I wasn't even ashamed to stride up and snap this photo in front of the crowds of shoppers already shuffling in and out of the stores. I felt a wave of nausea as I turned away from taking the photo to hear a family next to me bribing their child with candy. It was as if every disgusting stereotype of American consumerism was happening right then and there in the worst way. And it's not even Black Friday yet.
Since returning to Florida, I've been exposed to a seemingly constant flow of live updates on the Ferguson riots, school shootings, school sexual assault, ISIS terrorism, Ebola outbreaks, and extreme weather patterns. Working up in Alaska, it was harder to keep up with current events, but this stuff goes on all the time whether we're paying attention or not. What appalls me is the overwhelming apathy and ignorance that seems to prevail down here where there is no excuse not to care about what's going on -- especially during this time of year when we are supposed to remember to be thankful for what we have.
Allow me to elaborate: there are people rioting in the streets of cities across America; there are people suffering from mental health conditions that cause them to shoot other people when they can't get help; there are approximately 5 sexual assaults every 10 minutes; there are people being kidnapped, tortured, and killed every moment overseas; I could go on, but I think you catch my drift. My point is not to make you as depressed as I am right now, but rather to bring up the fact that if you are reading this, you're probably a lot more fortunate than any of the people facing the issues I've just mentioned. And I am sure you are thankful for that, right? Of course you are, and that's wonderful.
But what is going through the minds of the people who set up their tents outside of Best Buy today, who will be camping there tonight, through Thanksgiving, and again tomorrow night? I feel that especially because of all the horrible things going on in the world right now, I am more grateful than ever to be home with my family, to be safe, healthy, financially secure, and loved. Is it so much more important to buy that 38,000 inch flat screen TV than to take a day off from consumerism to give thanks for what you already have and send your prayers to those suffering the ills of our society right now? And do so many people seriously not realize that this profligate consumerism is precisely part of said societal ills that represent a collective folly of misguided values? Maybe so. Maybe we are so brainwashed by mainstream media that we think the upswing in the economy is our signal to "return to business as usual," and the rest be damned.
Perhaps I, too, am misguided in my values, or maybe I'm overlooking some great reason why I shouldn't be so upset about people camping in front of a corporate store for 2 days over Thanksgiving. If so, please enlighten me. But my gut feeling has never failed me, and right now my gut is telling me that there is something seriously wrong with my country when the civil rights riots are about to be overshadowed by the riots of consumers trying to get a hot deal at Best Buy.
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