What's Wrong With Shoppers?

If you opened this and expected to find satire, I apologize. I don’t have the heart for it today.

I remember as a kid hearing about a Who concert in Cincinnati, in which 11 people were trampled to death as the doors to the hall were opened. I was appalled: What would compel people to run over top of other people? It was just a concert! Not a fire. Not a shooting in a crowded place. No one was trying to get away. They wanted to get IN!

I’m a little more cynical today but no less appalled to hear that 2,000 people bum rushed a worker at a Long Island, NY, Wal-mart on Black Friday, so they could be the first to get a good deal…on a new TV or an X-box they probably didn’t need anyway…and no doubt add to revolving debt they’ll never pay back.

If you haven’t heard (and who the hell hasn’t by now?), Jdimytai Damour, a 34-year-old part-time holiday temp, was crushed in the onslaught and pronounced dead an hour later. Police are looking for those responsible.

Accounts of the incident were incredible.

Witness Kimberly Cribbs said all those people who got in went right on shopping after the worker was run over.

"Oh yes, they're savages," Cribbs said.

Then there was this madness outside a Toys "R" Us.

I don’t know what this all says about people in this country. I don’t know if it’s an indictment of who we are, of our priorities, of how far we’ve fallen into narcism and contempt for human life, of how much our moral fabric is in need of bailing out.

Whatever it says, it isn't good.

I wish I was just making this one up.