Getting Irritated w Nadia G -- Black Friday Stampedes

Ethical Gift Giving

Now that Black Friday madness has passed for this year, please consider a gift from Mother Jones magazine      list of ethical companies producing goods or services in people and planet friendly ways.

[The best gifts are often wild cards. They're not the kind of stuff of malls and big-box stores, but objects that are handmade, limited edition, one of a kind. They're books and music that resonate deeply, crafts that reconnect us to a common heritage. They're also (ideally) ecofriendly and ethically produced.]
http://www.motherjones.com/about/advertising/giving-guide

Boycott Black Friday.

Never say this blogger refuses to consider contrasting opinions, recognizing other humans choose to see the world differently.  So saw Mr. Suderman on Up Too Early with Chris Hayes on MSNBC, and he compared the Black Friday hordes of people shoving each other for consumer items to a wondrous sporting event or a concert mosh pit.

[With Thanksgiving less than a day away, and the long weekend to follow, I thought I’d offer a brief appreciation of my favorite American holiday. No, not Thanksgiving, which is perfectly enjoyable but merely serves as a calorie-packing warm-up for the main event: Black Friday.]
http://reason.com/blog/2012/11/21/why-black-friday-is-my-favorite-holiday

As one trapped in a near riot to get tickets in Lakeland, FL, for Bruce Springsteen's The River tour this view holds some merit; we got 10 tickets and no stitches.  Heard announcement of sale one Friday afternoon and drove over with young lady and met some lads in line and hung out and partied while Lakeland Arena staff passed out tickers to first hundred people in line, including our new found friends.

At that time, the Center had a line of glass doors spanning the length of the building.  At 8 am, some idiot decided to open only 1 entrance to the ticket booths, the line surged and those tickets passed out became instantly worthless, our friends shouted "Follow Us!," and we proceeded to the end of the building furthest from the open door, sidled along the glass front of the building to within 10 feet of the open door.

Have you ever stood with your face against the glass pane of a building with a mob pressing in on you until you feel the glass move back and forth in response to the pressure?

Then while we waited to get forced through the opening by crowd pressure, the riot squad pulled up inside looking like Star Wars stormtroopers and wielding their billy clubs.

Thanks to dumb luck or the rock and roll Godz, we got through before the riot did ensue.

Worth the chaos?  Then with 1 broken neck under my belt I thought so.  Now at age 54, not so much.

So when we humans congregate, we do create group energy, a synthesis that momentarily brings us together to create connections between individuals, to relieve us from our essential aloneness.

This synthesis can lead to good or ill, to positive group action or a riot.

For Black Friday, we have a riot of consumer hysteria sweeping our country, leading to shootings over parking spaces, humans trampled under foot, and lots of behaviors which one ought to find shocking if not surprising.

Next year to save your soul, boycott Black Friday.




http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=eb8_1353646434

Nothing Says Thanksgiving Like Getting Arrested at Walmart

[ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. —

A woman was arrested on Black Friday at an Altamonte Springs Walmart on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting an officer without violence.

Investigators said Samantha Chavez, 28, tried to pass the long line of people at the check out and walked past an officer controlling the lines.

Chavez was told to get in line and said "OK," but then she tried to walk past the officer again, police said.

They said she was given several opportunities to oblige, but refused to do so and began screaming.]
http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/black-friday-walmart-customer-arrested-disorderly-/nTDYX/

Consumer Fervor Runs Rampant: Kills Human Beings

In the orgy of consumerism known as Black Friday, '08, shoppers trampled a Wal Mart worker to death when the doors to the store opened.

Yes, that has become Thanksgiving in the US, originally a day to celebrate the harvest and bounty provided by the Almighty (whatever you call Her) but now a weekend of gluttony, football, buying consumer products at marked down rates--marked down from inflated prices so "bargains" still produce profits--and trampling to death.

We have become a nation of "Restless Consumers."




[CNN) -- Three violent deaths in two stores marred the opening of the Christmas shopping season Friday.

In the first, a temporary Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death in a rush of thousands of early morning shoppers as he and other employees attempted to unlock the doors of a Long Island, New York, store at 5 a.m., police said.

In the second, unrelated incident, two men were shot dead in a Toys "R" Us in Palm Desert, California, after they argued in the store, police said.]

[Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like "savages."

"When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling `I've been on line since yesterday morning,'" she said. "They kept shopping."] emphasis added