Atheist Revolution: Black Friday Death: Were The Deals Worth It?

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Black Friday Death: Were The Deals Worth It?

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeI have but one question for the more than 2,000 shoppers in Long Island who trampled a Wal-Mart employee to death on Black Friday - was it worth it? Get some good deals, did you? How much money did you end up saving, and was it a fair price for this man's death? Was that copy of Rush Hour 2 you picked up for $2 worth it?

According to Newsday, Nassau police reported that Jdimytai Damour, a seasonal employee of Wal-Mart, was trampled to death "after an impatient crowd broke down the store doors." Among the details released to the media were the following:

Hundreds of shoppers "stepped over, around and on the 34-year-old worker as they rushed into the store."
Nobody attempted to help Mr. Damour.
First responders struggled to reach Damour and were actually "jostled" by the crowd of shoppers.
Shoppers asked to leave by crying Wal-Mart employees who witnessed the trampling ignored them and continued shopping.

When I first heard reports of this story from friends, I thought it was merely a bad joke. I figured it must have been something someone pulled off The Onion and was trying to pass off as a real story (yes, I have friends who sometimes forget that The Onion is satirical). But it was real.

If this story isn't a scathing commentary on our "American values," I'm not sure what is. As such, it will receive little attention and quickly be forgotten. Of this, I think we can be quite confident. Personally, I am absolutely disgusted with humanity right now.