BANNING PACQUIAO AT THE GROVE IS FOOLISH
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 18 May 2012
?Based on news reports of statements made by Mr. Pacquiao, we have made it known that he is not welcome at The Grove and will not be interviewed here now or in the future. The Grove is a gathering place for all Angelinos and not a place for intolerance.?
The above is the official statements of the management people at The Grove, a rich upscale shopping mall in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles.
Such pronouncements are expected! The Grove is located at the fringes of West Hollywood, a popular gay oriented non-incorporated city in Los Angeles County. They would never dare alienate that very active issue-oriented community.
But, most importantly it could have been a politically motivated statement because the developer of The Grove, a local real estate billionaire named Rick Caruso is said to be aiming for the Mayor?s office of Los Angeles. He maybe just courting the ?gay vote.?
Theoretically, there is nothing wrong with that.
If the Caruso people think that making such pronouncements will help Caruso gain the gay voting block from West Hollywood, so be it.
But, what was awfully wrong as the timing of their statements
It was irresponsible to say the least!
The LA Times said it best:- ?The ban lead to a day of dueling statements, denunciations and backtracking.?
The Grove management immediately jumped on the band wagon condemning Filipino boxing idol, Manny Pacquiao for supposedly making statements that are detrimental to the gay community, ?an intolerant statement? so they claim.
They relied too much on news reports much of which were writer?s interpretation of the news article that started the whole brouhaha on the first place.
But as more details came to light, it was determined that Pacquiao never really said any of the words that were attributed to him. The writer of the article in question even said so in a follow-up story he wrote. On top of that Pacquiao himself came out to deny that he said those words.
With that, The Grove management was ?caught with their pants down.?
In an apparent haste to place themselves in a ?good? position and/or apparently appease a certain group of people, they immediately condemned Pacquiao and barred him from appearing at their property for an interview with Mario Lopez. that would have been shown on ?Extra?, an early evening TV show taped in LA.
I suspect their action was not really based on ?gay? issues per se. I also think it has nothing to do with ?tolerance? but given the socio-political implications of the issue, that was an opportune issue to hook on too.
In my opinion it was more of a political ploy. Score the points now and be rewarded with votes at a later date.
Latest news however indicates that they have since retracted their statements and are now once again allowing Pacquiao to step in their property.
Such action is however a little too late. The damage has been done!
The Grove has exposed their cards.
It seems they will do anything to look good in the eyes of the community without having the patience to verify without any doubt what-so-ever if issues they are dealing with are true or not.
The Grove management tried to err on the right side. But the actions exploded right on their faces.
They made a mistake worse than what the initial article of the issue ever did.
I wonder, do they even know the real Manny Pacquiao?
On the other side of the coin, are they even remotely aware how much shopping Jinky does at their mall? If they did, I am sure they would have thought far and deep before releasing those swift and far reaching statements regarding Pacquiao?s appearance at their mall.
It would not be a surprise if Jinky spends more money in that mall in one shopping spree than what an average shopper that lives in and around the community would spend in a year.
Further, are they aware how many Pacquiao fans they have alienated for taking a definitive side of the issue without carefully evaluating the facts?
Pacquiao with the kind heart that he has will surely just brush off what The Grove management did. That?s just him, a good man with a forgiving heart.
But, if I were Jinky Pacquiao, The Grove will never see a penny from me again.
I would shop elsewhere!
Yes, I will forgive, but I will never forget.
Hey Jinky, come to Woodland Hills. Our Malls are certainly no step down from The Grove. In fact, they may well be even better.
Part of The Groove shopping complex in Los Angeles.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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