Rayburn Country

Black Friday-humans misbehave

By Rob Rayburn

We are the country most compassionate on the face of this planet. There are those who think that a bold statement, but if we consider the contributions to the world in the form of relief and international aid, obviously there is not a country more to anywhere on Earth. However, we also have the distinction of being the most materialistic society on the planet.

It seems that we are also unable to learn from the mistakes of past behavior because we see this madness every holiday season. An employee of Wal-Mart has in New York was crushed to death Friday morning when the crazy buyers were so eager to enter the store that they ripped doors off their hinges, the rush of the employee and other employees to come to his aid in the process.

In a separate incident at a Toys-R-Us in Southern California, two men shot each other to death after women, they were accompanied by began to fight near the crates. According to Toys-R-Us staff and the Associated Press, the incident in southern California was not related to Black Friday, but the tragic result of a personal dispute between the parties concerned. It is pure conjecture on my part, but I wonder if this dispute originally more a particular toy. stranger things have happened.

Apparently, we have become so de-sensitized to violence and equally indifferent to human behavior than the underlying issues have been largely ignored. Surface, these two independent and completely unnecessary human tragedy. While the death of these three people are disturbing enough, there are some deeply troubling issues behind both incidents.

In published reports that I have seen the incident involving Walmart, it was reported that when the bank announced it was closed following the death of the employee, the reaction of some customers in the store was impressive. Some angry customers proclaimed: "I've been online since yesterday and continued their search for holiday bargains, apparently undeterred by the senseless tragedy that many of them had a hand in.

Have we lost our collective mind? Who the hell carries a gun in a Toys-R-Us? Obviously, some people do, and now, two men (presumably with families) are dead. Christmas is less than one month and there are three more families who spend their mourning instead of celebrating in the wake of a senseless act of violence and a freak accident.

Wal-Mart can not be held liable in this case, although there certainly were actions that could be taken before the store opens. Some type of evaluation crowd could be useful to prevent this horrible tragedy.

From a legal point of view (I am not a lawyer), I'm not sure if Wal-Mart is liable or not. They launch a very aggressive marketing campaign before "black Friday", like many other large retailers, in anticipation of the busiest shopping day of the year. It is extremely regrettable that underestimated the shopper turnout.

There is still the question of human misbehaves. Have we become so bestial in our material activities of human life is of no consequence?

If so, we are serious people problems.