By Allie Martin
March 12, 2001

(AgapePress) - An Alabama mother single-handedly convinced a Wal-Mart store in her city to cover up magazines with provocative covers displayed in checkout lanes.

Linda Stearns says she eventually became so upset about magazines such as Cosmopolitan, which often features scantily clad models on the cover, that she took her complaints to Wal-Mart officials. Stearns says it was only after she threatened to stand outside the store and distribute flyers highlighting the offensive magazines that store management took corrective action and put such magazines behind blinders.

"I went down to the Wal-Mart and showed them a flyer that I was going to pass out if they didn't decide to something about it," Stearns says. "Within one day, they got them covered up."

Stearns, who lives in Mobile, Alabama, says her story proves that one person can make a difference.

"There's a lot of people out there [who] agree with me [who] ... don't really know what to do, but if they would just do what I did, we'd get a lot more results," she says. "If I can do it alone, they can do it alone, and then we could all join together -- and there's strength in numbers."

Stearns is now involved in a campaign to get all Wal-Mart stores to adopt similar policies.

Since last summer, a coalition of pro-family groups has been urging major grocery store chains to cover up similar magazines in their checkout lanes. The coalition includes such groups as Concerned Women for America, the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, and the American Family Association. Randy Sharp, Director of Special Projects for AFA, says several grocery store chains reported contacting magazine publishers last fall about providing "home" editions of their magazine, with covers containing less sexually-oriented language and images. Sharp reports those editions were supposed to be available this spring, but that he knows of none being released yet.

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