Posted on 11/01/2006 4:19:04 AM PST by Man50D
Sam Walton's original stores wouldn't even sell recorded music if it contained profanity and Janet Baird was happy working hard to make the company money, setting up and managing wedding fairs and other promotions, and won awards for her efforts.
She and her husband even married at one of the store's events.
But no more. The Ohio woman, after hearing the shocking confirmation directly from the mega-corporation's international headquarters that the company is, in fact, contributing to the financial and moral agenda of the nation's "gay" chamber of commerce, she quit. And she's not a bit worried.
"I got God backing me. That's where I stand on it," she told WND in an interview.
Baird had worked for the corporation, in various branches including Sam's Club and Wal-Mart, since 1992. It was a recent tip she received from her brother that was the beginning of the end, because he told her "my company had joined the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce."
It was during an interview with WND in August that Wal-Mart spokesman Bob McAdam said, "It is correct that we have a dialogue with the (gay chamber). This is just what businesses do."
"Sam Walton was such a moral man, he wouldn't even allow music to be sold in his stores if it had bad language," Baird said. "When it comes to moral values, first of all they started selling smutty magazines, then they brought in nasty music and videos, even ones others refused to sell, like 'Brokeback Mountain.'"
Now this comes along. "I sent an e-mail (to the company) asking, 'What have you done to Sam Walton's store?" Baird said.
McAdam had told WND the move was just another business outreach, much as the company's affiliations with other chambers of commerce, such as the Hispanic organization.
But to Baird, it wasn't the same. She called the corporate office for its response. "The lady said, 'Yes.' When I asked if the money I spent shopping at Wal-Mart would go to support same-sex marriage, she simply responded, 'Sales are sales.'"
"I let her know how long I had worked at Wal-Mart and told her that I would no longer work for this company and never spend another dime there. She replied, 'I hope you don't mean that.' I did mean it. The next day I went to the store and quit. The manager that signed my exit papers had no idea about what had been going on in the leadership of Wal-Mart."
Now she's staging protests in front of that store, and others nearby, to let people know of the company's affiliations and commitments.
She said a large part of her years-long commitment to the company was because of the original core values the company exemplified.
"I began working with Sam's Club in 1992. Mr. Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart Stores, had recently passed away. The more I learned about this man the more I wanted to do what I could to make this an ever better place to work.
"I worked in marketing and put together the first wedding expo. This was a fund-raiser that allowed vendors to set up for a weekend and all the proceeds went to the Children's Miracle Network. It was a huge success," she said.
"This became a yearly event. I was so proud to work for this company. I was privileged to be the event coordinator for a number of Wal-Mart sponsored events and raised a lot of money in the community," she said.
One beneficiary was a young man named Luke Clemons. He was 18 and needed a liver transplant. "We managed to raise enough money for (the) transplant and start a Luke Clemons Foundation," Baird said. He survived four more years.
For that work, she was given a Member Service Award.
"This was not a job to me, it was a ministry given to me by God Himself to help His people in need and get paid for it at the same time," Baird said.
But things changed. "Today Wal-Mart is not the same company Mr. Sam started. I think he would rather see it go under than to see what it has become. Mr. Sam loved God – the store he began does not!" she said.
Her boycott is getting its start in front of the store where she used to work, on the Lexington Springmill Road in Ontario, and then at the nearby store in Mansfield, Ohio, and then will continue to other stores.
"As Christians we have to take a stand and get the word out because most people are not aware of what is happening," she said.
Her big boycott launch will be the Friday after Thanksgiving, November 24, she said, because that traditionally is the biggest single shopping day of the year.
"We will be joining all of you on the day after Thanksgiving … to bring the Gospel of Christ to the very gates of hell," she said.
She's replaced only part of the income she gave up by leaving Wal-Mart, by accepting a position in a physician's office.
When Wal-Mart initially confirmed the agreement to support the "gay" chamber, Tony Perkins, of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., immediately launched a citizens protest of the move.
It also was at that point that an advertising industry site, AdAge, confirmed Wal-Mart not only had joined the NGLCC but also has hired a "gay-marketing" shop and started discussions about extending domestic-partner benefits to employees.
In the AdAge report, Justin Nelson of the NGLCC described the company as "pragmatic."
"They have been viewed with some degree of skepticism by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community, and it's important for them in terms of gaining market share to change that," he told AdAge.
Perkins told supporters that the "heat" from the "radical left" apparently influenced the company's corporate decisions, and he wants constituents to let Wal-Mart know of their displeasure.
"While the NGLCC professes to promote the 'interests of the LGBT business community,' this is not all they have done," Perkins said. "Recently, they described efforts to defend traditional marriage as an attempt to 'write discrimination into the Constitution …' The NGLCC also advocated attaching a pro-homosexual 'hate crimes' amendment to legislation intended to protect children from violent sex offenders."
"It is unfortunate," Perkins said, "that Wal-Mart has joined forces with an organization whose mission opposes many of the values shared by rural and small-town America. It is precisely the interests of average Americans that Wal-Mart has prided itself in promoting.
"Now, by surrendering to the radical homosexual lobby, Wal-Mart has entered the political arena with no economic benefit to their company or their customers," he said.
While you have a point here re: consistency, (a) you don't know her spending track record, therefore your claim of omniscience at least in her case is a bit suspect; and (b) People tend to "localize" these things.
You could have a 100 radio stations airing Howard Stern clones, and people don't give a whip about any of them. But just put one of those Stern clones on a local station and look out! People will object (oops, sorry for "speech coding" that phrase...I guess standards are so foreign to you that any standard only brings to mind what the campus pc folks have been up to).
Oh, and BTW, while we're on the subject of both speech codes and consistency, I suppose since you're so big into consistency and you "object" to campus speech codes (oops, my, my, how I can't stop saying that word, "object") I suppose you've written not only the FCC about its airwave speech codes, but you've also written every campus that has a speech code, right?
(And if you haven't, I guess you'll have to apply your own standard to yourself: "I have no love for [campus speech codes] but I have no love for hypocrites either. Someone hating [campus administrators] that much makes no sense to me...")
Some folks have blinders on unintentionally. Some folks intentionally wear their blinders proudly (rainbow colors & all). Some folks just prefer to look the other way, and hope the groups militating against them will just go away.
But with Corp America's funding, that just won't be a reality. The formula is real simple: Consumers fund Corp America, which in turns funds political & social reengineering agendas. So, the bottom line is that the consumers pay the bills.
L98Fiero had a good point with an earlier post that a good chunkified portion of our tax $ goes to gay & lesbian organizations. Therefore, John and Jane Taxpayer foot those bills as well.
There's a bit more of a higher legal pricetag for choosing to boycott your government. Folks should at least take "babysteps" of exercising consumer choices where they have them before signing up for the Olympic events.
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I'm surprised the peice didn't describe her as a evangelical/findamenta creationist Republican.
Correct, and lest we forget, the ACLU too.
Normal and stable means for example careers such as nursing, architecture, the law, university faculty, etc.
Maybe I am mistaken in interpreting the earlier post as hate. My apologies if so. It helps to remember we are talking about real people who deserve compassion (regardless of whether you or I are right). So when I see posts that take a mocking tone, such as figured out exciting new uses for their pee pees (post 21), I don't appreciate it, even if it wasn't intended as hate. However, I see words like "fag" and "gerbiling" too often hereabouts.
I once saw a sermon by Joe Dallas, a well-known ex-gay minister, and he told his audience (a local megachurch congregation) that we should be welcoming and caring to homosexuals. (He said that we should still teach that it's sinful, that the Church shouldn't change its teachings, but he said that gay people aren't going to hear the Gospel if they are not welcome in our churches, or if they encounter hateful language there.) Now I do not agree with Rev. Dallas that homosexuality is always wrong, I believe it is moral in the context of committed, caring monogamous relationships. But I have deep respect for him and his position; I hope everyone can approach this issue with his sensitivity regardless of their beliefs.
By the way, there is such a thing as "gay and conservative". (Check out gaypatriot.org, for example.)
Good time to return to Main Street USA.
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I would estimate that I shop at Wal-mart once a year or year and a half. You're right, though. I can find another place to do business.
Please see post 69.
Butt pirates give me the creeps.....
Other sources claim that over 80 percent of the population is Christian. Christianity holds that homosexual behavior is sinful and should be avoided. This is a bit of a stretch. That is, I wouldn't be surprised if 80% self-identify as Christian, but only 40% or so go to church weekly. And many (liberal) Christians no longer believe that homosexuality is always sinful. Therefore, even if only half of those who are identified as Christian sincerely hold those beliefs, the proportion of the population that takes offense at homosexual agenda support from a major corporation is many times greater than the proportion you cite as homosexual. Logically, this is correct. But it's not just homosexuals that might be offended by an anti-gay policy. It's the 30-40% of the population that is distinctly liberal that would be offended. (Of course, this doesn't explain why Wal*Mart doesn't just ignore the issue entirely.)
I have a relative who claims to be a lesbian. Such does not make me sympathetic to her in any sense other than sincere regret for her choice and earnest hope for her reform. There is no reason to assume that the majority of others who have a relative in similar circumstances view the situation any differently. Naturally, not everyone has the same reaction to gay relatives, friends or colleagues that I have. Or you have. But public attitudes about gay people, particularly young people, have changed in the last decade or two. (Sorry, I don't have the numbers at hand, but the change is significant.)
Stating that position in the reverse, these companies would still have access to 98 percent of the available pool of qualified resources. True, I'll cede that point.
Conversely, those who are straight that you have already hired might be very offended and might bolt if you transmit the message that you support the homosexual agenda… to wit, the individual cited in the article posted at the beginning of this thread. Again true; but in the software/IT field, there's a strong libertarian or tolerant ethic. (My experience, at least.)
Amazingly enough, I do not ever recall asking any of my fellow instructors, my students, or the organization administrators about their sexual preference, nor do I recall them volunteering such information. No one volunteers such information until you start to deal with your colleagues on a social basis (probably more likely for resident faculty than for adjunct faculty). E.g., you receive an invitation to attend a Christmas open house from a gay couple one of whom is a colleague of yours. Colleges are often like small towns, people gossip, and you end up making friendships and drinking beer with your colleagues. It would seem that silence concerning such personal items was not only appropriate etiquette, but was also conducive to good working relationships. Can't argue with that.
I don’t think you realize how insulting and condescending your comments appear. No technical and creative people come from other sources than university environments? Oh my gosh, I didn't mean to say that. What I meant is that software people and the like tend to come from universities. But it's true that not all these folks come from university environments, one of my closest friends is a software engineer who is essentially self-taught, he's very talented. All of those who come from university environment have the same opinion concerning homosexual practitioners? Because you do not have a problem with this issue, no one should? Of course not everyone from my environment agrees with me, not everyone does not have a problem with the issue. But I do hope people will come around to my point of view. . .
I hope this clarifies my perspective. Thank you for taking the trouble to respond to my original post in such detail.
Remember "The PrinciPAL is our PAL!" principle?
And this nice lady showed real principle!
[n] a rule or standard especially of good behavior; "a man of principle"; "he will not violate his principles"
Janet Baird was happy working hard ... and won awards for her efforts...
Must be quite an Awakening - eh?
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