Wal-Mart, our lord and savior

When I was an older adolescent, I worked for Head Start during the summers. One summer, I was working with rural children, and the mother of one of my students died suddenly. This was a poor family with many children. My mother, who had little money of her own, bought several bags of groceries, and we drove to the family's house and gave them to the father. He was glad to have company, and we had a nice long visit with him.

Later that week, the Head Start faculty took up a collection to buy flowers for the family, as if they needed flowers. I told my mother I saw no need to contribute, and she agreed, but she warned me not to reveal that we had given the family groceries. I have very few good stories about my mother, so I like to tell this one. It was a tremendous lesson for me--to do the right thing and then risk being talked about for not doing "the right thing." I was the only one who didn't contribute.

This holiday season, Target has come under fire for strictly enforcing its "no solicitation" rule at its stores: The Salvation Army has been banned. That is fine with me, since I refuse to let gay-hating bigots handle my money. But it has incensed some of the Christian crowd. Target, to its credit, has stuck with its policy.

Naturally, stepping in to take advantage of the Christian Right's pique, is Wal-Mart, which has promised to provide matching funds to the Salvation Army. Better they should provide a safe working environment, stop union-busting, pay women equal wages, quit bullying their vendors, and honor their disability policies, but who cares about those things when you can work yourself up into a righteous Baby Jesus-inspired lather?

Meanwhile, Target has quietly provided the salaries for two Minneapolis Police Department cold case detectives for 2005. The cold case file is always the first to go when funds get tight, and Minneapolis is no exception. I'm not keen on a corporation doing what the government should be doing, but at least the detectives will be there next year, and since corporations escape paying a lot of taxes, I suppose it all works out.

Target will be remembered as the Scrooge of the big stores, while Wal-Mart will be seen as the "Christian" corporation.