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THE WASTING DISEASE

How Our All-consuming Freedom is Making Us Weak

By Caitrin Abshere

 

 

 

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IN THE PRE-DAWN OF NOVEMBER 26TH, 2005, hysteria and violence swept suburban America. Post-crisis interviews make clear the fear and resentment. One embattled citizen, wet-eyed and bitter, fumes, “There was not enough to protect us.” Another says mid-gasp, “It was a brawl, a brawl. It was terrible.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the sidewalks strewn with fitfully sleeping teens to geriatric abuse (one 72-year-old was hospitalized after being trampled), the evidence was overwhelming. America had no choice but to cede normalcy to a higher power: the holidays had begun.

That is, Black Friday—the first day of the shopping season between Thanksgiving and Christmas—had arrived with its as-promised super low prices and extended store hours. In recent years, this American celebration has gotten attention over things more newsworthy than the half-price gadgetry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


  
       

itself. For example: a Floridian woman, after an all-night vigil outside a Wal-Mart in Volusia County, was one of thousands released into the store at 6 a.m. Two hours later, paramedics found her unconscious on top of a $29 DVD player, the scuffle over which had resulted in a severe concussion and a seizure. She was airlifted to Daytona Beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Several days into the victim’s recovery period, when she was coherent, a store representative called to apologize and offered to put the DVD player on lay-away. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman expressed the company’s deep regret: “We are very disappointed this happened. We want her to come back as a shopper.”1

The day after Thanksgiving, my brain usually hangs listlessly between the refrigerator and the living room loveseat, debating their relative virtues. Last year, the

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http://herosquest.blogspot.com/2005_01_01_herosquest_archive.html
1. It is unlikely that Wal-Mart’s concern in her customer loyalty lasted. An investigation by a local news station revealed that the victim had previously filed 15 injury claims against stores in which she had worked or shopped. Eight were at Wal-Mart, the most recent of which was a back strain sustained while working at the snack bar of the same store in which she was mauled.
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