We are shareholders of brand America

We are shareholders of brand America^TM. It is our brand and our reputation.

How proud we were of brand America^TM.  The brand name on any product we produced set it apart from all others.  We were proud of brand America^TM and all that it stood for.  Our products were not perfect, but they were always improving.  When a product was defective, we owned up to it and vowed to do better!  Never satisfied with the status quo, we always demanded better of ourselves and everything brand America^TM produced.  Most of all, we took pride in the fact that our most cherished and sought after brand America^TM products such as liberty, freedom of speech, voting rights, and protection of civil liberties, were available and affordable to all.

Seven years ago, brand America^TM was hi-jacked by a band of counterfeiters.  They have robbed the company coffers, gutted the warehouse, and sold the contents on the black market.  These interlopers refuse to provide the resources to produce quality brand America^TM products.  They exploit the employees and treat their customers with disdain.

To be sure, the American flag is slapped on all brand America^TM products.  Indeed, the products are wrapped in the American flag.  The counterfeiters still advertise “Buy American!”  They point to brand America^TM‘s “Glory Days” and the new management proclaims our stock is still the most sought after stock in the world.  But the reality is brand America^TM‘s most sought-after products are now only “genuine imitation”.  And its most infamous products are produced and showcased by slave labor in third world countries, by prisoners in Abu Ghraib, and by “enemy combatants” in Guantanamo Bay.

The new management is obsessed with the idea of “perceived quality” while having no regard for genuine quality.  Concerned, loyal, life-long employees objecting to the handling of brand America^TM are vilified, accused of working for the enemy, and quickly find themselves without a job.  Customers who complain that brand America^TM products no longer function as advertised are ridiculed, labeled traitors to the brand, and threatened with lawsuits.  Reports by consumer groups, critical of the quality and availability of brand America^TM products, are suppressed.  Paid marketers and consultants, posing as grateful and enthusiastic customers, flood the Sunday talk shows touting the wonders of the “new and improved” products now available from brand America^TM.

Too many Americans eagerly buy the counterfeit brand America^TM products at top dollar, proclaiming the changes to the brand are absolutely necessary in these times of uncertainty.  They are adamant that this is no time for criticism.  Criticism is un-American and will destroy the integrity of brand America^TM!  To them, protection of brand America^TM is wholly dependent on shielding it from any and all critics.  The problem is not with the new brand America^TM products or its new management, but with the critics.

What will be the future of our brand, America?  It is our brand and our reputation.