What are you paying for besides food when you shop at Ralph's?

author : Janet Blanding topic : Plan B | Ralph's / Bayview Thriftway

by Janet Blanding

The Suppression of Women's Rights. Ralph's and Bayview shoppers are paying to support a backwards attitude towards women's, and everyone's, reproductive rights. Not content to merely keep the condoms under lock and key, Ralph's Thriftway is refusing to stock emergency contraception. Initially represented to several community members as a business decision, Kevin Stormans, vice president of Stormans Incorporated, changed his story for media interviews with The Olympian and Seattle television stations by calling this policy a "moral" decision. He characterizes it as an issue arising out of when one believes life begins. He clearly has a mistaken understanding of what emergency contraception is and does, along the lines of Christian extremists' intentional mischaracterization of it. Plan B is not an abortifacient; it does not dislodge an established pregnancy. There is not any clear medical evidence to suggest that Plan B prevents a fertilized egg from implanting. Plan B works primarily by inhibiting fertilization, as conception often occurs when an egg is released after sexual intercourse. But science is irrelevant to those whose minds are morally entrenched. Evangelical christian extremists are encouraged to spread their faith in whatever "spheres of influence" they may have, including places of business, church, families, governments, education, media and healthcare.

The Stormans family is forcing its customers to swallow its evangelical morality by working their spheres of influence in limiting customer choice in the pharmacy. In order to maintain a pharmacy license, pharmacies need to comply with state regulations and stock medications considered necessary to the population they serve. Stormans is banking on the proposed code drafted by the Board of Pharmacy to protect them from the repercussions of refusing to stock Plan B. On June 1, 2006, the Board of Pharmacy drafted a proposed WAC that would allow individual pharmacists to refuse to fill any prescription for no better reason than they just don't feel like it. It's no secret that limiting access to emergency contraception (EC) is on the conservative agenda, but this draft code is so sloppily written that it will allow a pharmacist to refuse to fill legal prescriptions for just about anything; it opens the door to refusal to fill AIDS drugs, anti-depressants, painkillers, pregnancy vitamins for unwed mothers -- any legitimate prescription that a pharmacy objects to filling for any reason whatsoever. It allows for a horrible breach in the relationship between physician and patient.

The existing WAC that requires a pharmacy to stock all medications commonly prescribed to the population it serves remains in place. An earlier draft code addressing the pharmacist refusal issue was revised and a provision which specified that pharmacies must be adequately stocked was stricken because, according to Pharmacy Board member Donna Dockter, it was covered by existing code and was therefore "redundant." Obviously, this loophole created by the slipshod, hasty process on June 1 is being exploited by at least one grocer and pharmacy owner with a moralistic bent. The public will be allowed to comment on this proposed code before it is adopted at a hearing in Kent on August 31.

Ralph's pharmacy is the neighborhood pharmacy for a great many people, including teenagers and low income people who may not have easy access to transportation. According to Lauren Trent, Chair of the Washington Alliance for Reproductive Choice, all pharmacies should stock EC. Given the time-sensitive nature of the drug's efficacy, "a pharmacy's decision not to stock EC ... impedes a woman's ability to take the drug within the appropriate time window, and imposes an unfair burden if she has to travel in order to obtain it." Although this is more of a burden for women in rural areas where pharmacies are more distantly spaced, even in Olympia, some of the most fragile members of our community, such as teenagers and the mentally ill, may have difficulty obtaining a drug in an unfamiliar pharmacy.

Plan B Oly, an ad hoc coalition of Olympians who want to preserve access to contraception, has called for a boycott of Ralph's Thriftway and Bayview, along with other Stormans-owned businesses starting the month of July. Inaugural picketing outside of Ralph's Thriftway began Wednesday, June 28, and may continue through July. Please check the action schedule at http://www.planboly.org or by email planboly@hotmail.com for more information.

What else are you paying for when you shop at Ralph's?

Contributions to Conservative Politicians and Causes. Stormans Incorporated and Kenneth Stormans have made a number of contributions to conservative Republican politicians, including $1000 in 2004 to Dino Rossi, $250 in 2004 to James McCune, and smaller contributions to local Republicans Ira Knight, David Kent, Sam Reed, the rabidly anti-queer Valera Stevens and others. Contributions have also been made to the Thurston County Republican Central Committee, and in 2003 a $500 contribution was made to the deceptively named Workers Against Job Killing Rules Ballot Initiative Committee which would have prohibited measures to ensure more ergonomic workplace regulations to prevent work-related injuries and repetitive stress-related health problems in the workplace. Since the spotlight has been shone on Ralph's, several former workers and their friends have privately shared with me their stories of unfair workplace treatment by the Stormans.

Evangelical Christian Values. A corporations search for the name Stormans reveals that among the expected corporations (Stormans Incorporated, Stormans Properties LLC, Tumwater Rental LLC) is a surprise: Daniel's House of Prayer. Further inquiry reveals that Daniel's House of Prayer is a recently converted private home just adjacent to the Capitol campus in the South Capitol Neighborhood. According to a description of Daniel's House of Prayer on a connect.us website, the purpose "is to support and serve the community, local, state and national leaders with consistent daily prayer, hospitality and information." Ken Stormans, president of Stormans, Inc. with his wife Lynn Stormans serves as Chairman of the Board of this non-profit corporation. Daniel's House of Prayer's Board of Directors includes Bob Higley, a former lobbyist. Higley is closely allied with the "Faith and Freedom Network," the chief sponsors of the recent failed referendum to ban gay marriages that was promoted by Tim Eyman. The group was actively circulating petitions for the failed referendum, R-65. The house is owned by Diana and Thomas Wakefield, and Diana Wakefield also serves as the Director of Administrations and is the Director of Prayer Ministries at Westwood Baptist Church. Westwood Baptist Church, to which at least some of the members of the Stormans family belong, was actively engaged in soliciting signatures for the failed R65.

Diana Wakefield has also been associated with the National Day of Prayer, affiliated with Focus on the Family, which supports legislation to ban gay marriage and stop abortion. A rumor was circulating in the South Capitol neighborhood that Daniel's House of Prayer was used as a place to "pray against gay marriage." In a telephone interview, Diana Wakefield vehemently denied that this was the case. "We are not praying against anything," she insists. "We are praying for blessings for that neighborhood, for our leaders, for our church communities, and for our faith communities. ... yet, of course, we have personal convictions." She maintains that Daniel's House of Prayer is not involved with lobbying, has no legislative agenda, and indeed, is not affiliated with a particular denomination, with "eight churches ... represented on the board." However, active church-based lobbying groups have recently published the house as a destination for their constituents to visit, including the Christian Home School Network, Citizens for Community Values, the Faith and Freedom Network, Washington Evangelicals for Responsible Government, and CONECT.

Other questions have arisen regarding the presence of a house of worship in a residential neighborhood. Georgia Sabol, Code Enforcement officer for the City of Olympia, issued a warning, or "courtesy" letter, to Daniel's House of Prayer on 3/23/06, in response to complaints from neighbors who are dismayed to see non-residential use being made of houses in a neighborhood they wish to protect as residential. The condition cited in this letter was that a single family residence had been converted to "a place of worship or fraternal organization." According to Sabol, no lobbying is taking place at the house, but "They are providing a place for either representatives or anybody in government to come for support or prayer, in real small groups of two or three. They don't have a minister. They are not doing services." In a meeting with Code Enforcement on Thursday, June 22, Board Members of Daniel's House of Prayer were given an application for a conditional use permit, which would only be granted following review by the planning section of community planning and development. Jeanne Marie Thomas, President of the Board of the South Capitol Neighborhood Association emphasized in a telephone interview that her association is working hard to preserve the South Capitol neighborhood as a residential neighborhood and historic district. Although she stated that if "Daniel's House of Prayer is used in a nonresidential way, we will have a concern about that," she has talked to Diana Wakefield and feels that "she is reaching out and wants to bridge whatever gaps exist."

One existing gap is the question of whether or not the house is currently being used as a residence. One South Capitol resident who did not wish to be identified by name noted that cars arrive and park near the house around 9 a.m. in the morning and leave around 5 p.m. Earlier in the year, office hours were posted on the door of the residential home. Diana Wakefield explained that "when I posted office hours, it was for the workmen who were working there, and it was to let them know when I would be on site to facilitate the work." Wakefield told me that the building is currently occupied by a tenant, but declined to give "her" name. In talking with another South Capitol neighbor, however, she used the male pronoun to describe the tenant of the house. A third neighbor was told recently by a woman who identified herself as Diana Wakefield that she herself was living in the house; this occurred almost immediately after the meeting with the City of Olympia's Code enforcement officer. Although Wakefield states that Daniel's House of Prayer is eager to work with the city and neighborhood in a transparent manner to ensure that land use codes are met and the neighborhood character is preserved, these inconsistencies raise additional questions about how profits from Storman-owned corporations are being used.

Because Stormans has decided to exert its evangelical Christian value system through their spheres of influence in the grocery and pharmacy businesses they own, progressive community dollars are going to support a conservative political agenda without the direct consent of community members. It's nice to shop locally, but how different is Stormans from Wal*Mart in this case?