Deck the halls with boughs of red cups…Oh, is that not how the song goes? With all the talk of the infamous red cups, you might think that the point of Christmas had something to do with the cup that you drink your coffee out of.
If you were living under a rock this past month, let me fill you in a bit. On November 5, 2015, an evangelist named Joshua Feuerstein put a video online that accused Starbucks of contributing to the “war on Christmas” that somehow comes up every year. He said that because the cups were plain this year instead of having some sort of Christmas decoration like snowflakes or reindeers,Starbucks obviously hates Christmas.
This guy has been pinpointed as the start of this issue, but others soon joined in. Feuerstein’s page, which has 1.8 million likes on Facebook, was flooded with support and agreement. Many of his fans proclaimed to be of the Christian faith and said that this monstrosity was oppressing their religion, because Christmas is a “Christian holiday.” But that’s a whole other topic for a different day.
Just about every news avenue from Snapchat to The Today Show had something to say about these Starbucks red cups. These cups caused a social media uproar. It is all anyone could talk about.
There are clearly a lot of problems with this situation, but there are two issues that stick out.
One. Why are you talking so much about something that you have literally no control or say over whatsoever? Starbucks is a dynamite company that has been leading in sales for a long time. According to Statista, Starbucks’ revenue for 2014 was 16.45 billion. That striking number does not even compare to its competition like Dunkin’ (0.75 billion) and Tim Horton’s (3.16). Starbucks is clearly at the top.
Do you think that you complaining about the décor of holiday cups is even going to put a dent in Starbucks? Absolutely not. Are you still going to spend five bucks on a latte and enjoy it in that plain red cup? Absolutely.
Secondly, do we really live in a world where the most important thing that we have to talk about is the color of a cup that holds our coffee? Is that what we choose to stand for and argue against? That makes sense, because there’s nothing else going on in our world today that needs to be talked about.
Wait a minute. Don’t we have an election coming up in the near future? Oh, we do, don’t we. Maybe there are some policies and issues that we could be talking about.
You know what, isn’t there a refugee crisis going on? Maybe we could use our voice to talk about the people who do not have homes and are being denied access to safety.
But maybe that thinking is too big for you. How about just having an intelligent conversation about what is going on in your community? Is there not an overwhelming number of homeless people in your city?
Good discussions and healthy division can bring about change in the world we live in. It is necessary. But complaining about a disposable cup is not necessary, and it is, frankly, ridiculous. For the love of all things in this world, be better than the red cup.
