Friday, December 12, 2008

Black Friday.

I'm writing this several weeks after it happened because I wanted to give myself time to scale back my initial response, which was something like "those people should be shot." I was so shocked (though I probably shouldn't have been) by the story that a chanting mob of Christmas (!) shoppers, in a rush to save 50% on shit they don't need, broke down the doors of a Walmart and trampled a seasonal employee to death that I ranted to my poor (and infinitely forgiving) wife that these people had forfeited their right to live in a civilized world.

Well, time has done its job and I have pulled back from my first reaction. Reluctantly.

But anyone who:
1) had a hand in the chanting and door-busting,
2) touched even a fraction of an inch of the bottom of their foot (probably as close as these "bargain-hunters" get to a soul) to any part of that man, and/or
3) protested when store employees asked them to leave due to the small matter of a man's trampled and broken body, should be as ashamed of themselves as humanly possible.

Yes, that's my Christmas wish. That you members of that mob spend 2009 (and beyond) feeling the most despairing, despondent shame. Aw, you don't have to thank me. I insist! You deserve it! Because, when you put shopping--no matter how spectacular the savings--above the well-being of another human being...well, that's about as shameful as it gets.

Your kind of behavior defines the word "worthless."

Worthless. Just like the flat-screens and iPods and XBoxes and toys and Blu-rays and cell phones and all the other utterly unnecessary crap you despicable cretins killed a man to get.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

here here! the hole of christmas has a taint of bald (sorry) commercialism and minimized meaning.

watching "charlie wilson's war" last night and the entire scene when the texas fundraiser insists that having a "cresh??" (excuse my yankee ignorance, but i thought it was a manger scene) on the firehouse lawn is an american imperative. charlie smartly rebuts this by saying nobody gets hurt if you move it 200 yards down to the lawn of the church...or 100 other churches in the area...

why do people treat a religious even as if it is a political and commercial tool...sad.

however, we just finished putting up the lights...so...

. said...

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.