Less Christmas Spirit

My sister texted me while I was at work to ask what was up with my Facebook account.

I told her that I'd deactivated it.

When she asked me why, I answered honestly. I was bored and annoyed with it. And I don't miss it.

After that she told me that she'd noticed I was missing from her friend's list when she tried to send me a link to an article about a petition against Target opening at 12 a.m. on November 25, or as it is more commonly known, Black Friday.

I misunderstood what she was saying, thinking she was linking me to the petition, and responded, "Why? Target making money is how I have a job."

Any personal frustrations with her aside, the idea of a petition bothers me. I brought it up with a coworker I know to be a bit more progressive and she shared with me a copy of the article my sister had tried to send me.

If you're reading this, please follow this link and read the article of which I'm speaking: "Some Consumers Object to Sales on Thanksgiving"

My first inclination, responding to my sister, was to be defensive. It's not a big deal to me. We opened at 4 a.m. last year and this year it's 12 a.m. Neither one is pleasant, but there's not much difference between the two.

After reading the article, I understand the much more justified complaint from consumers who will have to cut short their family time to go and get in line at 10 p.m.? 8 p.m.? 6? so they can get the deal on that thing they want to give/keep this holiday season. You'd assume the people working are the one's potentially getting the shaft, like I assumed, but the people shopping actually have it worse. At least hours wise.

That I understand. But on the other side ... this is business. Target, like all the other stores, is supposed to make money. They want more, need more to get along in this world. And because of that continued prosperity or continued keeping aloft or somewhere in between, I have a job and can live.

In the article, and other places, there are parallels being drawn between this and the Occupy Wall Street movement. This bothers me, too.

I believe in OWS. People are frustrated to the point of doing something and they're actually doing it. We need to support this, we need to turn out, we need to be taking this action.

Complaining about the inconveniences of Black Friday is not an example of action to take. It's really pretty simple.

If you don't like the inconvenience of having to get in line earlier to buy that thing, DON'T GET IN LINE. Spend that time with your family and say, "Hey, I love you. I wanted to be with you rather than getting you some thing."

You don't want to go to work 4 or 6 hours earlier than last year? Well, let me ask you this, do you want to eat? Do you want to pay your heating bill this winter? Then go the fuck to work.

Or maybe you're fed up and you're ready to take a stand for what you believe in; you want to make a change and this is the right time for you to do it. Then do it. Don't go to work at Target or Wal-Mart or Best Buy or Kohl's and join a movement, somewhere, that speaks out about corporate greed and how the whole system is setup to screw over 99% of the people.

Because that is the appropriate response. I want to be one of those people but I either don't have the resolve or the means to do it yet. But I will, somehow. For now, I'm going to work and I'm going to do the best job I can.

So please don't step up on your soapbox and preach about the evils of consumerism, when your example is that you have to leave your family to go shopping on Thanksgiving. You have a choice. Step above this argument and speak out intelligently about the larger issues. Address the illness not the symptoms.