Posted by
James Burns on Friday, November 28, 2008 8:20:48 PM
Just after a day of giving thanks for blessings we have been given for the past year, the day after turns into a total materialistic lust fest for goods at super cheap prices. People transform from the peaceful ones they were the day before to total animals the very next day.
Today has been no different. A Long Island man who worked part time at Wal-Mart as a holiday temp was trampled to death by more than two thousand people as he opened the doors. These people were rushing in to get a sub four hundred dollar L.C.D. television and other electronics that were marked down for Black Friday. More people were injured as well but the man dying was just uncalled for. The poor man just went to work to make a living for his family, not even thinking that he would not come home. The worst parts of this whole scenario is that the people went on shopping like nothing happened and emergency personal were being pushed around by shoppers as they tried to attend to the poor man.
This was this years tragedy. In years past, situations like this have happened. Why do we as a society allow for this? Why are we driven by greed and lust of things? I myself did not go out for the sales. I have always thought it as a gimmick. I have noticed many of the sales happen again. It's just the hype put behind this one day. So what will Wal-Mart do to prevent this from happening again? Will they not participate in Black Friday sales? I just wonder. No wonder we are hated by the world. Our barbaric behavior when it comes to material things well known. What does the rest of the world think of situations such as this. The Al-Qaeda's of the world must laugh. They kill each other and us over religious beliefs, we kill ourselves for tv sets. This violence and behavior isn't because of religion, civil rights, a war or other legitimate reason, it was over a tv set.
I have never said anything about Black Friday publicly before. Each year I see these things happen and just shake my head. But enough is enough. It's time to get back to sanity. Let's look at how the media is hyping Black Friday. Sales are leaked on the internet months before they will take place. All the financial channels will have numbers out soon to see how well Black Friday went. It is time to stand up and not fall for the hype anymore. I know that this is not a political cause or so one. But lives are lost, violent acts are committed over material things that no one even owns yet. For me I will continue to not participate in Black Friday. But I hope more will not participate as well. Let the stores, malls and merchants know we will not be controlled like this. Forcing them to spread sales like this out to eliminate these acts.
I hope that the surveillance video in that Wal-Mart shows the people stampeding this poor man and the authorities can find a way to prosecute. I hope also that Wal-Mart does the responsible thing and changes the way they do business. If Wal-Mart can spread those prices around instead of a couple of hours, then maybe other stores will follow suit. But if we all boycott Black Friday the stores will be forced to do something else. Human life is definitely worth more than a tv set.