The Home Depot Dakota Communications 2999 Overland Ste 210 Los Angeles CA 90064-9919 April 21, 2006 Dear Dakota Communications , If you are an executive or employee of the Dakota Communications Company I urge you to fully understand the ideals of Home Depot and how through your marketing, specifically the recent mailer entitled “We Care”, Home Depot is attempting to exploit a town, destroy a community and undermine the government of the city of Los Angeles. If you are unaware of the issues at stake, please contact the Sunland Tujunga Neighborhood Council, or the No Home Depot website, or Wendy Greuel of the 2nd Council District of Los Angeles, or Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. All of these organizations or individuals support the rejection of the plans to install a Home Depot or a Home Depot Distribution center in the cities of Sunland-Tujunga. Despite the money that you are making with Home Depot as your client, you may begin to feel a bit queasy when you get the real story. You are essentially allowing Home Depot to be JUST LIKE Phillip Morris. Do you really want to be associated with this sort of business? Phillip Morris has spent at least millions of dollars in advertising attempting to clear their name of the stigma of nothing less than death. That’s quite a job. And to further discredit themselves, they still produce cigarettes while they attempt to create some sort of odd goodwill with the entire country through advertising that suggests they care about the health of the country. They still produce cigarettes. They do not care. Home depot does not “care” either. I am writing to you, Dakota Communications, to assure you that with this mailing from your company Home Depot does not appear benign, does not appear helpful and most certainly, does not appear caring. What Home Depot appears as, is manipulative and desperate. The irony is almost amusing. It would be more amusing if so much were not at stake. In the “We Care” brochure you state very clearly that Home Depot’s corporate intentions are “ethical” and that Home Depot believes “every child deserves a safe place to play,” and that “clean air, places of refuge…and health benefits…are essential.” YET AT THIS VERY MOMENT Home Depot is blatantly violating all of these beliefs, all of these “ethical” ideals because as you read this letter Home Depot is underhandedly through the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety trying to avoid a Project Permit Compliance Review and Environmental Assessment. They are avoiding it because they believe it to be a loop hole through which they can drop their store into our town. They KNOW that the citizens of Sunland and Tujunga, with the support of Wendy Greuel and Mayor Villaraigosa are in TOTAL OPPOSITION to their plan. So they found a back door and they aren’t just knocking. Not very ethical. Let’s address the other ideals in the brochure. Well, at this very moment Home Depot is attempting to guarantee that our community will NOT HAVE what “every child deserves - a safe place to play,” WILL NOT HAVE “clean air, places of refuge” the very things that in your brochure are touted as “essential.” I will include with this letter the information regarding issues of safety, pollution, attention to realistic current and future city and resident needs and desires. You need to be cognizant of the facts. You are not working for a altruistic company, you are working for an opportunistic antagonistic entity that has not and never will “care” about anything more than making another dollar, and in addition, a company that will make that next dollar at anyone’s expense. I hope you understand the gravity of this situation and that what is at stake is more than what you may have imagined. What is at stake are the very ideals stated in your brochure. What is at stake are communities. What is at stake are ethics. Even your ethics as you help Home Depot to exploit a town, destroy a community and undermine the government of the city of Los Angeles. Respectfully, (name withheld by request) Return to Newsflash -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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