Worried About Big Retailers Ruining Christmas?...Stop Worrying, They're Too Late!
Dave Gibson
November 28, 2008
While I agree that the decision is yet another sign that this nation is surrendering to political correctness, I would assert that we as a people abandoned the true meaning of Christmas long ago.
For decades, the day after Thanksgiving sees people across the United States begin a buying frenzy which has become as American as apple pie. For adults, the once sacred day of Christmas has been transformed into merely a break from hectic shopping. For most children (and child-like adults), it is nothing more than a day to open colorfully wrapped boxes containing the latest over-priced and over-marketed gadget which Chinese slave-laborers have to offer.
This year's so-called Black Friday saw a store employee trampled to death, as the doors to a Long Island Wal-Mart were opened. Men and women continued stepping on the man as he lay dying. Several others were injured in the melee, including a 28 year old pregnant woman.
The crowd which numbered about 2,000 actually broke down the doors around 5:00 am. Though their actions had just ended a man´s life, the savage crowd continued to shop.
The rush of shoppers in search of promised bargains, more closely resembled a cattle stampede than anything remotely human.
A police officer told the New York Post: "When the doors opened, all hell broke loose."
Why did a man lose his life?…Because Wal-Mart was offering the following sale items: a $798 Samsung 50-inch Plasma HDTV, a $28 Bissel Compact Upright Vacuum, a Samsung 10.2 megapixel digital camera for $69 and DVDs such as "The Incredible Hulk" for $9.
The violence associated with this day is nothing new. I remember a 2005 Black Friday incident in which a man was wrestled to the ground as angry shoppers cheered in an Orlando Wal-Mart. The man had apparently cut in a line filled with people waiting to buy discounted laptops. After watching the videotape of the beating, I would submit that he was lucky to leave the store in a conscious state.
Apparently, one´s humanity is the going price for such bargains.
What we call the "Christmas Season" is in reality the "shopping season." While the merchandising of Christmas begins earlier every year, the trend is not a new one. During the 1930's, President Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving to the third Thursday in November in hopes that retailers would get a boost with the addition of a full week to the shopping season. Congress eventually changed it back.
Though 86 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians, the real religion of this country is consumerism. Parents frequently substitute expensive gifts for time spent with their children, just as husbands offer jewelry to their wives in lieu of fidelity.
Too many of us seem to think that we cannot live without the latest gadget or trendiest garment. Behavior once only seen in over-indulged children, can now be widely observed in most adult Americans. Achievements are no longer made, they are simply purchased.
While the big box stores make easy targets for self-styled religious leaders, it would be unfair to place the entire blame for today's materialistic society upon the narrow shoulders of America's corporate CEOs. It is we the people who have chosen to replace love and kindness with video games and expensive baubles.
I am reminded of a Simpson's episode a few years ago, in which Bart so convincingly remarked that December 25th was "Santa's birthday!" Perhaps in the near future, all Americans will believe that day to be the very one on which their deep-discount savior Sam Walton was born. After all, his stores see much better Sunday attendance than do this nation's churches.
Until we stop searching for the true meaning of Christmas in the electronics department or at the jewelry counter, it will always be just out of reach.