[Vision2020] FW: Hercules Defeats Goliath

Sat May 27 12:02:29 PDT 2006

Hooray for Hercules. I wonder how many of these council members were  
asked to recuse themselves from the vote. Anyway, I'm no fan of mall  
wart, and don't want the super wal-mart here in Moscow, but here's an  
article which is VERY interesting. Someone at the city council  
meeting here in Moscow suggested green roofing (mentioned in this  
article)--guess Lee Scott listened. Their motives may be purely  
bottom line, but if they succeed, they could be the model for  
businesses everywhere to save money and inadvertently do the right  
thing!!

Excerpt below.  If you'd like to read the entire article, go to:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2006/05/24/ 
notes052406.DTL&nl=fix

  Can You Still Hate Wal-Mart? It's a shockingly eco-friendly plan  
from the world's most toxic retailer. Did hell just freeze over?

There has been, to date, very little good to say about this most  
voracious and powerful of low-end, trashy retailers, and certainly  
nothing from anyone even remotely concerned with the health of the  
planet and of the attuned consumers who inhabit it. Wal-Mart has  
always been, quite appropriately, the devil.

Until now. As juicy and warmhearted eco-blog Treehugger mentions in  
its latest Wal-Mart roundup (and as the New York Times later  
discussed in its huge "Business of Green" section last week), it  
seems that back in October, Wal-Mart's president, Lee Scott,  
delivered a "secret" speech to employees about "21st Century  
Leadership," in which he outlined a whole slew of what can only be  
called truly remarkable and potentially world-altering agenda items  
to help ensure the future health of the world's biggest shopping hell.

And what a speech it was. Packed with all sorts of pledges and goals  
of such a green and sustainable and forward-thinking nature it might  
as well have been floating on boats of tofu on waves of Sierra Club  
blown by winds of Utne Reader. It was, in a word, surreal. And if  
even half of it is true, more than a little revolutionary.

There was talk of stores eventually being supplied with 100-percent  
renewable energy. Talk of ultimately creating zero waste, of pledging  
to reduce packaging materials across the board and create more  
recyclables and replace PVC packaging in all Wal-Mart branded items  
with more eco-friendly materials. And when you're talking megatons of  
plastic, that's saying a lot.

It gets better. Wal-Mart has already committed to selling 100-percent  
sustainable fish in its food markets. They are already experimenting  
with green roofs, corn-based plastics and green energy (which is now  
used to power four Canadian stores, for a total of 39,000 megawatts,  
amounting to what some estimate is the single biggest purchase of  
renewable energy in Canadian history). Is this remarkable?  
Groundbreaking? Utterly confounding? Well, yes and no.

On May 25, 2006, at 11:37 AM, TIM RIGSBY wrote:

>> From wakeupwalmart.com
>
> " 'Politics is the art of controlling your environment.' That is  
> one of the key things I learned in these years, and I learned it  
> the hard way. Anybody who thinks that 'it doesn't matter who's  
> President' has never been Drafted and sent off to fight and die in  
> a vicious, stupid War on the other side of the World -- or been  
> beaten and gassed by Police for trespassing on public property --  
> or been hounded by the IRS for purely political reasons -- or  
> locked up in the Cook County Jail with a broken nose and no phone  
> access and twelve perverts wanting to stomp your ass in the shower.  
> That is when it matters who is President or Governor or Police  
> Chief. That is when you will wish you had voted." - Hunter S. Thompson
>
>
>
>
>> From: "Paul Blank, WakeUpWalMart.com" <info at wakeupwalmart.com>
>> Reply-To: info at wakeupwalmart.com
>> To: tim.rigsby at hotmail.com
>> Subject: Hercules Defeats Goliath
>> Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 11:36 -0400
>>
>> Dear Tim,
>>
>> Yesterday, a town named Hercules in California made history.  The  
>> town, desperate to save its community from the negative impact of  
>> Wal-Mart, actually voted to use the public’s power of eminent  
>> domain to stop Wal-Mart from building there.  After the City  
>> Council voted unanimously in favor of the people over Wal-Mart, a  
>> cheer broke out and, all across America, headlines read, “Hercules  
>> Defeats Goliath.”  I couldn’t have written the headlines any better.
>>
>> We may not have the same amount of money, lobbyists or consultants  
>> as Wal-Mart, but when ordinary people join together, in common  
>> purpose, they can accomplish extraordinary things.  That is what  
>> our campaign is all about.  Hercules is proof.
>>
>> The American people can stand up to powerful corporations like Wal- 
>> Mart and WIN!
>>
>> Help us win all across America.  Please contribute to our campaign  
>> today.  Your contribution of ,  or  will help us fight for change.
>>
>> https://www.wakeupwalmart.com/contribute-today/
>>
>> What you are doing in this campaign is simply amazing.  You have  
>> created one of the fastest growing social movements in America  
>> with over 235,000 supporters.  And, everyday, you sign up another  
>> 100 new people to our movement.
>>
>> You have defied all of the pundits, columnists, political experts,  
>> public relations strategists and lobbyists who didn’t believe you  
>> could build a movement to change America.  We are now, as the  
>> Associated Press recently put it, “the hottest, highest-stakes  
>> political contest in America today.”
>>
>> They are right, the stakes couldn’t be higher.  Because this is  
>> not a typical campaign, it is a fight for what kind of America we  
>> want to live in - Wal-Mart’s America, where corporations use their  
>> power to exploit people, or Our America, where people win!
>>
>> Our fight starts with you.  You have the power to fight for  
>> change.  Please help by contributing today.
>>
>> https://www.wakeupwalmart.com/contribute-today/
>>
>> You are proving the American people do have the power to take our  
>> country back from powerful corporations like Wal-Mart.  And,  
>> everyday we grow stronger we are restoring the balance of power  
>> between obscene profits and the American people.
>>
>> We may not be able to change all of corporate America at once,  
>> but, together, we will change Wal-Mart, challenge corporate  
>> America’s stranglehold on power, and profoundly change our country  
>> for the better.
>>
>> Thank you for being leaders in the fight to change Wal-Mart and  
>> change America.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Paul Blank
>> http://wakeupwalmart.com
>>
>> P.S.  Only you have the power to grow our movement.  Please make  
>> sure to send this email to your friends and ask them to join  
>> WakeUpWalMart.com today.
>>
>>
>> To unsubscribe, please visit: http://lists.wakeupwalmart.com/ 
>> unsubscribe.html?key=wm44eT8HPM
>
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cynthia nichols
cynthiann0 at mac.com

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