The Wa*-*art Solution

I love coal at Slippery Rock University.

We had a great question was submitted in reaction to an earlier post where a friend bashed Wa*-*rt (see Speak of the Devil, April 26, 2010).
Anonymous says... "I understand how you define the problem of F-Walmart. My question is WHAT IS YOUR SOLUTION? National legislation to ban f-Walmart IN THE USA? A world government with a higher minimum wage? Problems ,inequities abound in a broken world..what do you propose we do about it?"

I've consulted the author of the posted topic. Our views are similar, but mine always seem a bit more extreme. The good lord knows that people have been fighting the negative environmental externalities of big corporations. Our solutions will not likely flip the coin in our favor, but in the meantime, there are those people who can feel that their hand gets burned when they touch the hot stove and continue to touch it, and there are those who feel it, and stop.

A solution from us is to raise awareness so people think twice before shopping there. For a human being to invest in a product that is contributing to so much hardship with our friends near and far, would be an insane behavior. Only a ‘sick’ individual would knowingly buy something that promotes human injustice. Knowledge is power. Once an individual has the privilege to be aware of a problem, then they have the responsibility to act.

---An ongoing personal debate has been on how to make a great change. Top-down or Bottom-up? Such as toward a clean energy, non-polluting transition from our current finite, non-renewable climate causing resources. Knowing that the Climate crisis issue is real and is impacting those in vulnerable areas all over the world, I am willing to invest and change my source of energy from coal fired electricity to PV solar electric. For 10 months I lived off of the electric grid. I was only doing what I thought was right and available. But my neighbor, is not as willing to make the investment and sacrifices in daily life as I had.

This debate has been on how to make the change. The individual must want to change. In this case the person must genuinely care. So this answer is about changing the human conscience. My opposition to this is that for 40 years, or many more, our government has known that our current track is not healthy for the future of the planet. I have been educated since 1^st grade that there is a difference between renewable and non-renewable resources, that fossil fuels are a finite deposit.

It is so hard to do the right thing, It was my choice to invest in clean energy over coal fired electricity. this shouldn’t be a choice, the energy should just be clean and non-polluting. My stance is that it is my local, state and national government’s job to take care of me and my family. I question the government for not taking action at wars pace on this issue.

We are relating this to the issues at hand with corporations such as wa***art. Why does injustice exist? Because I am letting them get away with it. Why is my home community still dependent on fossil fuels for transportation and coal fired electricity? Because I am letting them when I don’t do anything. We, the people, have the responsibility to gather into interest groups and influence policy making.

-We could write to our Congresswoman, and if enough people do, she would feel that if she failed to address the problem that she would lose her seat. We could tell her that our communities are suffering and as our representative she should take the initiative to end that.

-We could ask wa***art for donations for a good cause and then use it to support their own sweatshop workers

Lets make a wildly popular children's series that makes the next generation attached to third world people and their needs and grows up seeing corporation in the same way the baby boomer population viewed communism as a threat to our own security. In fifty years time Americans can be a changed people but the time it will take will still cost suffering but you have to start somewhere.

Instead of teaching kids to feel fortunate to live here, they need to feel and obligation to make sacrifices to bring fortune and human rights to people who need it more. Churches could be doing this; converting Americans to be aware and caring about all people of earth, not just Americans. Americans could make a big difference

Lately I've been eating so much junk food from the Slippery Rock Rite-Aid dumpster. I found an additional junk food supplement of cookies and doritos to compensate my diet. Am still working on the bag of carrots kyle found in the trash.