I have learned from a highly-reliable source inside Pullman City Hall that PARD will never quit until all possible appeals have been exhausted. They are planning to use Pullman as an example of how other small-towns can fight Wal-Mart.
How do you like that, Pullman? Our tax dollars are being used to subsidize TV Reed and Company's intellectual vanity? The PARDners want to be enshrined in Crazy Al Norman's Hall of Fame. It has nothing to do with "fighting for Pullman's residents," traffic, dead children and grannies in the streets, bankrupting Mom-and-Pop, or any of that other billious B.S. they spout. This is strictly a fight against Wal-Mart for ideological reasons, a therapy for despondent local liberals dealing with Bush Derangement Syndrome.
The problem is that PARD has been a complete failure at every step. What have they accomplished? Have people outside the WSU Department of Liberal Arts flocked to join them? Do they enjoy the support of the local businessses they have vowed to protect? Have they got the backing of the schools and the hospital they are supposedly protecting? Have they convinced local elected officials of the worthiness of their cause? Have the papers been filled with angry letters from more than just a handful of people? Could they convince voters to elect their members to the City Council? The answer to these questions is a resounding "NO!!"
What success can PARD claim? A 10,000 petition signature. Please, that thing is more bogus than a $3 bill. PARD's argument has been overwhelmingly rejected in a college town that leans liberal and always votes Democratic. Look how much resistance there has been to PARD in Pullman. If they couldn't make their in case in Pullman, they would never stand a chance in another small town.
The irony is that their "child" group, No Super WalMart in Moscow, was much more successful than PARD, mostly by doing the exact opposite of what PARD did. The only reason we don't have a Wal-Mart in Pullman yet is because the UFCW funded attorneys got involved. On it's own, PARD would mever have the tens of thousands of dollars required to prolong this battle.
We will continue to fight PARD and call for them to drop their lunatic appeals because we believe in Pullman and what's good for its citizens. We do not want Pullman to turn into some national battlefield in the class war over Wal-Mart. We don't want outsiders who live here only temporarily and don't understand our history and issues to come in and dictate where we can or cannot shop. We do not want our future sacrificed on the altar of a professor's left wing, out-of-the-mainstream beliefs.
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2 comments:
That is just depressing. They just need to give up. This is ridiculous. I don't want Pullman to be known as the place that kept Wal-Mart out. Any chance of getting a film maker to make a documentary about this. It could be the second part of the Why Wal-mart Works.
There is something wrong with the SEPA process when one side can win every decision and yet the decisions have no meaning because of legal appeals. It shouldn't take this long to get something approved or denied. It also seems like the people bringing the appeal have no stake in the fight. It costs them almost nothing to bring an appeal.
Although, I have heard talk from a few individuals who would like to bring lawsuits against individual members of PARD on behalf of the tax payers of Pullman. I don't know how realistic that is or if anyone would actually try. The law and justice are not necessarily the same thing.
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