By Markel Hutchins - From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Wal-Mart, a wolf in sheep's clothing, has apparently used its manipulative genius to coerce the support of an internationally celebrated statesman, former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young. Wal-Mart has spent billions of dollars trying to deceive the American people into simply thinking it offers low prices. The reality is every dollar consumers spend there decreases wages, lowers benefits, ships more U.S. jobs overseas, raises taxes and further impoverishes the working poor.

Left unchecked, Wal-Mart's business model will divide America into two classes: a wealthy, shareholder class and a permanent underclass...

I am surprised and frankly disappointed to learn that some whom I've called mentors and friends have joined with Wal-Mart to defend the business practices of an immoral company that has yet to learn it has a social responsibility to better the lives of the very workers that make it so profitable.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. often referred to war, poverty and racism as the triple evils of our society. It is discouraging, then, that those who stood and worked closely with King would align themselves with Wal-Mart, the world's most profitable, influential and grossest purveyor of systematic poverty.

As a representation of the next generation of visible civil rights leadership, I am painfully aware that the successful co-opting of several prominent African-American religious, civil and human rights leaders by Wal-Mart only furthers the sentiment in the hearts and minds of many Americans that we have been irreparably compromised and reduced to impotence by our own propensity to place personal business interests above the people's. I call upon my colleagues in black leadership to join with me and the millions of Americans who want Wal-Mart to change into a better and more responsible company...

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