I received the following yesterday in my inbox, from Jim Campi, communications director of the Civil War Preservation Trust: "Stop the Wilderness Wal Mart!" http://www.civilwar.org/walmart08/
I'm a member of the CWPT, and have been for many years. It has done some excellent work in buying and preserving land that literally cannot be replaced--the privately owned battlefields of the Civil War. Now, I like to think of myself as a realist on things like this. We can't save every speck of land that a boy in Blue or Gray walked across, or for that matter, undo what has already been done.
But what we, the American people, can do is stop any more of it being abused simply because it is available.
In Spotsylvania County, Virginia, west and south of the town of Fredericksburg, sits the Wilderness/Chancellorsville Battlefield. In a pair of brutal battles (Chancellorsville in 1863, the Wilderness in 1864), tens of thousands of Americans were killed and wounded. In the Wilderness, the battle was fierce and confusing, as what was normally long battle lines of men standing shoulder to shoulder became more like organized human hunting. When the wounded were left by the opposing sides, and as it was a dry winter that year and the woods caught afire during the fighting, the screams of the men as they burned to death echoed throughout the woods. Veterans decades later would break into tears at the memories of the young soldiers, boys mostly, having to spend their last moments on Earth in a living hell.
On this hallowed ground, that icon of American consumerism, Wal Mart, plans to build a 141,000 square foot SuperCenter. Where you can buy such things as Twinkies for 2 cents less, disposable cups with your favorite sports hero emblazoned on the side, all while being met by the greeter making minimum wage at the front door, helped by the stock boy who makes minimum wage, and checked out by the cashier who makes minimum wage. But hey, it brings jobs, right?
Wal Mart is building on sacred, irreplaceable land, where men in blue died to defend the Union and free the slaves, and where their brothers in gray died as well.
Ooops. I shouldn't have said "Union" and "Wal Mart" in the same sentence.
Perhaps that is why they are planning on paving our heritage. Support the saving of our heritage, so that decades from now, when a Wal Mart SuperCenter is finished sucking the resources and life from a small community and has moved on to another victim, we will still have a quiet piece of land where we can bring our children and remember what the cost of freedom truly means.
So they defeated the Wallmart and made the news. Over the following years the four local discount retailers went out of business and local residents now have to travel 30 miles or more for their shopping needs. Destroy the earth to stop the walmart? What a deal.
People need to shop. Lower income people need stores that give them less expensive goods. Recent data indicates the quality of life for the poor in America has risen because the cost of goods went down. Walmarts have a part to play in our society and vast expanses of empty fields and wilderness can tolerate a discount retail store.
The most crass, most destructive organization in our country erects a monument to itself on a sacred ground-- a piece of our history, cheapened to irrelevance in the mindless pursuit of profit.
Wake up, Walmart!
Treat your employees with respect and start showing some regard for our national character.
The exception is when they are receiving state funds, or federal funds, permits or licenses for the [undertaking], or are applying to the historic rehabilitation tax credit program (http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/review/section_106.htm).
That being said, it seems the article above is as much an indictment of Wal Mart as it is a lament for our vanishing history. Wal Mart or not, I feel the more pressing issue is destruction of our nation's heritage - once it's gone it cannot be replaced - and it's only gonna get worse as population pressures increase. Putting aside the requirements brought on by receipt of state funds, etc., Wal Mart would reap a small measure of good karma if they'd ensure thorough documentation of their construction site prior to its alteration, regardless of whether they're statutorily required to do so.
Hopefully, concerned members of the local community can marshal the resources needed to steer Wal Mart to a far less contentious parcel of real estate.
Good luck to them.
People from all over the world come to the Fredericksburg-Spotsy area to visit our many historical landmarks and battlefields. The Wilderness-Chancelorsville area battlefields are not only historical but beautiful countryside. A super Wal-Mart in that area would be like a giant wart.
There are plenty of places that this store could be built. The CWPT has save many areas for us and continue to fight for our unique place in American History.
Help them out and take a few moment of your time to write the Wal-Mart corporate leaders to consider moving this eyesore to another location.
Once this area is developed it will be lost forever.
It isn't the whole war, but we won 2 battles.