Walmart's afraid of some nuns: labels them "security threat"

[pnwmom]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA050407.nunsvswalmart.KENS.3a704ac5.html

It's a David versus Goliath battle heating up in the Hill Country — a group of nuns from Boerne is taking a stand against Wal-Mart.

The corporate giant reportedly labeled the nuns a security threat after they raised questions about Wal-Mart's business practices.

Sister Susan Mika is part of the Benedectine Sisters, which is part of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. The center has been questioning Wal-Mart's business practices for years.

SNIP

"In no way have we ever been a threat to the company in that sense. We might be a threat in the kind of question that we're asking, but not a security threat," Sister Mika said.

The sisters have raised questions on wages, human rights, health care and the pay disparity between CEOs and workers. They believe that's why Wal-Mart has launched a surveillance operation on the small church group.

SNIP

[Snarkoleptic]

1. What next?

Ya gotta keep an eye on those Cloistered Carmelite Sisters too...I think they're up to something.

[pnwmom]

7. Welcome to DU, Snarkoleptic!

[Madspirit]

2. I hate Walmart

What dolts. I mean really. I'm not very fond of the Catholic church but I'm not afraid of nuns...
Lee

[GreenInNC]

13. not afraid of nuns?

Obviously you never went to catholic school.

[pnwmom]

19. When people say that, I wonder how old they are.

My parents complained about nuns, but the nuns in my post-Vatican 2 school, and in my children's, were wonderful women who WANTED to be there. That's probably what made the difference.

[GreenInNC]

22. I am 42

I am 42 and my wife is 39. We both went through parochial school in completly different parts of the country, me in NC and her in NY. After our experiences, we agreed that our children would never go to one.

[mediawatch]

24. well if I may add my 2 cents

and speaking from experience. I am afraid of nuns. I remember a particular nun breaking a yard stick on my arm. Sister Mary Aurther was her name. I had to stand up and recite the Hail Mary. I knew the hail Mary, but I had not quite yet articulated my public speaking skills and I start laughing while reciting the Hail Mary. My punishment was the yard stick. If any here would like me to recite it I can!

[hedgehog]

3. Just how are they planning surveillance? Is someone going in

undercover as Sister Mary Snoop?

[pnwmom]

8. I was wondering the same thing. What does "launch surveillance" mean?

[Selatius]

15. A white van with tinted black windows parked down the street with multiple antennae sticking out.

:shrug:

[Double T]

4. How dare those terrorist nuns question the screwing by corporate ameria...........

wonder when wal-mart will hire blackwater usa to run special covert ops on the convent.

[Spinzonner]

5. It's obviously true

They're a threat to Wal-Mart's sense of security

[yella_dawg]

6. Stupid redneck Texans

Boerne is a few miles north of San Antonio. Those radical right wing Texas nuns. Just can't believe they'd chime in on good progressive values like labor rights, human rights, and health care.


Just saving you Texas bashers a few keystrokes.

[NoPasaran]

9. If they're afraid of nuns

Clowns must scare them shitless.

[sandnsea]

10. Remember Latin America

They've already been pretty successful at slandering some members of the Catholic Church on immigration. Sounds to me like they're moving to the next step, the way they've done in Latin America. Any Catholic that is a friend of the poor will be labeled a leftist revolutionary sympathizer. Not a good development at all.

[Selatius]

14. Hopefully, it shouldn't stop Catholic priests/nuns from speaking out, like in...

Ecuador. There, the country's highest court indicted the nation's former president Lozada for homicide, the deaths of over 60 protesters who were upset at the economic chaos caused by his neoliberal "shock therapy" economic program. He fled to the US after being deposed, but the US has not answered calls by the Ecuadoran government for his extradition to stand trial for murder.

[rurallib]

11. The nuns should smack the CEO's knuckles with a ruler

Stopped me from doing a lot of crap. Very effective!

[MichiganVote]

12. Oh yeah...they're a threat alright....with a ruler that is.

[pnwmom]

18. Tell that to the families of the murdered nuns in El Salvador.

Nuns, the original communists (in practical if not political terms) have always stood up for the poor.

[MichiganVote]

20. Huh?

[pnwmom]

21. I'm not sure what you're questioning.

Nuns usually live communally -- share and share alike. True communists, as it were.

Or did you not know about the nuns who were murdered by the authorities in El Salvador (possibly in collusion with the US government) because they were speaking for the poor and against the repressive government?

http://www.maryknoll.org/MARYKNOLL/SISTERS/ms_marty4ani.htm

On December 2, 1980, members of the National Guard of El Salvador intercepted the van carrying four American churchwomen as they were leaving the international airport in San Salvador. Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clark, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, and lay missioner Jean Donovan were taken to an isolated spot where they were shot dead at close range.

Ita Ford and Maura Clark worked in Chalatenango and were returning from a Maryknoll Sisters meeting in Nicaragua. Dorothy Kazel and Jean Donovan had come from La Libertad to pick up their missioner friends at the airport. All were working in the country on behalf of the Archdiocese of San Salvador, helping refugees flee the violence of the erupting war.

The U.N.-sponsored report of the Commission on the Truth for El Salvador concluded that the abductions were planned in advance and the men responsible had carried out the murders on orders from above. It further stated that the head of the National Guard and two officers assigned to investigate the case had concealed the facts to harm the judicial process. The murder of the women, along with attempts by the Salvadoran military and some American officials to cover it up, generated a grass-roots opposition in the U.S., as well as ignited intense debate over the Administration’s policy in El Salvador.

In 1984, the defendants were found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison. . . . The families of the four churchwomen continue to pursue a lawsuit in U.S. federal court against the former Salvadoran generals retired in Florida, who were senior government officials in El Salvador at the time of the killings.

[MichiganVote]

23. ll 'm nt s what the murders of these nuns have to do with my comment

but alrighty....so long as you get it, more power to you. Signing off now...very slowly and carefully.

[saltpoint]

16. Good for these women.

Bravo!

And what a cheap-shot response by Wal-Mart.

[Hekate]

17. There are some really gutsy nuns in this world,& they ARE on the side of the angels...

...when it comes to human rights!

Hekate

[Cleita]

25. Buwahahaha! I used to live in Boerne and shopped at

their Wal-Mart when I had to. Good for the nuns. It's time to put these companies on the hot seat.