Wal-Mart Strikes Again

[vern_humphrey]

(I ask the Moderator’s pardon. This is a story or letter I wrote to my local paper, and it isn’t posted on the internet. I do think it has value, given some of the comments that have been made here about Wal-Mart.)

Wal-Mart Strikes Again

On Tuesday, February 5th, Super Tuesday, I was stationed in the Stone County Clerk’s office in Mountain View, Arkansas. I am a County Election Commissioner, and my duty was to supervise the primary election. My wife is Assistant Director of Nursing at the local nursing home.

We had warnings of storms and tornadoes. Late in the afternoon, we heard that the town of Clinton, about 25 miles to the southwest, had been hit by a tornado. Then we heard other towns, closer to us had been hit. At 6:00 PM I directed poll workers to lock down the precincts and evacuate, and to return after the storm had passed.

At 6:30 PM, the tornado tore through the eastern part Mountain View. All the electric power in the county went out. Cell phone signals were lost. We retained landline communication with most of the county, but could not make long distance calls, nor could we contact the eastern section of the county.

Before dawn, serious aid arrived – in the form of Wal-Mart trucks. They had been tracking the storm, and without us asking, they sent us a semi-trailer with a generator, which powered up the Murphy gas station – for a week, until power was restored, the only gas station in the county. They got power to the Super Wal-Mart. They trucked in just what we needed – batteries, lights, canned goods and survival supplies. For a while, they were the only place where anyone could get a meal in the county – and many people had no means of cooking for themselves.

They even provided us communications – the Wal-Mart public address system continuously informed shoppers of the location of shelters, other meal sites, and where volunteers were needed.

Wal-Mart was a great aid to us in our week of need. Thank you Wal-Mart.

 

[roanoker]

WalMart has responded similarly to several natural disasters, including the Katrina hurricane. They’re way ahead of the govt., it seems. They do this for nothing, and get very little press praise, if any. They seem to anticipate major needs. Too bad they’re condemned as a evil organization…roanoker

 

[aurora77]

That’s wonderful! I love hearing stories like that.

Vern, I hope you won’t find this creepy, but I thought of you while watching the local news that evening. I’m in MO, just north of the border, so we heard all about the devastation down there. I’m glad to hear that you’re all right.

 

[vern_humphrey]

That’s wonderful! I love hearing stories like that.

Vern, I hope you won’t find this creepy, but I thought of you while watching the local news that evening. I’m in MO, just north of the border, so we heard all about the devastation down there. I’m glad to hear that you’re all right.

Thanks for the good thoughts. You ought to see this place. It looks like a giant weed-whacker cleared a 123 mile lane through the state.

We were fortunate in one respect – we had only one fatality (and no injuries at all, thankfully, in the polling places.)

 

[manualman]

So, they hear of a disaster and instantly roll in needed supplies and generators to power crucial facilities. Whole town is dark, except for Walmart and the gas station needed to drive to it.

Everybody needs supplies and there is ONE place in town to go and buy them. Sounds like a pretty smart business move as well as meeting a legitimate need.

I’m not always a Wally fan, but I’ll grant win-win status to this round.

 

[dessert]

I worked for wally world and it isn’t so much the company but the people. They are everyday folks not making much money but have been thru hard times themselves and know and under stand.
It was usually the workers that would go to the supers and say hey I have a bro living in that town can he come here and camp in his rv for a couple hours at the lot or can we change a tire out in the lot or jumpstart a friends car. The supers would be glad to help if we asked. They just don’t pay very well but will give anyone a chance at a job. They can be understanding and be of goodwill.

 

[roanoker]

ManualMan, they GIVE AWAY tons of needed stuff to the local communities-up to and including generators larger than they even sell! They procure them from other souces at their own expense and send them in. That goes for a lot of other items, too. I think its distasteful to trash someone who is doing good in the face of a tradgedy. Did you drive down there with a car full of generators to give away? I didn’t think so. Give credit where credit is due…Roanoker

 

[Dwyer]

Sorry, Wal-Mart:

I’m not going to shop at a store that sells abortion pills at their pharmacies, and, in my opinion, give some lame excuse that Planned Parenthood forced them to do it because they sued the company, even though according to Fortune magazine (Oh, where is that issue, somewhere around here), in 2007 they were the wealthiest company in American with over 200 billion U.S. dollars in revenue.

In my opinion, that is just the biggest wimp out I’ve ever heard of.

But they sure defend themselves and even** pursue an Appeal** when their female employees file a sexual discrimination suit against them.

And Wal-Mart funds the Tavis Smiley show from Los Angeles on American PBS (Public Broadcasting System); Mr. Smiley is a good interviewer, but his show, in my opinion, is very left wing on both social and political issues.

Just turn your TV on tonight or whenever PBS runs the show in your area, and Wal-Mart runs an ad at the begiining and end of the program saying they support the Tavis Smiley Show.

Wal-Mart has a P.R. (public relations) department. They’re a coroporation that wants your money.

My opinion is Wal-Mart does not mention how many abortion pills they sell and how many American human lives they’ve helped extinguish and destroy every week.

In my opinion, if Wal-Mart really cared about human life and helping people, they would have at least put up a legal fight against the pro-aborts.

I commend Wal-Mart for helping these people in need.

In my opinion, that doesn’t whitewash Wal-Mart selling of the abortion pill. In my opinion, this is a publicity stunt so you will think good about Wal-Mart.

I’ll try and find that issue of Fortune and get the exact info.

Sorry, I’m not going to spend oodles of time answering your expected criticism until we reach page 40 of the thread.

You, reader, will either understand the point I’m trying to make or you won’t.

 

[Dwyer]

From an old post I made at the Catholic Answers Forum:

Wal-Mart defends itself in court and **Appeals **a decision involving alleged sexual discrimination against its own employees:

forbes.com/2004/06/23/cx_da_0623topnews.html

Well, Wal-Mart was sure more than willing to defend itself and spend mucho $$$ in legal bills against some of its female employees who claimed they were sexually discriminated against on the job.

According to the article cited above, Wal-Mart had $256,000,000,000 Billion dollars in sales in 2003.

That’s a pretty big chunk of change.

Wal-Mart, in my opinion, definitely has the financial resources to defend themselves against any lawsuit that anyone brings against them.

People go to court over something because they feel strongly about an issue.

Remember, Wal-Mart first said they wouldn’t sell the Plan B Death Pill.

lifesite.net/ldn/2007/apr/07041004.html

To have that amount of financial resources at one’s disposal, and not to use it to defend one’s company against lawsuits by disgruntled customers, and simply caving into their demands and saying, ok, we’ll sell it in every store, is, in my opinion, is an absolute wimp out.

(The phrase I am using, IMO, is a means of protecting myself against any potential libel suit for expressing my views; it might hamper my prose, but that is why I include it).

If you want to waste your time boycotting every company that has even a whiff of being against Catholic teaching, feel free. In my opinion, Wal-Mart does a much better job than most. I’m sure the Pro-Homosexual Marriage groups who are boycotting Wal-Mart right now because they won’t provide medical coverage to same-sex partners will appreciate your boycott adding to their efforts.

I am talking about more that “a whiff of being against Catholic teaching” here.

A whiff . . . a whiff . . ???

I guess my point is, and it doesn’t seem to be clicking with many of the readers of this thread, is that in my opinion, and according to Catholic moral teaching, the teaching of Jesus Christ, is that Wal-Mart is in the business of murdering human life.

This is steps beyond any immoral movie, video game, or anti-Catholic newspaper article; this involves actual life and death.

Life which is created in the likeness and image of God.

That’s what I’m talking about.

Wal-Mart made a business decision of their own free will to sell the Plan B Abortion Pill in all their stores. They went back on their original word not to sell the Plan B Death Pill.

Of course, not having the sales data, I can only speculate as to how many Plan B Abortion Pills that Wal-Mart sells a week. Nationwide, it could be hundreds, thousands of pills; I do not know.

Even if it was just a few pills they sold , that would be too many:

As the soul is created at the very moment of conception, anything willfully done which results in the death of even an unborn child is murder.

Bishop Louis Laravoire Morrow, S.T.D. (Doctor of Systematic Theology), from My Catholic Faith, 1958.

What is my moral obligation to research companies I do business with to find out if they fund/support/sell things that are morally objectionable?

I don’t know if the Church has written anything about this.

Of course, my entire focus here is really on this lethal product.

Life is the greatest good, so, as a human being, I am against anyone that sells Abortion pills on demand which destroy innocent human life.

I would say you should make some sort of effort, say a reasonable effort.

That would include perhaps calling, or going online the next time before you visit to see if the store’s pharmacy you shop at sells “Plan B Emergency Contraception,”

Then if they do sell it, try to find another store, if possible, that doesn’t deal in the Abortion Pill.

Try your best, especially since you shop there and are free to choose where you shop, unless you have some disability that affects your mobility or are feeble.

I mean, stores that sell immoral movies, magazines, and anti-Catholic newspapers whose anti-Catholic political cartoons mock Catholics, the Pope, and the Church are one thing, and are bad.

But that sort of stuff is distinguishable in a moral sense from stores that mass market death and murder and the destruction of innocent human life through their pharmacies.

That is just unadulterated evil.

 

[Dwyer]

³PBS is really excited to expand Tavis’ presence with our viewers and is looking forward to these prime time specials with the fresh perspective that he brings to all of his work,² said Jacoba Atlas, Sr. Vice President, PBS Programming.

³The Tavis Smiley Show² is produced by The Smiley Group Inc./Smiley Radio Properties Inc. in association with PRI. The radio show¹s underwriters include Wells Fargo, Kaiser Permanente and Allstate Insurance. ³Tavis Smiley² on PBS is produced by the The Smiley Group Inc./TS Media Inc. in association with KCET/Hollywood. Television underwriters include Wal-Mart, Toyota and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Wal-Mart was a general underwriter of NPR during 2004 (see the NYTimes article), donating $$ to NPR.

Wal-Mart has supported either the Tavis Smiley’s NPR Radio or PBS TV show since February, 2004:

nytimes.com/2004/08/16/business/16walmart.html?ei=5090&en=b38eb40a21d8cf1d&ex=1250308800&partner=rssuserland&pagewanted=print&position=

sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tavis_Smiley

If you want to see the sort of guests Tavis Smiley invites on the show, here’s the link:

pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/

This type of information I’m posting is also information that needs to be known by consumers, both non-Christian and Christian alike.

 

[manualman]

ManualMan, they GIVE AWAY tons of needed stuff to the local communities-up to and including generators larger than they even sell! They procure them from other souces at their own expense and send them in. That goes for a lot of other items, too. I think its distasteful to trash someone who is doing good in the face of a tradgedy. Did you drive down there with a car full of generators to give away? I didn’t think so. Give credit where credit is due…Roanoker

The OP said nothing about GIVING away said supplies. I can only comment on the info provided. As for what I do, its not supposed to be a bragging issue, is it?

I’m not a die hard Wally basher. But I’m not convinced that ANY corporate entity has anything but self-interest as its core mission. Privately owned business, maybe. Employee managers beholden to the regional VP and his quarterly profit report? Nope.

 

[roanoker]

Any corporation has a responsibility to its shareholders to try to make a profit. That’s what they’re in business for. As for pills, thousands of pharmacies in this country sell them. Bash them by name, too. I wish the abortion pill wasn’t for sale, but unfornately that cat is out of the bag and there’s no putting it back in, I’m afraid. Why single out Walmart? Roanoker

 

[vern_humphrey]

The OP said nothing about GIVING away said supplies. I can only comment on the info provided. As for what I do, its not supposed to be a bragging issue, is it?

I’m not a die hard Wally basher. But I’m not convinced that ANY corporate entity has anything but self-interest as its core mission. Privately owned business, maybe. Employee managers beholden to the regional VP and his quarterly profit report? Nope.

In point of fact, they did give away quite a bit. People who needed supplies, blankets and so on got them, whether they could pay or not. They fed people for free until other organizations could take over.

But let me point out that I got paid for the work I did recovering the voting machines, re-initializing them and getting them to print out, counting the paper ballots and so on.

My wife got paid for the 16-hour days she put in at the nursing home.

The police, state police, sheriff’s deputies, National Guard, and FEMA personnel got paid for their services.

Why shouldn’t Wal-Mart get paid?

The point of the story is they came to our aid, with just what we needed, and without being asked. The extra expenses for generators, trucks, overtime, etc, were** not** passed on to the consumer. They proved themselves a valuable asset in a time of need.