To the editor:

Lawrence, it’s time to fight back!

Thursday’s Journal-World Business section noted Wal-Mart’s plans to open as many as 195 new Supercenter stores in the United States next year. Wal-Mart boasted that the Supercenters “average $100 million in sales in their first year” and that Wal-Mart “was better off opening several Supercenters … as close as three miles apart.”

Friday’s (Oct. 3) front page featured “Wal-Mart permit rejected again.” In this story, the developer stated, “We’ll see this through to the very end, when we get our building permit.”

This permit has been rejected multiple times because it does not meet zoning requirements, is a terrible place for such a store, and has been loudly rejected by a large majority of Lawrence citizens.

The developer/Wal-Mart team arrogantly believe they can force their permit through by tying up city employee time and costing Lawrence taxpayers mounting court and attorney fees. They believe they can outlast and outspend us until we give up so they can build their $100 million/year milking machine next to our high school.

It is clear they only hear the sound of cash registers. So let’s let them hear silence. Fight back! Stop shopping at Lawrence Wal-Mart. Don’t give them your money so they can use it to sue Lawrence taxpayers. The silence of the cash registers is the only sound they will hear down in Bentonville.

Doug Burger,

Lawrence