"So, Jeff, you would certainly take issue with Walmart's decision not to <br> provide the "morning-after" contraceptive pill to any of its customers?" <br> <font face="PrimaSans BT,Verdana,sans-serif"><span><span><font face="Verdana, Arial"><br> Starting March 20, Wal_Mart pharmacies will start filling women's prescriptions for the morning-after pill. Perhaps Melynda can petition Wal-Mart to open an abortion center at every Wal-Mart and to fire any associate doctor who refuses to preform one. <br> <br> </font></span></span></font>"even when patients have no other pharmacy available to them (as in small towns <br> where other drug stores have been driven out of business by Walmart)"<br> <br> You mean driven out of town by a customers refusing to shop at a pharmacy that charges excessive amounts for their needed medication to live?<br> <font face="PrimaSans BT,Verdana,sans-serif"><span><span><font face="Verdana, Arial"><br> _DJA<br>
</font></span></span></font><br><b><i>Melynda Huskey <melynda@moscow.com></i></b> wrote:<blockquote class="replbq" style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> Jeff writes:<br>> *I agree with you that a perplexing part of the dialogue is the divide <br>> between the quantitative and the qualitative. But I do not agree that <br>> methodology is our chasm - but ideology. I do not accept the notion <br>> that it is appropriate for a small group of people to impose or define <br>> the standards of living and quality of life for me or anyone else. <br>> Just as this approach has always failed to achieve an optimal much <br>> less a satisficing state, it shall continue to fail. <br>> *<br>So, Jeff, you would certainly take issue with Walmart's decision not to <br>provide the "morning-after" contraceptive pill to any of its customers? <br>Even after several states adopted specific legislation to require it !
to <br>do
so, Walmart resisted making this legal, safe, and cheap <br>pharmaceutical birth control choice available to customers when <br>prescribed by a doctor--and it still permits, even encourages, <br>individual pharmacists to refuse to fill the prescription, even when <br>patients have no other pharmacy available to them (as in small towns <br>where other drug stores have been driven out of business by Walmart).<br><br>Similarly, some years ago, Walmart pulled teeshirts depicting a cartoon <br>character saying "Some day a girl will be President," from all its <br>stores, stating in a press release that the shirts were in conflict with <br>the corporation's "family values." Presumably those are the same values <br>that keep women from advancing within the company.<br><br>Are these not two examples of a small group of people, Walmart's policy <br>makers, imposing or defining standards of living and quality of life on <br>others? And since the corporation has disproportionate pow!
er in the
<br>marketplace--think of those women who don't have access to another <br>pharmacy--their decisions have considerably greater impact on the <br>limitation of other people's choices than anything I might say or do to <br>try to persuade others that our town doesn't need another Walmart.<br><br>> *As to ethics, were you aware of the ethical standards program that <br>> WalMart adopted? If not, here is a brief description [snip]<br>> **Granted, this "global policy" is a relatively new version, built <br>> from their earlier ethics program. And it will be interesting to see <br>> how it plays out over time. It is being imposed on all suppliers. Of <br>> course, the skeptical will simply argue that WM is just creating a <br>> false front. That may be true, but if it turns out to be a spurious <br>> effort, I have every confidence that such effort will be exposed.<br>> *<br>Well, you might say it already has been, here in the U.S.: the <br>employ!
ment of
undocumented workers, the routine discrimination against <br>women, the consistent and well-documented practice of requiring <br>"associates" to work off the clock, the union-busting, the dependence on <br>tax-payers to provide health care for employees, so as to maximize <br>corporate profits . . . Policy statements are, of course, a fine thing: <br>but as a political scientist friend used to tell me in the 80s, "Hell, <br>Argentina's got a great constitution--maybe better than ours. They just <br>don't use it very often."<br><br>In fact, I'm taking some umbrage at the notion that by expressing my <br>opposition to another Walmart in our town--or to the business practices <br>of Walmart--that I am limiting people's choices in some meaningful way. <br>There's a Walmart in Moscow. There's going to be another Walmart in <br>Pullman. Can choice only be exercised if there's a Super Walmart every <br>6 miles?<br><br>I'd also oppose a Super-Casino-and-Brothel or a
<br>Super-Pig-Farm-and-Abbatoir, even though each of those businesses might <br>represent "economic growth" for our town, and even though my shopping <br>choices might be limited by the lack of such outlets, because for me the <br>costs of the business offset the benefits. There's not much middle <br>ground here, since my failure to shop at the Super Casino and Brothel <br>doesn't insulate me from the negative overall consequences of its <br>existence. <br><br>There's no Tiffany's in Moscow, either, and yet I don't feel injured by <br>the failure of the corporation to provide me with a shopping choice for <br>place settings of my favorite sterling (Kirk Steiff Repousse, in case <br>anybody's wondering) right here in Moscow. I can't have every single <br>possible choice. Why shouldn't we, as a community, try to exercise <br>responsibly the functionally limited choices we have?<br><br>Melynda Huskey<br><br><br> <br><br>_____________________________________________________<!
br> List
services made available by First Step Internet, <br> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br> http://www.fsr.net <br> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<br>ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ<br></blockquote><br><p>
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