Flipping the Bird

As if Black Friday wasn’t enough, a number of major retailers are going to open their doors on Thanksgiving Day.

Now, if cash registers are running, people have to be running them, and if some are shopping, that means others are working.

They’ll be working on what’s supposed to be a major national Holiday.  Traditionally, it’s been a time to give pause, and extend gratitude.  This year it has become another day at the office.

So the issue isn’t that we’re fast becoming a secularist society, but more, a consumerist country, where the opportunity to buy things supersedes the importance of considering why it is that we have Holidays and perhaps buy things to begin with.

Has anyone stopped to notice that if Holidays aren’t so special, then there’s no point in expending huge sums of money in reference to them?  Thanksgiving is more than just a starting line for the mad dash to December 25th.  Christmas with a cash and carry emphasis isn’t Christmas at all.

Personally, I’ve always held a great respect for those working shifts at the local ER or firehouse, especially on Holidays.  But forcing folks to leave traditional family gatherings to stock shelves and ring up sale items is a sad disgrace.

Thus, it seems that we are giving thanks for the fact that we don’t have to give thanks!  We are free to buy, and to work.

Always.

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