That's the Pullman Way

Malone: And then what are you prepared to do? If you open the can on these worms you must be prepared to go all the way. Because they're not gonna give up the fight, until one of you is dead.

Ness: I want to get Capone! I don't know how to do it.

Malone: You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way! And that's how you get Capone.

- The Untouchables, 1987

If you recall, a few months back, Businesses & Residents for Economic Opportunity received an unsolicited petition supporting a Wal-Mart Supercenter from a group of seniors who live in the Pioneer Square Apartments in downtown Pullman. BREO issued a press release, which was shamefully ignored by both the Moscow-Pullman Daily News and the the Daily Evergreen (even though every PARD press release gets front page coverage.)

One of the ladies that signed that petition, Samantha Petri, apparently wanted to make her voice heard even if the newspapers wouldn't cover the story. So she bravely wrote a letter to the editor that was published Friday in the Daily News.

Predictably, the crazed anti-Wal-Mart cockroaches have scurried out to attack Petri with dastardly anonymous comments posted on the Daily News website.

I have just been reading the unprecedented libelous and defamatory online comments posted in response to my letter that ran in the Daily News last Tuesday. In my letter, I defended Dale Hammerly, the owner of the Pullman RadioShack, against PARDner Chris Lupke's arrogant berating. I couldn't care less if the moonbats come after me. I was much more concerned whether Adrian Peterson would start today for my struggling fantasy football team (he did and already has 116 yards rushing and 2 TDs at the time of this writing!)

First of all, the PARDners' comments crack me up. There is nothing more humorous than seeing a bunch of overeducated poltroons shadow box with someone who was two thousand miles away and not even aware of what they were posting. Apparently, I am some sort of all-purpose boogeyman, the evil Lord Waldemart, hiding in the shadows behind every pro-Wal-Mart sentiment, every comment in favor of free enterprise and liberty, and every nefarious corporate conspiracy. I'm flattered!

Secondly, these comments have allowed Palouse residents to see these PhDs, these "heroes" act like a bunch of third grade schoolyard toughs and to truly realize the depth of the cancerous hatred these people feel towards Wal-Mart and the people that shop there and to see what big cowards they really are. Agree with me or not, at least I have the cojones to have taken a very public stance on a very controversial issue USING MY REAL NAME and thus subjecting myself (and my family) to all these tirades.

And lastly, in the military, this is what is known as bomb damage assessment. To have stirred up such a nest of angry hornets, my latest letter to the editor must have hit PARD where it did the most damage. This is extremely rewarding and energizing. It is confirmation that I am on target and doing the right thing. Every PARD sobriquet is a badge of honor to me. My worst fear is to be completely ignored and irrelevant.

However, I will not stand idly by while the PC Gestapo harrasses college kids for exercising their First Amendment rights. And I'm not going to tolerate a libtard professor insulting a respected local businessman. But where I really draw the line is when craven scumbags hide behind internet aliases to hurl insults at a defenseless elderly lady. I have never stated that people who oppose Wal-Mart or exercise their free speech rights should be "run out of town." But I would be more than happy to escort outside city limits someone who hates something so much that he would stoop to the level of a nameless and faceless online mugging of an old woman.

That is why I will NEVER quit, nor will I EVER "apologize" for telling the truth and identifying these people for who they really are. I will NEVER give up this fight, not as long as there are people like Ms. Petri and other seniors, struggling college students, young couples with children, single mothers, immigrant and blue collar families, and all the common everyday working class heroes of Pullman who don't have the luxury of a tenured professorship to allow them to be political when choosing a place to shop for the essentials in their lives.

As to Lupke, the one PARDner who has had the guts to post on the Daily News website using his real name, I have another quote from The Untouchables:

One more thing, you have an all out prize fight, you wait until the fight is over, one guy is left standing. And that's how you know who won.

December 19 is rapidly approaching. Let's see who is left standing after that, Lu Laoshi.

From Friday's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Some seniors want Wal-Mart

As a senior citizen living in Pullman and loving it, I and many of my friends are waiting for Wal-Mart. Many of us have no personal transportation (we use Dial-A-Ride, which is a lifesaver) so "one-stop shopping" would be a blessing for us. If we use Dial-A-Ride to go to several different places to get things, it is a real hassle and gets expensive. To have everything in one place would be a dream come true. The newly remodeled Safeway is very nice but things are very expensive there.

I have lived in places with Wal-Mart Superceners as well as Sam's Club and it really gives you a sense of free enterprise in that competition keeps prices down and more variety is available.

These ridiculous delays and appeals by the Pullman Alliance for Responsible Development are a ploy to make Wal-Mart go somewhere else, which I hope won't happen. The PARD people don't need the advantages the rest of us need as I'm sure they can drive anywhere they desire to shop. It's costing tax money to have all these hearings.

Pullman needs more tax base. People, don't be so selfish! Moscow has benefited from our isolationism and progress will come to Pullman one way or another - it's not a bad thing.

Samantha Petri, Pullman

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