To reverse the receiving and join in on the action of giving, click here to search for more opportunities near you, provided by The Hewitt Service Board!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O6IMYSSs7c
The video above demonstrates a shockingly disgusting scene, all too common on Black Friday this year.
Black Friday, highly regarded as the start of the Christmas shopping season, marks a day solely dedicated to buying: everything from food to shoes to electronics goes on sale for just one day of pure havoc.
The bustle of Black Friday 2012, November 23, started weeks before the day itself. Advertisements of super-sized deals through virtually every method possible — TV, Internet platforms like social media, cellphones, banners, and flyers — built up the hype of this shopping day well in advance. Over 20,000 different ads of noteworthy deals, most of which were being incessantly repeated to the point of the involuntary memorization of jingles, were shown through some way in anticipation of this notoriously violent day. This year’s Black Friday was one of the most extreme shopping days this country has ever seen. With doors open even as early as 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving, this long-awaited day brought more time for consumers to line up and more time for tumultuous chaos both in and out of stores.
The day’s infamous galvanization of aggressive behavior was unfortunately prevalent. Fights, uncomfortably tense rooms packed with policemen, yelling, pepper spray, and even guns were all among the norm for scenes at retail stores nation-wide.
The following are just a few examples of occurrences that happened this year that make Black Friday, Black Friday. In Covington, Washington, a drunk driver ran over two women in a Walmart parking lot. A 14-year-old kid was robbed of all of his Black Friday purchases by five older men outside of a Bed Bath and Beyond. At a Sears in San Antonio, Texas, a man in line pulled a gun out to defend his spot at someone else who had bullied his way up to the front. In other gun news, two women caught shoplifting in Holland Township, Michigan threatened gun violence at a security guard trying to get their car’s license plate number. Finally and most tragically of all, two people were shot and wounded outside of a Walmart in Tallahassee, Florida, one of many violent incidents that made appearances at Walmart this Black Friday. The dispute was over nothing but a parking space! This leaves us to wonder:
What does it say about human nature and about today’s modern society if all it takes is a parking lot and some holiday deals for us to willingly risk the lives of others?
Next, Cyber Monday acts as another day wholly devoted to shopping, just three days after its relative, Black Friday. Cyber Monday has become a nationally recognized ‘holiday’ that encourages completely online shopping. Though the factor of physical violence was eliminated through this day of virtual purchases, an unhealthily competitive attitude swirled around the Cloud, turning ordinary bidding battles into full-fledged bidding wars.
On this one day, online spending increased by 17% from that of last year, reaching a total of almost $2 billion! The mere fact that items are on sale seems to motivate people to buy an unpractical and unnecessary number of products.
Both of these days promote actions of spending and receiving, but what about actions of giving on the other side of the spectrum? In my opinion, it simply makes no sense to establish two different days, after Thanksgiving, both fixated on the purchasing of a superfluity of superficial items that can induce violence and competition. The fact that we even have a ‘shopping season’ speaks loudly to this point.
Thanksgiving is a holiday we celebrate as a community to reflect upon what we’re grateful for, not upon what we want but don’t have. We give thanks to what we have, like our family, friends, education, food, and other necessities. We give thanks for luxuries, like those bought on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The moral significance of Thanksgiving is to remind us not to take anything we have for granted, for a majority of people in other countries, young and old alike, are not given the same opportunities whatsoever. What many of us have come to think of as necessities, others think of as unimaginable privileges.
So how can we reverse this ostensible habit of days geared toward receiving more after a day aimed toward thanks? The answer is #GivingTuesday.
We have a day for giving thanks, two days for getting deals, and now we have one more for giving back! “New York’s 92nd Street Y has been the catalyst and incubator for #GivingTuesday, bringing the expertise of 139 years of community-management to the project, and providing #GivingTuesday a home. The United Nations Foundation joined as partners, bringing their strategic and communications clout to the project.”
This increasingly recognized day relies on awareness and advocacy to make change. #GivingTuesday doesn’t ask you to give back to specific organizations. It just asks you to give back to something important to you and to encourage others to do join in. This day serves as a campaign to fuel a chain of service, volunteering, and giving at the start of the holiday season, reversing the receiving of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Though many people weren’t aware of Giving Tuesday as November 27, this movement will continue year-round, and it has only just begun. Did you miss #GivingTuesday but still want a way to give back?
Search below for #giving opportunities!
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