We welcome your opinions and letters — with name and address. We will edit when necessary. Include your name, address and phone number for verification. Mail them to Bay Weekly, P.O. Box 358, Deale, MD 20751 • E-mail them to us at [email protected].

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In Defense of Wal-Mart
Dear Bay Weekly:
After reading “Wary of Wal-Mart in Parole” editorial in the April 8 issue of Bay Weekly [Vol. XII, No. 15], I felt I had to set the record straight.

Wal-Mart has become the community scapegoat for all that is wrong in small business, but in my opinion the popularity of the low-cost store is a reflection of the market itself. Real people want value and convenience, and Wal-Mart offers both. Where else but Wal-Mart can you drop off your film for one-hour developing, get boating supplies, house trim paint, eat lunch, shop for fabric for a spring craft, get a gift for a birthday and the wrapping and card, pick up your prescription and your developing — all the while be greeted with a smile by an employee with a disability who hasn’t been offered employment anywhere else?

In your editorial, you said “corporate profiteers … could care less about our churches schools and little leagues.” You couldn’t be more off the mark. Our local Wal-Mart donates gift certificates and grant funding on a regular basis to Project Linus and the local churches that support us. Wal-Mart itself creates community. I visit with neighbors I meet in the aisles and chat with the friendly employees, many of them seniors who have been forced to retire or down-sized by other companies who don’t see the value in experience. I support other charities, too, at my Wal-Mart where I can purchase cookies or raffle tickets from Scout troops that are permitted to sell at the front door.

Personally, I look forward to the expansion of the Prince Frederick Wal-Mart. Then perhaps I will be able to save enough money on food (versus the local big grocery chains) to go out for a meal with my family once in a while.

Parole residents, you don’t know what you are missing!

—Jill Malcolm, Chesapeake Beach: Coordinator, Project Linus Southern Maryland

Pleased to be Reviewed by Pugh
Dear Bay Weekly:
Thank you so much for referring our work in Undiscovered to music reviewer Matt Pugh. We are happy and pleased with the fair and positive portrayal he wrote on us in Pugh’s Reviews: “On Undiscovered, Local Musicians Step into the Limelight” [Vol. XII, No 18: April 29].

—Chris Haley, Annapolis

Looking to 101 Ways to Have Fun
Dear Bay Weekly:
I used to grab your paper on a regular basis, but I no longer live in Upper Marlboro. You have a publication listing all the things you can do for the summer, I think it was called 101 Ways to Enjoy Your Summer. I would love a copy for the summer of 2004.

—Robert Howard, Temple Hills

Editor’s note: 101 Ways to Have Fun: Bay Weekly’s Indispensable Guide to Summer on the Bay appears June 17, when it also goes online at www.bayweekly.com.