To whom
it may concern:
I am writing to you
as a former Wal-Mart customer.
Yesterday I went
to a department store and bought some items I have in the past frequently
purchased at Wal-Mart for about $20. I paid about $27 at the other
store, and I was glad to pay the extra $7 in order to not do business with
Wal-Mart.
I daily keep up with
the issue of Wal-Mart and Maurice Bessinger. I have emailed Wal-Mart
my protest against removing his barbecue sauce from your stores, and I
received the same insulting nonreply you have sent to numerous others:
The decision
to discontinue Maurice's barbeque sauce never had to do with the Confederate
Flag. The decision was initially based on the fact that the supplier is
the center of a controversy and we didn't want that to get in the way of
our ability to care for our members. After an evaluation of this supplier
we decided that we do not want to continue doing business with them. We
are in the process of removing the product from both Sams and Wal-Mart...
First, the "controversy"
surrounding Mr. Bessinger is made up. Second, even if it were real,
your nonreply does not explain how doing business with a controversial
supplier "gets in the way" of your ability to care for your members.
This, also, is made up.
Another response
letter from your company circulating around the Internet contains this:
Wal-Mart
and SAM'S Club found that Mr. Bessinger's company is distributing materials
that are contrary to one of our core principles, respect for the individual.
In fact, the following
is a direct excerpt from "Biblical View of Slavery," a message by Pastor
John Weaver that is distributed by Maurice Bessinger in some of his restaurants:
"I am going to
show you not only biblically, but historically how especially many of those
African slaves blessed the Lord for allowing them to be enslaved and sent
to America. Because what they had over here was far better than what they
had over there."
First, neither this
passage nor Mr. Bessinger's distribution of it must necessarily be contrary
to anyone's respect for any other individual. In fact, it is the
very same idea expressed by Booker T. Washington, himself a former slave,
an educator and one of the greatest African-American leaders of his day.
Washington wrote, "...the ten million Negroes inhabiting this country,
who themselves or whose ancestors went through the school of American slavery,
are in a stronger and more hopeful condition, materially, intellectually,
morally, and religiously, than is true of an equal number of black people
in any other portion of the globe."
Second, your stores
sell books, magazines, CDs, videos and other items that show far more disrespect
for individuals than these two sentences by Weaver.
Third, Wal-Mart sells
inferior junk made by slave labor in communist China, evidently without
a qualm of conscience over the hopeless and wretched lives of the laborers
-- who are individuals, each and every one.
"It is not about
the Confederate flag," you say, and you are absolutely right. It's
about a giant corporation economically oppressing a small businessman in
America and trying to ruin him on the basis of some imaginary moral outrage
you claim to have but do not practice.
That makes you supreme
hypocrites.
What I would like
to know is why you have joined in the planned, concerted and well-financed
assault on Southern heritage -- which this attack on Mr. Bessinger is part
of -- when your Southern customers and workers have played such a crucial
role in your corporate success.
Is it simple greed?
Or are you being coerced?
In either case, I
will cease to do business with any Wal-Mart store or Sam's Club until Mr.
Bessinger's products are returned to your shelves and an apology to him
is issued. Moreover, I will strongly encourage my family, friends,
co-workers, and acquaintences to do the same. I will write letters
to the editor to newspapers, small and large, across the South, reporting
this outrage to others. I will phone radio and television talk shows
and I will use the Internet to spread the word about Wal-Mart's unAmerican
business practices. I will take part in peaceful, legal protests
and demonstrations in front of your stores. And I will keep it up
for as long as it takes.
You made a mistake.
Do the right thing -- admit it and correct it.
Sincerely,
Connie Ward
