Wal-Mart doesn’t have enough money, so an interruption in the holiday shopping season would really hurt them (sure):

Last Saturday afternoon, Eva Voorhees heard the clatter of feet on the roof of the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Mitchell where she works in the photo department – but it wasn’t the pitter-patter of reindeer.

It was the police looking for a bomb. Up front, police officers, the SWAT team and others were busy searching the store next to customers who were browsing for gifts. The police looked in jewelry counters, wrapping paper rolls, freezers, the back room where trucks unload and closets at Tire Lube Express.

During the nearly two-hour search, Wal-Mart officials opted not to evacuate the busy discount store even though police recommended they do so. Wal-Mart officials said the call was a hoax and not a threat.

The incident has family members of Wal-Mart employees criticizing store officials for failing to take the threat seriously.

So this is how Wal-Mart thanks their customers – by putting them in harms way? Of course Wal-Mart is not only to blame in this. The police and fire departments should have forced an evacuation.

During the first Gulf War, we had a bomb threat at a major mall in our town. As a firefighter, I was called to respond. We ordered the mall evacuated during the search, and it was done. The owners actually had no option – Ohio state law states that if there is a probably danger to the public and an evacuation is ordered by public safety, then it must be done. Perhaps South Dakota doesn’t have the same laws.

I am sure the pro-business Republicans will support the decision by Wal-Mart to stay open. Of course these are the same people who chastised the citizens of New Orleans for NOT evacuating. Perhaps we should take terroristic threats seriously in this post 9-11 world. If the businesses refuse to comply then they face very strict penalties and economic sanctions.

This country did more to prepare for terrorism during the first Gulf War than is has since 9/11. That is ashame, and very dangerous to the American public. There is no one to blame on this, but the White House and Bush’s lack of understanding of the world we live in. That lack of understanding was echoed by the Republican controlled Congress. Perhaps with Democrats controlling Congress, we can see some laws to force terrorism to be taken seriously, and the impact of these threats are shared by everyone – not just individuals.