Thanksgiving and Then What?
I remember learning in school that America was divided into three classes: the lower, middle and upper class. We all strived to get to the middle class, the signal that we had arrived, fulfilling the American dream.
We don't talk very much about classes any longer, and I don't miss that.
But, we do talk about the two Americas, and that hurts.
Our "Red States" and "Blue States" define the divide in basic primary colors.
In California, the maps of the counties that voted for and against Proposition 8 to ban gay marriage was as distinctive as the red and blue states, but most graphic portrayals were in black and white.
The really good America was in full force yesterday. Here in Los Angeles, I saw the wonderful "Father Dollar Bill," the loving name given to Reverend Maurice Chase, who hands out dollar bills (with inflation, now hundred dollars bills sometimes) to homeless and needy people in Downtown L.A. His benefactors range from those who used to need his donations to Bob and Ginny Newhart, Dolores Hope, Barbara Sinatra and Eli Broad. Right nearby are the Skid Row missions and shelters, which serve thousands of healthy Thanksgiving meals to anyone who needs them. The expressions on the faces on the children, senior citizens and everyone else are priceless. It was also encouraging to hear that there were more volunteers than ever before donating their time to prepare and serve the meals.
And, then, this morning, on the aptly named Black Friday, the first national story of the day was that an employee at a Walmart in Valley Stream, New York, was, as CNN told me, "trampled by a mob of morning shoppers." There were also reports of shoppers being injured.
I understand political differences. I worship those who donate their time and money to help others. I have no words for the concept of shoppers trampling a store employee and fellow shoppers to make the most of Black Friday.
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For some Americans Black Friday is the only time of year they can afford to buy a computer or a new tv. For those of us with a regular, good income that may be hard to understand.
It is time for us to level the playing field with some social and tax policies that are conducive to re-building a strong middle class.
No, do not give these people an out! There are thousands of us with good jobs and a comfortable home who participate in Black Friday madness. The point is there is a section of society which thinks it is okay to act that way. They go to Walmart's and the store knows that. They put out limited numbers of super deals and laugh all the way to the bank when the people fight to get in.
The shame goes to the people who did this and stores like Walmarts and Best Buy who intentionally hype the event and careless about the out come.
BTW I was at Walmarts this am and did not and would NEVER participate in that kind of ugliness. I saw people act as if their lives depended on getting the sale ( just for the record, nothing was given away free) . The overall mentality is to blame and there is no excuse for the behavior that derives from that
I don't think I was giving anyone an out. I was trying to point out to the author, as well as to some people commenting here that some of us may not have a true understanding of how desperate some people are to get their piece of the pie, since, during the rest of the year, prices may be prohibitive for them.
Our whole society is much too focused on consuming and there is absolutely no excuse for such behavior. But it is too easy to label these people as wild animals. You have to look at what is at the root of this behavior. With a drastically shrunken middle-class fewer and fewer people can afford things that have become staples for basic living (for ex. a computer for a kid to do homework on). For those of us who have no problem laying down the 500 or 700 or whatever hundred dollars, it's easy to criticize this animalistic behavior. I feel blessed that I am not that desperate.
You flatter yourself. If you were at the front of a crowd stampede, you would have had no choice but to move forward or fall down when the doors broke from the pressure of people behind you pushing you, suffocating you. The only shame is that Walmart permitted this to happen, and that is a crime for which they should be prosecuted.
Black friday is called that because retailers traditionally attempt to go from red numbers to black in their accounting books. If you can't afford it consider yourself a lucky person and make the best of what you have because things aren't what make life great, people are. BELIEVE me, retailers will find a way to survive if everyone stops playing along with their dangerous games and that means lower prices later on if not now. In addition, the products you see at this time of the year almost universally represent the worst in design and practicality; is this stuff we should be investing in at a period when we are sure to have less throughout the year?
How pathetic that someone actually died today-because of mad shoppers-at WalMart, of all places. I simply cannot imagine anything at WalMart worth killing for. Why aren't these people shopping on the internet anyway-hello, free shipping! plus all the crazy discounts. The many people can actually spend the same amount of money on a nice gift from William Sonoma, this year, that they might have spent at WalMart, last year.
I hope the family of that employee sues the pants off of WalMart. Like, America's biggest retailer couldn't afford to provide some security for what was so predictably going to be a stampede. Disgusting.
Walmart holds the blame for this tragedy. Why open so early when people are tired and crabby? Why only have popular items on sale for a two hour period in the wee hours of the morning, just put them on sale and keep standard hours. Where was the security when there was a huge crowd outside? Why was it up to one poor schlub to open the door with no back up? There are a million techniques for handling big crowds, airports do it every day, but Walmart doesn't want to spend the money on it.
Don't wag your finger at the greed or consumerism of the American people without pointing it at Walmart. This didn't have to happen and the only reason it did was because Walmart did not protect it's employees or customers to increase their bottom line. Rest assured the victims of this tragedy will not have lawyers that can beat Walmart's.
The greedy corporate marketing gimmicks for Black Friday incite this behaviour. Americans are trying to stretch their very thin dollar further because while their wages have remained stagnant, every other cost of living has skyrocketed. But just like the upper classes, they want to give their kids a Christmas too. They should be able to without killing each other. Something is wrong with the system and Walmart epitomizes it.
I commented something very similar on another post about this very thing, but....it......ah..disappeared into the halls of Huffpo never to be seen again.
I agree with you. Wallyworld knew exactly what the outcome would be; got a lot of free media attention for itself and is now pointing the blame at the poor, thirsty, hungry, cold, tired, bladders bursting shoppers. ( note the color of the shoppers!) I bet this happened (without the deaths) in alot of Walmart "Supercenters" and we just didn't hear about it.
The greed is Walmart's. the carrots are Walmart's. the BLAME is Walmart's. Walmart all the way all the time.
And what about all that wonderful 24 hour coverage on a slow news day of the carnage in Mubai! Riveting! Terrorism front and center when not bewailing consumerism in America.....Please!
Site monitoring on holiday weekends always suck, it's a crap shoot whether your post will make it and it's normally not due to language or anything but less folks doing it.
The coverage of Mumbai is so bad. The pundits are all trying so hard to tie it to Al Qaeda and make it about those pesky "Islamofascists" completely ignoring the history and political climate of India.
Sad. This is just sad.
Very eloquently put Mrs. Spelling.
As if being a full time (isn't almost everyone at Wal-Mart kept at part-time?) employee would have saved his life from a mob ripping down the doors to the store five minutes before it opened. An employee is hardly treated like a human being on Black Friday by consumers, and this is it taken to the most extreme.
I think this morning's incident is a preview of much larger, deadlier, and more hateful events to come as people grow more desperate and only out to fend for and protect themselves.
One media outlet actually explained the man who was killed was a "temp."
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