The following is an email that I sent to Google in response to them choosing artist/activist Yuri Kochiyama for today’s Google Doodle on the main Google page.
I realize that Google Doodles are sometimes meant to cause us to think. That’s a good thing. But today’s Google Doodle honoring Yuri Kochiyama was way too much. I “Googled” her and found this in Wikipedia:
In response to the United States’ actions following the September 11 attacks in 2001, Kochiyama stated that “it’s important we all understand that the main terrorist and the main enemy of the world’s people is the U.S. government” and that “the goal of the war [on terrorism] is more than just getting oil and fuel. The United States is intent on taking over the world.”
While the United States has certainly made mistakes and there are certainly different views about our role in the world, I consider honoring this “activist” to be a grave dishonor and a slap in the face to those who died on 9/11, first responders, and those who serve in our United States armed forces.
Over the last two weeks, there has been extensive media coverage about an anti-conservative bias in the tech world. While I had been somewhat skeptical of this, your decision to “honor” this far-left, anti-American activist is certainly evidence of at least a cognitive disconnect with many Americans, especially those who hold conservative or libertarian values.
To me, Google is a source of information. I expect an information source to be an honest broker of such information or, at the very least, to disclose its biases. Today, Google let me down. And that’s something that’s let me down.
Very truly yours,
Wes Ogilvie
I could go on and on here, but suffice it to say that I think it’s bad business to take an unnecessary political stand that pokes many of your customers right in the eye. Rather than an attempt to be hip, edgy, or thought-provoking, this decision shows the disdain that many in the cultural left have for anyone in “flyover country.” These tech hipsters share their progressive views where the tech industry gets government subsidies while wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt and “Feeling the Bern.” It always strikes me that many of the people who are the loudest about the wrongs in America are among those who benefit the most from what makes America great — namely free enterprise supported by the values enshrined in our United States Constitution.
In summation, you’d never have a Google, Apple, Facebook, Dell, the New York Times, or even the movie industry in anyplace but America. And as the late great Merle Haggard sang, “If you don’t love it, leave it. Let this song I’m singing be your warning.”
