Shoppocrites

So who's been shopping in the last twelve hours?  Yeah, not me.

I've gone Black Friday shopping exactly once, and while it's not something I would do again, I did not have a terrible time.  I did find myself getting up at 5:00 in the morning when I didn't get home from work until after midnight . . . what can I say, people do crazy things when they're in crush.  (I myspace blogged all about it . . . I may have to post it sometime, it's one of the more amusing ones.)

Anyway.  My little excursion was back when Black Friday was just insane. not indecent.  Yeah, have you heard about that?  About the part where Black Friday starts Thursday morning now?  In a nutshell, I agree with everything everyone has been saying.  Greedy, thoughtless, inappropriate and really not fair to the minimum wage peons who have no choice but to skip Thanksgiving and show up in order to make sure there's still something to eat on Saturday.

But on the other hand . . . I don't really have a lot of patience for the people saying it's not right.  If the whole "biting my tongue" thing were literal I'm pretty sure I would have bitten it off by now because I've watched at least half a dozen conversations happen on facebook where friends posted a status about wanting to have a low key Thanksgiving and what should they do - and the answers poured in.  Go out to eat.  Go to a movie.  Go out and eat pizza or at Taco Bell or whatever and at the end, yay for you, no cooking and no big clean up job!

I'm sorry, where is the outrage for the people at the restaurant who don't get to spend Thanksgiving with their family because you're too lazy to cook?  What about the anger for the employees of the movie theater who have to leave their turkey early so you can go to your movie?  Why am I apprently the only one who thinks that's just as wrong?

It's just so amazing how good humanity is at dehumanizing people when we don't want to be considerate of others.  I mean, how's this for an actual thing to overhear - "I would never go out to eat on Thanksgiving.  Those poor people deserve to have the day off and be with their families too."

Said whilst the speaker was at Walt Disney World.  On Thanksgiving.  Where I was working.  On Thanksgiving.  Apparently her level of consideration went beyond retail workers to include waitresses and cooks . . . but I was still just a robot.  Because apparently any job that involves something you aren't doing on a holiday is a travesty, but if it involves the way you want to celebrate then forget your right to celebrate a holiday you minimum wage peon, get over here and get me my churro!

Not to mention it goes without saying that the fact that all these restaurants and theaters and stores are open is the whole reason why Luke has had to work almost every holiday for the last four years.  Where's the indignation about the fact that with all these places open the tech support places have to be open because heaven forbid something happens to those places internet or cable.

Obviously a line in the sand has been drawn, but I can't say that it's the right place in the sand, or even an effective place.  If people working at Walmart want to strike, all power to them.  But as long as there's a double standard where it's okay for some people not to get to spend Thanksgiving or Christmas or whatever at home the way they want to but not for others, I don't see anything changing.  Give it a few more years and stores will be open for normal hours all day on Thanksgiving.  And the only people who will have holidays off will be the people with the cushy corner office jobs, or the paper pushing cubicle drones who work at places that don't sell anything so it doesn't make a difference whether there open on any one particular day.

Because seriously, how hypocritical is that people will protest stores being open on Thanksgiving, but there's nothing wrong with people who work at hotels having to go to work?  Why is it okay that pilots and flight attendants spend the day taking others to be with their families, but not getting to be with their own?  I mean, obviously emergency personnel need to be on call just in case . . . but why do news anchors have to show up?  Either the holiday is for everyone or it's not.  And I'm thinking anymore they're just . . . not.



P. ost  S. cript
So apparently this is what English sounds like to people who don't speak it.  It's nothing but gibberish, but your brain keeps trying to make sense of it - I keep hearing actual words . . . pizza, cold, ice, my eyes . . . it's kinda crazy awesome.