Good Humanity Sunday - 4/6/08

Guys, I'm not sure if you know this, but Wal-Mart is a Hellmouth. Seriously. They do bad things.

So it feels so strange and wrong and alternate universe-y to be writing about them for Good Humanity Sunday. But whatev. Watch my tv crush Keith Olbermann tell us what they did. (Skip to 1:28.)



That's right. Brain damaged and unable to care for herself, with memory so spotty that she must be reminded that her son is dead every single day and Wal-Mart tried to rob her of everything she has.

But they finally conceded (thanks mostly to all the press that Countdown got for continuing to run this story every night until Wal-Mart backed down) and stopped seeking the money Shank needs to live on:



I'm thrilled that Wal-Mart was finally shamed into doing the right thing here. This is proof, albeit maddeningly slow and only after they couldn't stand all the negative press, that somewhere in the dark bowels of their corporate office/hell on earth in Bentonville, AR, there is good humanity. Now if only they'd start paying a decent wage, stop discriminating against women in their promotion policies, quit selling products made from Chinese slave labor, start offering an affordable health care plan so their employees wouldn't need medicaid, stop bullying their way into small town America and closing down all the local businesses that can't compete with their prices, and LET THEIR WORKERS UNIONIZE, then we'd really be getting somewhere.

Send me your proofs of good humanity! If you've found some on the interwebs, or would like me to post your good humanity story (maybe like my Subway Hero!) drop me an email at beagoodhuman11 at gmail dot com. I love to read them!

A Brief History of Labor Day

Labor Day, aka The Last Real Weekend of the Summer, never used to be about heading down to the shore and having a barbeque. For a really interesting, in-depth look, check out this article from Forbes. Here's the Reader's Digest version from the History Channel Website:

"On May 11, 1894, workers of the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago struck to protest wage cuts and the firing of union representatives. They sought support from their union led by Eugene V. Debs and on June 26 the American Railroad Union called a boycott of all Pullman railway cars. Within days, 50,000 rail workers complied and railroad traffic out of Chicago came to a halt. On July 4, President Grover Cleveland dispatched troops to Chicago. Much rioting and bloodshed ensued, but the government's actions broke the strike and the boycott soon collapsed. Debs and three other union officials were jailed for disobeying the injunction. The strike brought worker's rights to the public eye and Congress declared, in 1894, that the first Monday in September would be the holiday for workers, known as Labor Day."

I think it's interesting that the entire country has forgotten about what Labor Day is really about, especially since worker injustices just keep piling up even today. Do you shop at Wal-Mart? STOP IT. I haven't shopped there in years, and not just because there isn't one in New York City. Check out this website and watch this movie if you don't know what I'm talking about. Ugh this deserves a special post all to itself.