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A new shopping experience – coming to your neighborhood Wal-Mart

By Shelli  Dawdy

Having been largely raised by a grandmother who grew up during the Depression, being frugal comes second nature to me, so I do a good deal of my basic-item shopping at Wal-Mart.

Many of us know that Wal-Mart has been long maligned by the left. As a fan of a free market, I considered the sources of the complaints. As a customer, I have felt irritation about such things as the company’s relationships with suppliers ¹, and of course, I have acknowledged the trade-off in customer service. Earlier this year, I learned that Wal-Mart is on board with the “green agenda” and this summer I learned that the retailer was starting to include tracking chips in certain clothing items for inventory purposes. I can appreciate the use of this technology for efficiency purposes, I would prefer any kind of tracking device be taken off before I leave the store.

Wal-Mart has now agreed to participate in the Department of Homeland Security’s “If You See Something, Say Something” program. I am now contemplating shopping alternatives.

The Drudge Report released a rare flash item late last night reporting on the DHS announcement. Wal-Mart has agreed to play a video message from DHS Secretary Janet Napalitano at some check-outs in Wal-Mart stores as part of its participation in the program. The message, embedded below, encourages Wal-Mart shoppers who notice “suspicious activity” to report the information to authorities and / or Wal-Mart store supervisors. This development brings a number of questions to my mind. Have Wal-Mart supervisors now been granted some kind of jurisdiction or legal authority?

The very first thing that occurred to me, besides how creepy I find the whole thing, is: Just WHAT is the definition of suspicious activity for the purposes of this program?

And then my next thought was…does said activity include any of the parameters noted in the MIAC Report or a DHS memo which included in lists of potential terrorists? The DHS memo literally included in its title “Right-Wing Extremism” and the MIAC report listed as potential terrorists people who support State Sovereignty, are advocates of limited government, are devout Christians, and even who are former military.

The same brains trust who issued these reports are in charge of the peep-and-grope-show at our nation’s airports.

Questioning the logic, competency, and potential of these folks to violate my Constitutional rights is nothing more than common sense at this point. And, a lack of definition for just what constitutes “suspicious behavior” is worth wondering about.

Should I choose to shop at my local Wal-mart with a few family members on any given day, there is always a possibility one or even several of us could be wearing clothing items that are some combination of pro-military, pro-Second Amendment, or pro-State Sovereignty.  While spending time together we might talk on any number of subjects. While we might be discussing the merits of one brand of shampoo over another, we are just as likely be discussing some aspect of history or a recent bit of political news.

While I am in a store and do not, under the legal definition, have a reasonable expectation of privacy, I do believe I should have some reasonable expectations about a business which receives no small amount of money from me every year.

I expect someone I’m going to do business with not to enter into an unholy alliance with my government to encourage my fellow citizens and apparently, its employees, to spy on me.

By the way, I do believe this recent Wal-Mart / DHS relationship defines concerns about the vaunted “public-private partnership”.