by Saudi Arabia? Pakistan? Iran? France? No, I’m talking about the good ol’ U.S.A. What else can you say about a country in which discount-crazed New York shoppers actually trample a store employee to death in their haste to save $20?
Claudia:
A man has died today, not because of a stampede to get much needed foodstuffs, or to get sorely needed blankets, but simply to get things. Things for their own sake, just because you can. It was worth breaking into a store, it was worth knocking over a man, it was even worth trampling him to death.
“People,” a friend’s father once said, “are the armpit of this country.” Except he didn’t say “armpit” exactly – he meant a place further south. A police officer, my friend’s dad shot himself to death while still in the prime of his life. I guess that’s one way of saying that he meant exactly what he said.
The Wal-Mart trampling is an isolated incident, you say? Not so. A continent away, two more people died after a gun fight outside a Toys ‘r Us in California. Allegedly the dispute was over a toy.
What could be more ridiculous? If anything or anyone can, it’s Mark Silva. Rather than simply state the obvious, that some people are a waste of oxygen and their priorities are a joke, Silva blames the government and the media for today’s inanity.
Lay a little blame at the feet of the government, for exhorting Americans to spend more money and shake off that recession gripping the nation. Lay some blame on the media, for stoking the hype surrounding one day of retailing
Let’s blame everyone and everything except the individuals involved. You know, the ones who made the decision to push through the doors at Wal-Mart and to pull out their pieces at a toy store.
Earth to Mr. Silva: It’s individuals who have to take responsibility – and the blame – for their own actions. Ever hear of accountability? It would be a good lesson for all of us to learn. Evidently that’s especially true if we’re going to go to the mall.
