I just heard the news on the TV. The Wal-Mart vote in Flagstaff -- the one where Wal-Mart ran ads comparing Nazi book-burning sessions and suppression of religious liberty to keeping Wal-Mart out of town -- just happened. And here are the
numbers:
Wal-Mart 51.5%
People 48.5%
It's the largest turnout in Flagstaff history, but how many votes made the difference? 352. 352 fucking votes. After Wal-Mart dumped $300,000 into our community, that's what they got. 352 goddamned good-for-nothing votes.
Listen, I've lived in this community for ten years. I dreamed about coming back and raising my kids here. Not likely, but just a dream, you know? I know lots of councilmembers. We got the whole Council transformed into a citizen's watchdog group instead of a bastion of big business. It took us ten years. TEN FUCKING YEARS so we could keep Wal-Mart out, and then they go and buy the whole fucking town.
You know how they say, "You can't go home again?" Well, I can't. I can NEVER come back here and see my hometown as it once was. Wal-Mart is going to devastate the entire east side, where I live. This is just the start -- now all the other chains are going to move in, and destroy every shred of what makes Flagstaff my home. My mom overheard someone today saying that if this thing passed, its local sponsor, Frank Dickens, was going to run for Council.
Fuck Wal-Mart. Fuck Frank Dickens and all the fucking money that he and his corrupt cronies can dig up and throw at this city and bury the citizens' good intentions in shit. I can't go home again.