Wilderness Wal-Mart?

[LadyBarbossa]

I couldn't believe what I heard and saw on ABC World News the other night and was incredibly shocked! Will they really go through with such stupidity?

Wal-Mart has been approved to build a new store AT the Wilderness Battlefield site. For more info, check out the website (though I know some of you have seen it): Speak Out Against Wilderness Wal-Mart

I'm spreading the word to folks out there on non-historical places to raise the awareness that enough is enough! Like Duvall said, Capitolism with SENSABILITY! Wal-Mart does NOT need to be THAT close! It's a battlefield, for Christ's sake!

~Lady B

[Capt. Sterling]

Honestly...live near the battle site.. there is next to nothing there and overall the community would be better served with the store, whether anyone wants to admit it or not, especially the media...Hell it might even get more tourists out to actually see the battlefield...there will be plenty of battle field left considering the most important area takes all of about ten minutes to walk...Instead of protesting the build, why don't they put their money into upkeeping some of the other historic sites in VA...quite a few are truly suffering from the economy.

[Rumba Rue]

Sorry but I'm a Wally-World (Wal-Mart)shopper and from what I understand the store is not going to be on the battlefield itself, but next to it.

[Capt. Sterling]

The word down here is it overlaps certain easements... so Montpelier just increased theirs by some 700 acres or so

Honestly if you took all the civil war walking/driving tours... we wouldn't be allowed to build any where...snigger..

Edited August 27, 2009 by Capt. Sterling

[callenish gunner]

Please look at the virtual tour of this historic National Park ....according to the National Park Service it doesn't even warrant a fully enclosed visitor's center with washrooms ...there are a few plaques scattered around the counrtyside & not much else. The land that Wal-mart purchased to build on was privately held. It wasn't a portion of what the park service deemed worthy of including into their limited purview of battlefield preservation. Unless every mother's son and daughter was willing to put their money toward the total historic preservation of every historic site in the country this is a battle not worthy of being a battle.Wilderness NP

There are a multitude of other sites that need care and support that are far more endangered than this site. Do some research before going off to fight blindly against the "Corporate Goliath"

[CaptainSatan]

Wally World rocks!

Where else can you a shotgun, beer, and tampons under the same roof?

[Navis]

/vent

Wal-mart is a giant crock of shit. We've been fighting them in my area for years. Theres already 3 or so in a 15 minute radius and they are trying to put 2 more in to push out all the little guys. I wish all you self proclaimed wally world shoppers would support real people(edit: didn't sound right after i reread this sentence, but tough cookies you know what i mean ), not some ceo that hasn't done anything usefull his whole life except collect his 9mil a year...

Not to say I've never been to walmart, but I avoid it all costs, I buy my groceries from the family owned grocery store in my town, auto parts from an old man owned napa store, hvac from a retired marine, i try my best but when most americans feel that wally world is the greatest thing since sliced bread, i'm fighting a losing battle.

and it's not just walmart, i walked in a protest in gettysburg, pa, they are fighting to put a casino and waterpark dead smack on a small plot of battlefield that the local citizens history group can't afford to buy from some rich P.O.S., he'd rather sell it for a measly 20mil instead of the 7mil the historical society offered, to some casino tycoon, i think that guy and his many millions can afford to kick back a little to the country that made him rich...greed..

my point of view: when your company has to pay people to say hello, i don't want to go to your store.

/endvent

Edited September 3, 2009 by Navis

[CaptainSatan]

I love Wal-Mart.

They sell guns there (lol).

And they have the cheapest groceries in town. I still make trips to Central Market and May Hua (Asian supermarket)

but I do as much of my shopping at Wally World as I can to save money for my criminal enterprises.

It always amuses me that my flag burning leftist friends all boycott Wal-Mart.

But none of them have any issues supporting the international drug trade (ha ha).

Plus you can reduce your carbon footprint by doing all your shopping at one location

Edited September 3, 2009 by CaptainSatan

[LadyBarbossa]

Latest article on the Wilderness Wal-Mart (yes, correction made, in Virginia. The mistake is mine to believe that it's part of Gettysburg).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Walmart near Va battlefield challenged

By STEVE SZKOTAK, Associated Press Writer Steve Szkotak, Associated Press Writer Wed Sep 23, 5:38 pm ET

RICHMOND, Va. Preservationists and residents filed a legal challenge Wednesday to block construction of a Walmart Supercenter near a famed battlefield where the Civil War began to turn in favor of the North.

The legal action is aimed at an Aug. 25 vote by the Orange County Board of Supervisors approving the store near the Wilderness Battlefield.

The battlefield where 30,000 Union and Confederate soldiers were injured or killed 145 years ago is considered one of the nation's most endangered Civil War sites, according to preservationists.

The suit contends that supervisors "brushed aside" mounting concerns about the negative impact the store would have on the battlefield and approved the special use permit Walmart needed to build the big box store. The vote was 4-1.

"A nationally significant and highly vulnerable historic site is at great risk," said Zann Nelson, president of Friends of Wilderness Battlefield, one of the preservation groups challenging the vote.

"The Walmart project would irrevocably harm the battlefield and seriously undermine the visitor's experience to the National Park," she said in a statement accompanying the filing.

Supervisors who had not seen the challenge did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment on the suit, filed in Orange County Circuit Court. They have 21 days to file a response in the Orange court.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. described the legal challenge as having "no merit or basis in fact."

"Throughout this entire process we have not only met but exceeded the guidelines that were put before us," said Keith Morris, a spokesman for the world's biggest retailer.

He said site work had not yet begun on the 138,000-square-foot store in Locust Grove, which is about 50 miles southwest of Washington, D.C.

In addition to Friends of Wilderness, the challenge includes the National Trust for Historic Preservation and six residents of Orange and Spotsylvania counties who live near the planned store site. The 41-page filing is part legal document and part history lesson.

It begins the challenge by quoting Pulitzer Prize historian James McPherson, who wrote: "The Battle of the Wilderness was a great turning point in the Civil War the first clash between Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant and the beginning of the end for the beleaguered Confederacy."

The suit seeks the court to declare supervisors' vote "unlawful and invalid" and to block any further county action on Walmart's site plan.

In a state with more key Civil War battlefields than any other, Walmart's proposed store stirred up a spirited protest that enlisted the names of 250 historians and the filmmaker Ken Burns.

Opponents also included celebrities such as Robert Duvall, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, and congressmen from Texas and Vermont, states that lost an inordinate number of men in the fighting.

In May 1864, 180,000 Union and Confederate armies fought at the Wilderness, which began a series of battles that brought an end to the Civil War one year later.

Residents and supervisors who supported the store said it would not diminish an area that already has two strip malls. They welcomed the hundreds of jobs the store would bring to the rural community, the shopping option and the estimated $800,000 annually in tax revenue for the county of approximately 32,000.

Wal-Mart, which has 8,000 stores worldwide and adds about 240 each year, argued that the site is zoned for commercial use and the store will not be within sight of the battlefield's 2,700 protected acres.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I admit, I shop at Wal-Mart, but not as much as I use to. It's almost rarely. Got a new Wal-Mart here, it's larger but they are poorly stocked at times or mostly stocked with too much of one thing and never enough variety, prices are not as good as they were, quality is sucking big time and they have a major lack of care of the land they are on and around. Their employees... pardon me for stating, look like shit! They all look like they just walked in from a homeless shelter and haven't cared about personal appearance in several days if not weeks! I'm finding many other stores with just as competative prices, more things I want and need, etc. Even clothes suck there. I can't stand their fashions any more!

Cptn Satan, Ye be lucky with the cheap groceries. The groceries here are not so cheap. And their quality of food lacks. Most everyone just buys as HyVee and Farway as they have a better quantity of quality items. Especially HyVee.

There are many things I could say about Wal-Mart. But overall, Wal-mart is lacking severely. And that article that was put out recently (and other times, plus rumors) of Wal-Mart wanting to "oust" the other competition, that's no secret, that IS true. Hell, I knew that for a long time! Those brats of Sam Walton want nothing more to do with the ideals their dad set up! The Wal-Mart Sam Walton created no longer exists.

Tread lightly on this subject. You all do NOT need a Wal-Mart there. That battlefield will be trashed before you know it! Seriously.

Sears, Target, or some other place would be better to have there. Maybe even a Cracker Barrel (a wiser choice!), they don't take up so much space and are nicer to their employees and customers and land than Wal-Mart.

Anything is better than Wal-Mart!

~Lady B

[Red Cat Jenny]

I've been to El Morro...the famous fort in Old San Juan. It's beautiful..as long as you are looking towards it time has changed nothing. As you walk back from it..right across the way is a hooters. Sad.

[William Brand]

This is how close Pizza Hut is to the Pyramids. Yep, right off of the Giza Plateau.

[Silkie McDonough]

We humans do leave a mark.