I almost don't know how to say what I'm feeling. There was a wretched horror and vicarious shame I felt upon reading how a 34 year old temporary employee at a Wal-Mart in Long Island, NY, was trampled and killed at 5:00 in the morning as Black Friday shoppers swarmed into the store, ripping the doors off their hinges.
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What the hell???

Who are these people? Where is our respect for our fellow human beings? Where is our respect for ourselves? What consumer product could possibly be worth waiting in line for hours in the dark and the cold and then risking your own life and others' to stampede in to spend your money?

This seems to be the worst example of humanity: Greed, desperation, win-at-all-costs, looking out for number 1. I ask "who are these people?" but I know very well that the answer is always, "they are us." Whether I like it or not, there is a part of me that is them and vice verse.

I chose to stay home on Black Friday, avoiding the herds, the hassles, the pain, and of course, avoiding spending money I just don't have.

But I grieve for the disgusting display, the horrific results, the shameful consumer lust that happened yesterday. I don't even know how to process the news. I grieve for Jdimytai Damour and his family. I grieve for the ugly, out-of-control, impoverished brothers and sisters who killed him. I'm angered by the insensitivity of those who reportedly got angry when police tried to temporarily close the store because of the death - their shopping was more important.

Oh my God. What have we become?

Because I know my brother and I are one, I am hurt by this violence. This callous disregard for human life in favor of coveting and acquiring is just one display of this tendency in us humans. If we examine ourselves and our lives we could probably find other displays of these same vices and sins that are not this obvious, or that might go unnoticed, or that might even be socially acceptable.

God forgive us our callousness, our greed, our mis-placed values, our coveting, our disregard for our neighbor's safety, our desperation, our sense of entitlement. Heal us of the disease of consumerism. Forgive us.