According to the NYTimes, yesterday was the first time anyone had been killed during a Black Friday frenzy. I blinked at that, because it seemed to me that something like this had happened before. Maybe I was just remembering all the times people had been badly hurt and almost trampled to death and extrapolating. To me, this seemed like the natural outcome of Black Friday madness. Of course someone was going to be killed so that people could shop for cheap shit — that’s the American way.
The employee, whose name was Jdimytai Damour, was a temp worker. Can you imagine going to work one morning at a damn Wal-Mart and ending up dead? All because people broke down the doors (not just shoved in quickly when they opened, but BROKE THE DAMN THINGS DOWN) to get to their $20 DVD players that much faster. Yay consumerism!
Not to say I’m immune from consumerism. I have a tendency to spend far too mch around the holidays, too. I rolled my eyes at Buy Nothing Day, because I didn’t think it could really have an impact. You’re going to buy that thing, anyway, so you might as well buy it while it’s on sale. Now I’m thinking that perhaps we need to step up Buy Nothing Day. Buying nothing might save a life.
Or maybe not:
About the time that Mr. Damour was killed, a shopper at a Wal-Mart in Farmingdale, 15 miles east of Valley Stream, said she was trampled by a crowd of overeager customers, the Suffolk County police reported. The woman sustained a cut on her leg, but finished her shopping before filing the police report, an officer said.
Sigh
the people he picks to work in his administration are supposed to support that effort as long as they don’t…