Having recently sat through two meetings, one of which was a group of enviro-activists, in which someone pipes up with the serious suggestion that we let Wal*Mart play in our sandbox, I feel compelled to remind everyone what might be inappropriate about such a partnership.
It would be boring to cite the treatment of vendors and workers, illegal immigrant frame-ups and the displacement of local businesses across the country. I’m also over the giant’s attempt to “go organic” followed closely upon by its “local” campaign, somewhat sadly undertaken by field directors sent furtively to investigate just what this local-you-speak-of might be at farmers’ markets (!)
My chief complaint with Wal*Mart is that it undermines civilization. Witnessed less than a year ago on Long Island, the trampling of Wal*Mart employee Jdimytai Damour, 34, early on the morning of Black Friday, that spectator sport of American consumerism; as well as this week’s baby-slapping by a complete stranger in a Georgia Wal*Mart. He has been charged with felony cruelty to children. What does it say about a place in which such sociopathic behavior can occur in different areas of the country? The cheapening of material goods without regard to how they arrived on the shelves; the implicit suggestion that big-box retail, because of its ability to offer the lowest prices (Always!), has the right to run generations-old businesses out of town; all ultimately reduces customers to animals.
Would people ever turn up in droves like this, before sunrise, to help their neighbors? Possibly, if a hurricane or other natural disaster were at hand. But to me, this images holds a mirror to our culture. What if we were caught on camera every Nov. 28 or so standing in line to serve the poor? Would we still feel a void so great we thought we could fill it with all this STUFF?
