Please Help Me

I cried on my way home from Walmart today. I was so frustrated with myself for feeling and being so gutless. This is why. I was in the check out line with my sweet little one year old son and looked up to see this months special edition swimsuit issue of the Sports Illustrated that had a title of “Barely there Bikinis.” If you choose to imagine…the model on the cover wore a tiny pair of string bikini bottoms and no top; there was only a necklace thick enough to cover just the pink part of her nipple. I was furious that such a thing was aloud to be open to the public. Is this NOT called pornography? Do we not suffer through plenty of People magazine or whatever else issue of celebrities in skimpy dresses or low cut and midriff baring shirts? I determined to cover it up so I turned the magazine around only to find several girls with no tops on (their backs toward me) and boy-cut bottoms that happened to have their butt cheeks hanging out the bottoms. So I went on to take other magazines to cover this magazine up. I was actually grateful to see Nicole Richie holding her brand new little baby on the cover of People magazine and thought “what a HUGE difference between the purity of these two issues.” Or at least the cover of these two issues. So what do I do? I could (and should have) asked to see a manager and pleaded to have these put behind the same shelf as Playboy or Maxim or whatever other magazines there are that are tasteful (did I just say that of those two magazines?) enough to put a cover over the front that only shows the title of the magazine. I fought myself as I walked out of the store and rationalized that I had frozen foods that need to be put away or that I would be looked at as being ridiculous or that someone would think I was just jealous because I didn’t look as good PHYSICALLY as the woman on the magazine. I got in the car and called my husband and began to cry. Why? Because why in the world should I feel ridiculous or humiliated for sticking up for what is right? Why would I not look into the face of my beautiful little son who is going to be fighting hormone battles in a decade and say “I will do everything I can RIGHT NOW to make that battle a little easier for him?” And what about the battle for my four year old girl? Does this battle not include her? I think anyone with brains would scream a resounding YES!!!

So this is what I am going to do. I am going to make an effort when I go to Walmart, Target, Albertsons, Meijer, Smiths, Kroger, you name it. I’m quickly going to ask the manager to cover them up TODAY because I have a right to go to a store and not worry that my kids and myself are going to feel uncomfortable or degraded by a stupid picture on a magazine. Is it too hard to cover up? I’m guessing that will take all of about two minutes to five tops. Is that not worth the future of my kids? I am asking this of those who are willing. In your next church meeting…whatever religion or belief you have or are, if you are talking about an upcoming service project why not say “hey, let’s go to a few stores and as a group of men or women stand up for Jesus Christ and do what is right?” Aren’t we His disciples? Faith without works is dead, my friends. What if we each took 10 minutes and wrote a letter (and made copies) to send to different editors when we came across something that required a little action? Not bad for a church project to make a difference for our future and that of our posterity. It won’t take long!

This is a quote that I received today when I opened my email. It is from the late leader of my church, Gordon B. Hinckley:

"In my quiet moments, I think of the future with all of its wonderfulpossibilities and with all of its terrible temptations. I wonder what willhappen to you in the next 10 years. Where will you be? What will you bedoing? That will depend on the choices you make, some of which may seemunimportant at the time but which will have tremendousconsequences."