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[caption id="attachment_1814" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Boycott Target\[/caption]

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Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe and a very special… and very personal article. From the very beginning I am going to beg your patience and indulgence My Dear Readers. As I have never, in my life, engaged in the type of activity I’m embarking on tonight. Tonight I am going to share this single most terrifying incident in my entire life. An incident that forever changed my life and the major reason I find myself in a wheelchair today.

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The date; August 25, 1987. The place; Target stores electronics lock up in Manhattan Beach California. I was nearing the end of my shift working in electronics for Target in Manhattan Beach California on Pacific Coast Highway. I was in the lockup storeroom they used for electronics. I was in the process of doing a visual inventory, minding my own business and doing my job, when my life was turned completely upside down.

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Everything I am about to tell you, My Dear Readers, I have pieced together from information given to me after the fact, and my own memories. I was not alone in the electronics lock up on that day. There was another girl… She was on the top of a very tall ladder at the other side of the room. She was moving stock around at the very top of the steel racks that contained merchandise. To this day I fear that she, unintentionally, put the events in the action that resulted in my injury.

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As I said, I was doing a visual inventory of a stack of oddly assorted merchandise. Everything in this lockup, except what was in front of me, was on steel racks. However the pile of merchandise in front of me… was not on any kind of supports whatsoever. In the stack there were; boxes of photo albums, boxes containing video games, boxes containing pretty much every other odd and end you might find in the electronics department from calculators to cameras to… A single electric Smith Corona typewriter.

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Aye. there’s the rub… the electric Smith Corona typewriter (for some stupid reason) was on the very top and a 15 foot stack of miss-stocked items. At that moment I had no idea how that typewriter got all the way to the top of an unevenly stacked and precariously held together 15 foot pile of electronics. However, in a matter of moments that typewriter would change my life in ways that I would not fully understand till 26 years later, today. The other employee and I were not talking. As I remember, I did not know this employee very well. I recognized her from the store I had seen her around before, but we had never talked are engaged each other socially. Odd, this person and I did not know each other but in a matter of moments her being in that room would set about a chain of events that ended up putting me in a wheelchair today.

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She was looking for something, on the very top rack of the steel that she was working on at the entrance of the electronics lock up. She was very busy shifting boxes around and moving things back and forth. All I know is; the next thing I knew was I saw her left hand push something… then a box… it fell over. Then as I looked up… she shouted  “watch out!”. The next thing I know I see this typewriter falling from the top of the stack towards my head. My Dear Readers looking back on this today I wonder… I think to myself. Why didn’t I jump to the left of the right? Why didn’t I fall to the ground and curl up into a ball? Why didn’t I put my hands over my head and go into a fetal position? The fact of the matter is, I did none of those things. All I did was lean forward and try and move my body to the left as this 30 pound steel electric typewriter fell 15 feet towards my head.

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I remember the typewriter striking the back of my head and my neck, that is the last thing I remember. The next thing I remember is waking up and somehow magically a room that only had myself another coworker in… it was full of people including the store manager. I remember feeling extremely hot. I remember I was in terrific pain. I remember that I couldn’t feel are hardly move my right arm or leg.  I remember I had difficulty speaking. The rest is history. I was immediately taken to Centinela hospital in Los Angeles, where I spent two months. Then I was transferred to an Institute for head injured adults in Long Beach.

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Just two weeks ago, while shopping ironically in a Target store here in West minister, I found out that that day… This, single worst day in my entire life... that… that day and my injury had been turned into a training video by Target for its employees. My Dear Readers it pains me to tell you that not once was I ever contacted by Target prior to them making this video. Target did not notify me that they were going to make a video about the worst in my life. Target did not ask for my input or permission to take any event in my life that is left me in a wheelchair and turn it into a video. And worst of all My Dear Readers Target has not offered me one red cent for capitalizing on this tragic accident.

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That is why I am asking you… All of you to please consider, this holiday season, boycotting Target. I strongly feel that Target stores should be boycotted because they have taken the most terrible day in my entire life and turned it into a training video… Turn it into a way for them to make money. I apologize, I know that this is asking a lot, but I am asking you from the very depths of my soul to please boycott Target.   

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Boycott Target; until they contact me and offer me recompense for turning the worst day of my life into a training video. Boycott Target; for callously disregarding how it might make the victim of their negligence feel for them to turn the worst day of my life into a way to protect themselves from workman compensation claims. Boycott Target; because any company who would take a life-altering event and turn it into some flipping training video is not a company that deserves your money.

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Quite honestly, My Dear Readers, I firmly believe that Target should have first contacted me about making a video of the worst day in my life. Quite honestly I think that Target should’ve asked my permission before making about a video about the worst day in my life. And finally, I think Target should be paying me for all the years they have used the single most painful and life-changing day in my life to protect themselves from other lawsuits.

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My Dear Readers below is a video of me asking for everyone’s support. I would like to ask you to; share this video, share this article, share it through YouTube, share it through email, share it to family, share it to friends, share it to coworkers, share it to everybody that you can. Please help me get this article, this video, and my plight out to every person we possibly can because Target does not deserve all the holiday business. Please, help me and

Boycott Target!

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/dd2X5sdt3Ds]