Saturday, August 15, 2009

Whole Foods Market, Inc. -- My Response!



Whole Food Markets, Inc.'s CEO, John Mackey has come out in a pronounced and passionate way against national Healthcare Reform. As a consumer of his business, I cannot accept this blindly. He has every right to take a stand, and I have not only a right, but an obligation to respond. Here's my response, in the form of a letter.

John Mackey, CEO
Whole Foods Market, Inc.
550 Bowie Street
Austin, Texas 78703-4644

Dear Mr. Mackey,

I'm going to keep this short and to the point. Your stance against healthcare reform is surely ill informed and simply unacceptable. As a corporate business owner, you of all people ought to realize the value of a national healthcare system that provides affordable, efficient access to doctors and medicine for all Americans.
We live in the richest nation this planet has ever witnessed, and yet our citizens receive only the 37th best healthcare behind places like Costa Rica, Andorra, & Cyprus! This is simply unacceptable. We have given our new president a mandate to make right in this area what has been for way too long wrong. Your right to oppose this initiative is your sacred option; however, as the corporate leader of a company that I have long supported with my hard earned dollars, it comes at a price.
After years of frequent and regular patronage at your stores in Silver Spring and Gaithersburg, Maryland; I will no longer spend another dime at either. Furthermore, I will do whatever I can to educate my family, friends, co-workers, and church community about your opposition to healthcare reform in the hopes of convincing them to take the same stand.
I sincerely hope that you come to your senses and recant your opposition to healthcare reform.

Civily yours,

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A similar letter was sent to each of the members of Whole Foods Market's board of Directors. They are:

Dr. John B. Elstrott
Gabrielle Greene
Hass Hassan
Stephanie Kugelman
Jonathan A. Seiffer
Morris Siegel
Jonathan D. Sokoloff
Dr. Ralph Z. Sorenson
and
William A. Tindell, III

Here's a copy of the letter that I sent to each of the them:

William A. Tindell, Member of the Board of Directors
Whole Foods Market, Inc.
550 Bowie Street
Austin, Texas 78703-4644

Dear Mr. Tindell,

I'm going to keep this short and to the point. The stance of your CEO, John Mackey, against healthcare reform is simply unacceptable. As a member of the Board of Directors at Whole Foods, you deserve to be informed when your CEO’s actions jeopardize the bottom line of the company you are charged with shepherding.
As I told, Mr. Mackey in a separate letter, we live in the richest nation this planet has ever witnessed, and yet our citizens receive only the 37th best healthcare behind places like Costa Rica, Andorra, & Cyprus!1 This is simply unacceptable. We have given our new president a mandate to make right in this area what has been for way too long wrong. And while I will defend Mr. Mackey’s right as an American citizen to speak his truth, as the corporate leader of your company --a company that I have long supported with my hard earned dollars, his right to an opinion comes at a price.
After years of frequent and regular patronage at your stores in Silver Spring and Gaithersburg, Maryland; I will no longer spend another dime at either. Furthermore, I will do whatever I can to educate my family, friends, co-workers, and church community about Mr. Mackey’s opposition to healthcare reform.
I sincerely hope that you can help Whole Foods discover a more humane stand on this issue.

Civily yours,

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