Roy Exum: My Publix Tsunami

  • Sunday, February 21, 2021
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

One of my favorite country sayings is, “It’s a hit dog that hollers” yet I was hardly expecting the tsunami that would hit my email in-box on Friday after I brought light to perhaps the most idiotic boycott in the history of our nation. The Florida-based grocery chain Publix has incurred the wrath of the liberal elites following the shocking attack on our nation’s Capitol building in January. Just as shocking is the indisputable truth that Publix had nothing whatsoever to do with any of it.

By Friday afternoon I had received over 100 “hit dogs” in my email and now I would need twice the capacity of our world-renowned McKamey Animal Center had each email I received needed to be groomed and fed.

Of the responses, an easy 80 percent were favorable and of the 20 percent that were not, maybe a fourth of those included profanity, mostly using the filth as verbs, and some instructing “Keep your Trump-loving a** in Tennessee!”

Please, in no way could the loud losers take away from Publix' most enviable shine. Many current and former employees left no doubt of their love for the company and its leadership and it wasn’t lost on me that most of the employees don’t think of themselves as “associates,” which is the official lingo for any one of the nearly 200,000 who own the company but – far better – as “members of the Publix family.”

It took a while for the negative letters to begin … the word has got to get around, you know what I mean, when it comes to distinctly minor groups. These bottom-dwellers are so typical of those who revel in hatred and are heavy in the ranks of The Legion of the Miserable.  They are so desperate to create chaos and yearn to appear united in their stance; they actually believe their antics are the only way to attract more dreaded fruit flies to the land of orange groves and spring vacation.

This time the malcontents came up with a cockamamie scheme that is such a reach no shortstop in major league baseball could dare try to handle it.

Try to connect the dots: One of Florida’s most glorious philanthropists is the youngest daughter of Publix founder “Mr. George” Jenkins, the widely respected Julie Fancelli. Now, if you could list all of the civic, Christian, and humanitarian causes that Mr. George’s seven of his offspring have made to better the people in the USA, and then convert it to cash, you could buy the state of Florida’s Panhandle or, all the land in the state of Georgia 50 miles south of Atlanta.

Suddenly, the only place the rabble-rousers could find to put this otherwise unusable rage over the Capitol attack was trying to connect it to Julia (Julie) Jenkins Fancelli. The shameless Republicans had begged her to donate $300,000 for Trump’s final rally, which she, a staunch conservative, did although the Trump regime was over. Face it, Trump’s final hoorah wasn't anything and the Repub’s were far out of line in begging Fancelli to get her hands dirty. She won’t forget she was used like a tattered dishcloth.

Trump was acting horribly by then and we are all eager to find out what evil forces are behind the desecration by out-of-control “proud boys” or whatever name they carry. Actually, they are best described as cowards. They are, in fact, criminals. I am quite convinced that the shirtless dandy wearing the horns head-dress didn’t just happen to be in the neighborhood. Along with other headliners I am equally assured the lot of the scum are paid activists, I believe Mrs. Fancelli was just as aghast as the rest of us when the well-rehearsed attack took place.

In short, neither Publix nor the Jenkins family had anything to do with any such defilement. Any clear-headed American can readily see that. I even believe Mrs. Fancelli would agree like the rest of us with the judge last week who ruled all of those who stormed our government building in early January should stay in jail until their actual trials will determine their freedom.

Mrs. Fancelli has no connection to the grocery chain any longer and hasn’t for years. She runs the family’s Foundation and, because it espouses many things that the liberal elite does not (Jesus, is a great example), but the only route the riffraff could find for vengeance and photo ops was to boycott the many stores across Florida, despite the fact there isn’t the most miniscule thread of evidence to support the claim.

Not only is this pseudo boycott being cleverly managed by Democrats, it is ironically in the same way the January attack was planned, created, and played as if by script. Only this time it is not only a too-long reach, it is a great big lie. Not even one email that I received defended the actual boycott. That’s because to even attempt to do so is impossible, I assure you: totally in vain.

I wrote “Publix could care less” and I received a pile of emails that stated, no, the proper English is “Publix couldn’t care less.” While it looks and sounds to me the two phrases are one and the same, I’ll happily do it your way the next time.

Many of the emails of support decried the far-fetching bullying and some wondered if ours is a nation so eager for the return of decency, isn’t it time that those who perpetuate such endless havoc should be held accountable?

I am a strong proponent of Freedom of Speech but when the actions of those who hide behind the Constitution infringe on the totally innocent, then look out! I believe there is valid reason to sniff out those who are responsible for raw and pure slander and hold them accountable for all the world to see.

I do not believe President Biden, our Supreme Court, our Department of Justice, and/or our FBI should allow such wanton disrespect of decency, this based on totally false claims.

Further, I do not believe Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the state’s Attorney General Ashley Moody, or the State Legislature should sit on their hands when one of Florida’s most glittering jewels, based in Lakeland, Fla., and contributing many more millions to the state’s tax roles as well as the citizens’ most urgent needs through the Jenkins family’s foundation, is being grossly maligned without any reason nor evidence for cause.

Guess what? I have a treasure trove of email that will attest to Publix’s magnificent worth in the State of Florida. I also have a pile of emails from the state’s ‘Legion of the Miserable’, Attorney General Moody, that more than affirms the need that you publicly identify and prosecute these bogus liars in the state’s courts.

You are sworn to represent the total innocence of Floridians who have been wrongly accused and presented in public by such heretofore unchallenged lies. I believe, quite strongly, that you and Gov. DeSantis are horribly derelict in duty if you cannot or if you refuse to afford the Publix family the same courtesies and the promised protections either of you would not hesitate to extend to your own mothers.

Gov. DeSantis and AG Moody, I implore you: Find a hurt and heal it. Really. Dealing with evil is that simple. It is plumb easy to do what you know is right. It will make you proud, I promise you, and let’s resolve the State of Florida may never again be the cradle of absolutely total falsehoods.

Show the goodness not to me, but to those in the Sunshine State who share the belief in that so much of the good for which they yearn, they used their personal vote in the belief you would provide for them. That’s a tall order, yes it is, but don’t look at it as such. Instead, they embraced your promise with their vote. What is it you offer in return?

Thank you. Please address this cancer, this with my most heartfelt thanks. Make Florida matter.

Selah.

royexum@aol.com

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