by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
'Tis the season to duck and cover.
When I was but a lad there were a three days each year when families stayed at home and relaxed and enjoyed each other's company - Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. Schools were closed, and so were most businesses - sometimes by force of law. Being out on the road for any reason was a challenge because most gas stations were also closed- giving their owners and employees the opportunity to be home celebrating the holidays with loved ones.
But then along came Walmart and a score of commercial imitators, and all of that family-centered nonsense was soon swept aside in a mad rush to make money. All three of those former "family" days have now been funneled into one big commercial onslaught that makes the Johnstown Flood look like a tame weather anomaly by comparison. The concept of a "Black Friday" immediately on the heels of Thanksgiving (Turkey) Thursday caught on a couple of decades ago, a time when merchants would place deep discounts on items to draw shoppers into their stores on the day after Thanksgiving - a day most workers were already off. It was such a great idea, from the perspective of the merchants, that they began expanding it - opening their stores earlier and earlier, and finally pushing the opening back to Thanksgiving evening - with some stores even staying open on the Thanksgiving holiday itself. And by New Year's Day most of the stores were open for dealing with long lines of people returning gifts that they had received but really did not want. Someone bought the presents because they were such great "bargains."
As the idea grew, some shoppers - those spurred on by the excitement of pushing and shoving - really got into it. In the days preceding cell phones, I knew a pair of ladies who shopped on Black Friday with walkie-talkies so they could separate to look for bargains while still keeping in touch with one another and excitedly sharing their "finds."
As the theatrics surrounding the shopping grew - such as stores swinging their doors wide open at a designated hour so that shoppers could storm the premises, problems began to emerge - so did trampling injuries and deaths. Then, as the NRA began pushing the idea of "armed carry" everywhere at anytime, other complications developed.
Not surprisingly, the casualty totals mount each year with alarming regularity.
Last night at the biggest mall in Alabama, a twenty-one-year-old gunman began exercising his god-damned, god-given right to bear arms by opening fire in the crowded shopping center. He shot an eighteen-year-old male twice in the stomach (probably his intended target), and also wounded a twelve-year-old female bystander. The shooter was then killed by an off-duty sheriff's deputy who was moonlighting as a mall security guard.
Just think how much better it would have all played out if people listened to the NRA and carried guns into that mall for their own protection. If only the two victims as well as the girl's parents had all been armed! Those bullets flying in every possible direction would have protected everyone - you betcha they would have!
Police closed that mall in the suburbs of Birmingham early last night, but the good news - at least for holiday shoppers - is that it was able to reopen this morning. A little blood on the floors isn't going to stop American shoppers from climbing over one another to get at those flat-screened TV's!
God bless Black Friday shopping - it has become a cherished American tradition - and a true bloodsport!
Citizen Journalist
'Tis the season to duck and cover.
When I was but a lad there were a three days each year when families stayed at home and relaxed and enjoyed each other's company - Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. Schools were closed, and so were most businesses - sometimes by force of law. Being out on the road for any reason was a challenge because most gas stations were also closed- giving their owners and employees the opportunity to be home celebrating the holidays with loved ones.
But then along came Walmart and a score of commercial imitators, and all of that family-centered nonsense was soon swept aside in a mad rush to make money. All three of those former "family" days have now been funneled into one big commercial onslaught that makes the Johnstown Flood look like a tame weather anomaly by comparison. The concept of a "Black Friday" immediately on the heels of Thanksgiving (Turkey) Thursday caught on a couple of decades ago, a time when merchants would place deep discounts on items to draw shoppers into their stores on the day after Thanksgiving - a day most workers were already off. It was such a great idea, from the perspective of the merchants, that they began expanding it - opening their stores earlier and earlier, and finally pushing the opening back to Thanksgiving evening - with some stores even staying open on the Thanksgiving holiday itself. And by New Year's Day most of the stores were open for dealing with long lines of people returning gifts that they had received but really did not want. Someone bought the presents because they were such great "bargains."
As the idea grew, some shoppers - those spurred on by the excitement of pushing and shoving - really got into it. In the days preceding cell phones, I knew a pair of ladies who shopped on Black Friday with walkie-talkies so they could separate to look for bargains while still keeping in touch with one another and excitedly sharing their "finds."
As the theatrics surrounding the shopping grew - such as stores swinging their doors wide open at a designated hour so that shoppers could storm the premises, problems began to emerge - so did trampling injuries and deaths. Then, as the NRA began pushing the idea of "armed carry" everywhere at anytime, other complications developed.
Not surprisingly, the casualty totals mount each year with alarming regularity.
Last night at the biggest mall in Alabama, a twenty-one-year-old gunman began exercising his god-damned, god-given right to bear arms by opening fire in the crowded shopping center. He shot an eighteen-year-old male twice in the stomach (probably his intended target), and also wounded a twelve-year-old female bystander. The shooter was then killed by an off-duty sheriff's deputy who was moonlighting as a mall security guard.
Just think how much better it would have all played out if people listened to the NRA and carried guns into that mall for their own protection. If only the two victims as well as the girl's parents had all been armed! Those bullets flying in every possible direction would have protected everyone - you betcha they would have!
Police closed that mall in the suburbs of Birmingham early last night, but the good news - at least for holiday shoppers - is that it was able to reopen this morning. A little blood on the floors isn't going to stop American shoppers from climbing over one another to get at those flat-screened TV's!
God bless Black Friday shopping - it has become a cherished American tradition - and a true bloodsport!
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