Today I  took a trip to Atlanta, Texas to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Atlanta is an East Texas town of about 6500 people.  As I drove through “downtown” Atlanta it was clear that that any resemblance to its namesake in Georgia was in name only.  It was named after Atlanta, Georgia because many of the early settlers were from that area.

It was a typical one street downtown as I have seen in other small Texas towns such as Olney, Boyd and Archer City where the classic movie The Last Picture Show was filmed.   Streets like you would see in any “Route 66” town across America.    As is standard in small Texas towns, there is a barber, candy shop, bank, hardware store, bakery, sporting goods store, few antique stores, a Dairy Queen and of course a huge, bustling, Walmart.  The staples of  life that can be cut and pasted to countless small towns across America.

There were also numerous boarded up storefronts.

The Atlanta Chamber of Commerce Web Site states:

“Atlanta exemplifies small town America. Warm smiles and warmer greetings reflect a friendly and progressive community.”

What Atlanta and other small towns all over the country never envisioned when they were formed (Atlanta was founded in 1872)  was that small town America would one day be synonymous with the arrival of Walmart.

Today in Atlanta as I lay in a turkey coma on the couch watching The Dallas Cowboys dismantle their opponent in their new stadium dubbed “The Death- Star”  I casually mentioned that it was sad that there were so many boarded up stores. Out of the depths of my turkey fog I heard a voice in the room yell out”

Walmart Did This To Us!

It then occurred to me.   Many in small town America may look at  the arrival of Walmart as the invasion of Evil Empire and its own type of economic Death-Star

Darth Vader, who was unmasked many years ago, didn’t initially destroy these towns with his death ray. He arrived with the promise of peace and prosperity. The Death -Star then set down in the middle of town,  touting every possible convenience a person could want at cheaper prices, with greater diversity and quantity.  Unfortunately no Jedi Knights ever came to the rescue.  They were to busy fueling up their Starfighters at discount prices.

Now, instead of seeing the sign “Victory Tonight And Free Haircut Tomorrow” if the high school football team or basketball team wins, we see, “Going Out of Business Liquidation Sale.”

How can the “It’s A Wonderful Life” dream of small town America possibly compete with the neon lit entrance to the Death Star just a block away?  Instead we see “The Last Picture Show” at the local theater just before it closes for good to be transformed into a Walgreens.  The residents of Atlanta, Texas leave the theater and disappear into the Death Star never to be heard from again by the local merchants.

©2009 Brian Cuban