Read the Letter Walmart sent me

Write another letter, or have a friend, detailing how you tried to buy a rump roast at a WalMart and the cashier refused to ring it up. If they ask for details, take it from there as to whether to expose their double standards or play it out further and see how much rope you have before they completely hang themselves. Do you know anyone willing to get hired and who will then refuse to sell any animal byproducts because of their convictions? It looks like if they will do that and then have the time to spend waiting, there's a possible lawsuit in the making. WalMart appears to be setting themselves up when they allow their employees to make these kind of choices, but if they are indeed doing that, take full advantage of it. If anyone even knows someone who works at a WalMart!

Here's an idea:
Get yourself hired at walmart as a cashier, then refuse to sell cigarettes to customers. Be helpful, tell the customers they can go down the street to Fred Meyer's and get them there. When you get fired, cite the policy mentioned above and ask to be reinstated.

Wal-Mart is one of the biggest corporate contributors to Bush and the Republican Party. They have a long record of employment discrimination, union busting, low wages, political conservatism, carrying sweatshop products, driving small businesses out of business- I can't think of anything good to say about Wal-Mart. So, go ahead and let them know how you feel about their policies- just don't shop there.

one of the great things about u.s. law is that it's generally illegal to discriminate against someone because of their religious beliefs. for example, someone who wants a day off because it is a holy day in their religion can get that off and, in theory, not face problems in their workplace because of it. i've taken advantage of that before with employers. the exact holiday and my exact religion are not important to discuss here, but suffice it to say that there's a particular religious holiday i have observed and i needed to not be at work to do so (my observance included vow of silence, solitary meditation, etc.). i had an employer who was hesitant to give me this time off and i gently reminded him that he wasn't allowed to discriminate because of religion. he sighed and let me go.

anyway, it's a good idea that corporations should not be able to force you to do something that is against your religious/spiritual beliefs. it's unfortunate that a lot of beliefs are not recognized as legitimately meaningful if they are not overtly religious, and so can't be effectively used this way, but that is also an issue of how you choose to frame your belief(s).

the concept of being a conscientious objector -- that the government can't force you to kill someone personally if your religioun forbids it -- is related. this is also a good idea.

however, i doubt if walmart is allowing their workers to say no to selling birth control out of respect for this legal reason, and for their workers' beliefs. more likely, it's related to that corporation's conservative/republican/fundamentalist ties, and they see this as a way to deny women birth control. that's too bad, because the right to say no because of your spiritual beliefs is an awesome right, and i for one don't want it taken away.

so if we're gonna fight walmart on this one, we need to be careful that we're not becoming part of the process of taking people's rights away that's happening so rapidly right now.

food for thought.