Sunrise over Alcatraz
Really, you have to wonder why anyone would ever want to live anywhere else...
I wish I could say I took this one, but I didn't. It comes from the
"Day in Pictures" section of
SF Gate.com, the web site of the San Francisco Chronicle.
My Last Word on Target
Target answered my email about their banning of the Salvation Army bell ringers with a form letter:
Dear Target Guest,
I appreciate the opportunity to respond to your e-mail to Target. Like many nationwide retailers, Target Corporation has a long-standing "no solicitation" policy that it consistently applies to all organizations across all of its stores.
We receive an increasing number of solicitation inquiries from non-profit organizations and other groups each year and determined that if we continue to allow the Salvation Army to solicit then it opens the door to any other groups that wish to solicit our guests. While some of our guests may welcome the opportunity to support their favorite charity or cause, allowing these organizations to solicit means that Target would also have to permit solicitation by organizations whose cause or behavior may be unacceptable to our guests.
We notified the Salvation Army of our decision in January 2004, well in advance of the holiday season, so the organization would have time to find alternative fundraising sources. Target also asked the Salvation Army to look at other ways that we could support their organization under our corporate giving guidelines. To this date they have not provided a proposal that fits those guidelines.
Local Salvation Army chapters can apply for grants through their local Target stores. For decades, many non-profit organizations across the country have successfully worked with Target in this manner. We are asking the Salvation Army to work with us in the same exact manner as the other groups and organizations who ask to solicit our guests.
This decision in no way diminishes Target Corporation's commitment to its communities. Target has one of the largest corporate philanthropy programs in America, donating more than $2 million per week and hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours each year to the communities in which it does business.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Hanson
Target Executive Offices
My response was mostly to this one paragraph:
We receive an increasing number of solicitation inquiries from non-profit organizations and other groups each year and determined that if we continue to allow the Salvation Army to solicit then it opens the door to any other groups that wish to solicit our guests.
I said, "This is not true. You can allow anyone you please to solicit on your private property. You are perfectly free to allow group A to solicit but not group B... I think that's called FREEDOM :-) Anyway, I'm off to Walmart for some curtains. 5 miles farther than Target, but that's MY choice just like yours is to ban Salvation Army after all these years of allowing them."
So that's the end of that... I really am off to Walmart. It is absolutely their right to ban anyone they like from their stores, as it is my right not to go there.