A letter to Starbucks

In light of the recent news about Starbucks, including the image on Facebook where a child is right next to people carrying huge guns, pictured here, I just sent off this letter to Starbucks' web page, through Customer Service. Here is what I wrote. Feel free to share, and write your own letter too.



Dear Starbucks,

I have always been a Starbucks lover--I own mugs, love the coffee, love the fall drinks. Starbucks has always been like coming home to me. I love the scents, the friendly people, the chairs... everything. My friends and family have teased me for this. I even wrote a blog post where I longed for your PSL, last summer. http://lifeandacupoftea.blogspot.se/2012/08/fall-friends-home-and-pumpkin.html 

But I am shocked, saddened, even OUTRAGED at the way that Starbucks has changed, to become a cowardly company refusing to simply take a stand against violence, by hanging "No Guns Allowed in Starbucks" signs. By "following local laws" and allowing guns in your stores, you actually take no ethical stand.
I have seen--and the word is SPREADING--that you are even allowing open gun rallies in your stores. Have you seen the image on the news, from a Starbucks, with a little baby in a stroller next to men in jeans, all carrying huge weapons?  If you haven't, trust me--I have. I have shared it on Facebook and it is going viral! A little baby, in a stroller, suddenly met by such a show of violence.

What has become of my beloved Starbucks? :(

As a mother, as a citizen, as a person with a brain, I find this disgusting, and I am starting to wonder: how much is Starbucks being paid off by the NRA? Why else would you allow gun rallies in your company, a company where women, men, students, tourists, elderly, and children are also welcome?

Change! Change now! So I can go back to loving my Starbucks. :(

Sincerely,
Rachel Stenback

A postcard from 1924

Recently we were invited to have lunch at my father's cousin's house in Dalarna. (One great thing about having company is that we are also invited out for meals and "fika" more often!) After lunch at Tralla and Lisa's we went out to look at the old house in the yard, the house where my paternal grandfather, Oscar Westhed, was born in the year 1900. There we found a postcard which Oscar sent home to his family in Skålö, Dalarna, to say that all was well after they had emigrated to the United States. I loved holding the card, and as always I love looking at the handwriting. Of course I also loved looking at the image of the magnificent ship that had carried my grandfather over the seas. I wish there were more pictures from the ship, and more personal stories. What was the journey like? What were its passengers thinking, and which dreams did they have? Once they were halfway across the ocean, did some suddenly regret their decision?

Here are the pictures I took of the postcard. Do these images set your mind to work as well?

The postcard says: "Dear home, all is well. Kalle and I are together here in northern Wisconsin. Will write again after I have an address. Best wishes to all of you, Oscar and Kalle."