To the editor:

It’s no surprise that Wal-Mart is upset about the city of Lawrence denying them a permit to build another Wal-Mart in town. And why shouldn’t they be? How can the city of Lawrence deny a multi-national corporation the right to build another one of its stores in a town that only has one of these “super” stores already. Everyone knows we could use another grocery, clothing and home surplus all-in-one store because who would want to go to a specialty store that has extensive knowledge and understanding of their products and services?

The answer to these questions are the residents of Lawrence. The residents of a town know much better what their town wants and needs than a greedy, profit-driven company with its headquarters hundreds of miles away. Lawrence is one of the few communities that has resisted the spread of the commercial empires, and to combat this, Wal-Mart has sued our town. This seems ironic considering a century ago, American politicians pioneered a trend of trust-busting, or breaking up of large monopolies into smaller companies, but now, similarly large corporations are suing small towns for the rights to monopoly.

Matt Andrews,

Lawrence