousity even more. So I actually READ, not skimmed the email.

Overall it was about boycotting the Tyson company because their Tennesse plant negotiated to switch paid holidays from Labor Day to that of a Muslim holiday in response to the high number of Muslim employees. The email made it seem like this was recent, but in actuality if one does the research this happened about 3 years ago and the switch was made in only one of the processing plants. I can see why people get worked up about a switch of this matter, but one must realize that we are living in the 21st Century. We choose to live in a country with a vast variety of cultures and religiuos beliefs. We also need to remember that we have our personal beliefs and then we have our businesses. Sometimes these two perspectives do not see eye to eye.

Anyway, my response to this email was, " I guess one needs to look at this wholistically... As a business, we need to accommodate those who work for us. We have to set our personal beliefs aside and figure out what is best for the company. We also cannot persecute and entire culture/religion for what a small number of brain-washed crazy people have done. So I guess I am saying that if a company has a large number of employees whose culture/ religion should prevent them from being able to work on a particular day, then the company should consider changing up the work schedule in order to accommodate their work force. Also, it is important to note that not all Muslims are recent relocators from the Middle East. The religion has what we may call " white" or non-traditional believers. I think if we look at history we one will see that if we group them all into one category, we will find ourselves on the wrong side of the argument and assumption."

I also would like to say, that the circulation of this email is concerning to me, especially since this is a matter of 3 years ago. My gut says that this is not really an email about the change of a paid holiday. My concern comes from the increasing negative publicity from special interest groups that are taking wild and far reaching actions to discredit, terrorize and destroy animal agriculture in the United States. With that being said, I encourage you to gather accurate information from those who work directly in the animal agriculture industry. Do not let a wild card emails, commercials, mailings etc persuade you to travel down a road of inaccuracies. When hearing information question it, research it and look to those within the realm of the information for their side and info before passing it on to someone else. And if nothing else, PLEASE read between the lines!