Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

Last week when my husband, a Vietnam War Veteran and member of the V.F.W. Post in Holly Ridge, asked our local Food Lion to post a sign announcing the upcoming Memorial Day Parade and the celebratory events here in Sneads Ferry and was told that the decision to do so could not be made in the local store but had to be cleared by Food Lion Corporate. 

My husband cited the facts that we had been permitted to do so in the past and furthermore that the window in Food Lion presently displayed two large decals containing yellow ribbons and the phrase "We support our troops."

I e-mailed Food Lion Corporate and was told that their new policy was that no signage of any kind was permitted in their store windows. Ms. Martha Bostian also stated that the "We support our troops" signage was an oversight and would be removed.

The next day, as our Ladies Auxiliary was told that they could not conduct their Poppy Drive in front of the store, an employee was scraping the decals from the store's windows.

It is not our clergy, lawyers, politicians or newspaper reporters who guarantee our freedoms of religion, trial by jury, speech and press but our military - past and present - who fought and died for these freedoms.

The renovation of the Food Lion stores is also, it seems, a renovation of their attitude toward the military community they serve.

This Memorial Day we continue to remember and be proud of our Veterans who served and died so that we may be free.

Apparently the recent renovations of the Food Lion stores were not just a renovation of the physical site but also a renovation of attitude. How can we support a store that does not support our military?

Sneads Ferry Food Lion, labeled the flagship store of the newly remodeled Food Lion chain, seems to have sailed... leaving our military out at sea.

Sincerely,

Pattie Yost

Sneads Ferry