The absurdity of American holiday consumerism raised its twisted head over the weekend when a Wal-Mart worker was trampled to death by a pack of frothing customers.
At 5 a.m., shoppers who had stood in line for many hours broke down the doors of the Wal-Mart in Long Island. A 34-year-old worker was knocked down in the violent influx and never made it back up.
As if one death weren't bad enough, Black Friday saw two more people die while shopping on the West Coast. This case was slightly different. There was a shoot-out between two men at a Toys "R" Us in Palm Desert, Calif. Statements from authorities in the area said the incident was not shopping-related, but the mere fact that it happened on Black Friday, a day known for bringing out the most outrageous and barbaric in consumers, doesn't help the matter at all.
The three deaths seem to accentuate the point that America, despite the bucket load of holiday movies that suggest otherwise, has almost entirely lost the sense of what the holidays are supposed to mean. People bare fangs and shout, "Gimmie! Gimmie! Gimmie!" instead of smiling and offering gifts or well wishes.
Economic turmoil isn't doing much to help the situation. People are scared they won't have a Christmas, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice celebration or any other festivity because they can't afford it. Thus, bargain hunting has become more feral as shoppers claw at what little they can grab.
Luckily, not all Americans have forgotten what the end of the year holidays are supposed to mean. In particular, the Spungen family of Waukegan, Ill., is a resounding example of how we should be acting in these festive, if not troubled, holidays.
The Spungens' owned a ball bearings manufacturing company called Peer Bearing Co. and after a successful year the company was bought out. It would have been easy to take the cash and never look back, but the Spungens had a better idea.
The family came up with a bonus formula that determined the amount each of the 230 employees would get. What resulted were hand signed cards of thanks from the family owners and five-figure checks for the employees.
That's right. Instead of giving into greed, the family split $6.6 million 230 ways, and some employees received as much as $35,000 for their year-end bonus. Now, a small handful of hardworking employees can breathe a little easier during the holidays and the rough-looking economy.
Now, obviously we don't all have $6.6 million to throw around, but we all have something we can share or spare. As bad off as we might be, we can always help other people, and if we think hard enough, we can probably come up with a few names of friends worse off than ourselves. No time of year is more designed for that than now.
Black Friday was a tragic wake-up call for all of us to reign in our greed and start giving rather than trying to receive. Hopefully we can think more like the Spungens and less like the mongrel Wal-Mart shoppers during this next month and all the following years.
Wenger is a senior studying journalism and Spanish.
