Another Front Range Objectivist is on the warpath! Kelly Valenzuela sent this announcement to OActivists on Monday:

I just heard an ad on the radio for Walmart. In the ad, they are pushing for nationalized health care and I am mad as hell! After all the arguing and debating I’ve done on Walmart’s behalf (about cities not allowing them to build new stores, about unions criticizing them, about people hating them because they were “too big”, etc.) for them to turn their back on me now is sickening.

I called Walmart’s toll-free customer service number and told the associate how I felt about their nationalized health care push and why I will never shop at another Walmart ever again, after being a loyal customer for about 30 years now. (And you don’t know how hard that will be for me!) I then sent an email to Walmart from their website reiterating the same information. I encourage you to do the same.

If they want to play politics, I’m gonna play capitalism and boycott their stores!

If Walmart is pushing socialism, I can’t believe there’s any hope left for capitalism. :-(

I wholeheartedly support Kelly, and I encourage others to do what she’s done.

You can e-mail Wal-Mart’s customer service via this web form. Their web site lists 800-925-6278 as their customer service contact number, but you might also try their “ethics” number at 800-WM-ETHIC. Also, for more information on this issue, see Paul’s post about it on the FIRM blog.

Update July 17th: Here’s what I just sent to Wal-Mart:

Dear Wal-Mart —

I am appalled by your promotion of socialized medicine. You are using dollars that you’ve earned in the (relatively) free market in consumer goods to destroy what little freedom remains in medicine. Americans should be free to exercise their own judgment using their own property in medicine, just as in every other area of their life. That’s what it means to possess the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those rights are being systematically trampled by the government today — and you are lending your support to that black evil.

Until Wal-mart publicly commits to supporting free market reforms in medicine, I will take my business elsewhere.

For more information on free market medicine, see: http://www.westandfirm.org/

We stand for Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine.

America was founded on the principles of freedom and individual rights. Applied to medicine, the law must respect the individual rights of doctors and other providers, allowing them the freedom to practice medicine. This includes the right to choose their patients, to determine the best treatment for their patients, and to bill their patients accordingly. In the same manner, the law must respect the individual rights of patients, allowing them the freedom to seek out the best doctors and treatment they can afford.

Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine (FIRM) promotes the philosophy of individual rights, personal responsibility, and free market economics in health care. FIRM holds that the only moral and practical way to obtain medical care is that of individuals choosing and paying for their own medical care in a capitalist free market. Federal and state regulations and entitlements, we maintain, are the two most important factors in driving up medical costs. They have created the crisis we face today.

Diana Hsieh
Sedalia, Colorado