Black Friday fisticuffs, a new tradition |
I am thankful that Thanksgiving is not a religious holiday.
Why? Because it means we don't have to hear from Fox News about a 'War On Thanksgiving.'
In fact, Fox and the religious right have remained conspicuously silent as more and more of the big box retailers open on Thanksgiving, preventing the nation's families from sharing a day together and then failing to pay those same workers a meaningful living wage.
What is more un-Christian and un-American than that?
The religious right family values crowd talks about family values but it aligns itself with defending corporations. They grouse about a war on family values as they watch those same families exploited and squeezed. Talk about confusion, which is it? Family or corporate greed?
Will Fox News include Thanksgiving retail opening's on their list of villains in their annual War Against Christmas stories?
Many of these box retailers who are open on Thanksgiving are the same shops that don't pay their workers a living wage. What is more un-Christian and un-American than that?
It's estimated that Each Walton family member, the owners of Walmart, are worth between thirty and forty billion dollars, yet their mania for cash is so great they cannot give their employees Thanksgiving day off?
That's a lot to ask of employees who are making from $08.48 an hour.
A Walmart employee puts it best: 'I will try to be thankful that in this economy I am lucky enough to have any job, but when my kids are eating macaroni and cheese every night and I can't even spend Thanksgiving with them, it doesn't always help. When my kids tell me they don't need a big turkey on Thanksgiving and they don't want anything for Christmas, they just want me to be with me, it's hard to be thankful.'
Happy Thanksgiving, folks. Maybe it's time we waged a war on Thanksgiving ourselves.
Comments