Staff Reports
An elderly Target employee in Chico, California was filmed and widely circulated online after a customer aggressively confronted her over a red “Freedom” shirt associated with conservative activist Charlie Kirk, sparking outrage across social media. The short clip shows the worker trying to defuse the situation as the confrontation escalated into name-calling and shouting, and the video has drawn millions of views as Americans watched a quiet scene of work turn into a national story.
Internet sleuths quickly identified the woman doing the filming as Michelea Ponce, reportedly an employee at Enloe Health, and the video shows her berating the older Target worker while demanding managerial intervention. The woman behind the phone repeatedly accused the employee of supporting a “racist” and used profane language to intimidate and shame someone simply doing her job, a modern-day public shaming captured for the mob.
Enloe Health has publicly acknowledged that the post originated from a personal account of one of its workers and said it is deeply concerned, while the Chico Police Department confirmed it is actively investigating the incident. The hospital warned that the backlash had overwhelmed its phone lines and called for civility as it sorts out personnel and legal implications — a reminder that viral outrage carries real consequences beyond social media.
Patriotic Americans responded the way decent people do: by rallying to the side of a calm, elderly woman who answered abuse with grace. Crowdfunds on GiveSendGo and GoFundMe launched to help “Jeanie from Target” recover from the viral onslaught have drawn tens of thousands of dollars and climbed into six-figure territory as conservatives and everyday citizens step up to repay decency with generosity.
When asked if she wanted the woman who filmed her punished or fired, Jeanie refused to see another person lose their livelihood, saying, in words that should shame the mob, that “two wrongs don’t make a right.” Her composure and mercy should be a lesson to a culture that too often rushes to cancel and destroy rather than to forgive and move on.
This dust-up didn’t happen in a vacuum — it comes on the heels of a year marked by real, horrific political violence, including the assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk in September, which has left the right understandably sensitive to public attacks on conservative figures and symbols. The targeting of someone for wearing a shirt honoring a conservative voice is symptomatic of a nation still struggling with how to disagree without demonizing neighbors or weaponizing workplaces.
Conservative Americans should call out this behavior loudly: public shaming and workplace intimidation over politics are the tools of the left’s cancel machine, and they succeed only when decent people stay silent. We should applaud the millions who rallied to protect an elderly worker, reject the vicious mob instinct, and insist that respect for free speech and common decency be nonnegotiable in our communities.
If you believe in standing up for neighbors, for the right to wear a shirt without being assaulted verbally, and for defending the dignity of the elderly, now is the time to act. Support your local workers, speak out against public harassment, and make it clear that America rewards courage and kindness, not cruelty and cancel culture.
