Wal-Mart Caused Black Friday Tragedy

The NY Times report below attempts to place an ethical question onto this tragedy, but misses the point.
Americans have been brainwashed into believing they are only as good, successful, and worthy as the things they own.
Democracy Now's Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales present the facts with clarity as well as compassion. Their interview with Patrick Purcell of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500 and Savriti D, Director of Rev. Billy's Church of Stop Shopping, discusses the conditions which were created by a corporate giant. Wal-Mart saved money and murdered a man who went to his job one morning but will never go home again.
Wal-Mart Worker Crushed to Death in Early Morning Stampede of Shoppers on Black Friday
A Wal-Mart employee in Long Island, New York died after being trampled to death by a mob of shoppers on Friday, the traditional first day of the holiday shopping season. The 34-year-old worker Jdimytai Damour was killed after a crowd of 2,000 broke down store doors and ran over him shortly before the store"s schedule 5 a.m. opening. Four shoppers were injured in the stampede. Nassau County police were trying to determine what happened during the stampede, but said it was unclear if there would be any criminal charges.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/1/wal_mart_worker_crushed_to_death
A Shopping Guernica Captures the Moment
By PETER S. GOODMAN
Published: November 29, 2008
From the Great Depression, we remember the bread lines. From the oil shocks of the 1970s, we recall lines of cars snaking from gas stations. And from our current moment, we may come to remember scenes like the one at a Long Island Wal-Mart in the dawn after Thanksgiving, when 2,000 frantic shoppers trampled to death an employee who stood between them and the bargains within.
It was a tragedy, yet it did not feel like an accident. All those people were there, lined up in the cold and darkness, because of sophisticated marketing forces that have produced this day now called Black Friday. They were engaging in early-morning shopping as contact sport. American business has long excelled at creating a sense of shortage amid abundance, an anxiety that one must act now or miss out.
Americans demonstrate acceptable behavior learned during the Reagan-BushCo. years
[…] After 9/11, President Bush dispatched Americans to the malls as a patriotic act. When the economy faltered early this year, the government gave out tax rebate checks and told people to spend. In a sense, those Chinese-made flat-screen televisions sitting inside Wal-Mart have become American comfort food.
And yet the ability to spend is cnstricting rapidly. Credit card limits are getting cut. Millions of Americans now owe the bank more than the value of their homes, making further borrowing impossible. The banks themselves are hunkered down, just hoping to survive.
[…] Wages for most Americans have fallen in real terms over the last eight years. Pensions have been turned into 401(k) plans that have just relinquished half their value to an angry market. Health benefits have been downgraded or eliminated altogether. Working hours are being slashed, and full-time workers are having to settle for jobs through temp agencies.
Indeed, this was the situation for the unfortunate man who found himself working at the Valley Stream Wal-Mart at 5 a.m. Friday, a temp at a company emblematic of low wages and weak benefits, earning his dollars by trying to police an unruly crowd worried about missing out. […]
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/weekinreview/30goodman.html?_r=2&hp

Dueling Press Releases

It's a mixed bag, a tossed salad, as it were of radio operatics ("ga ga"'s been done) as our heroine, Randi gets tossed overboard for using her First Amendment (are you with me, Rev. Billy?) righteous voice to say what she (gassssp) t h i n k s ! But she's found a new home, joining the equally impressive and funny Mike Malloy on Nova M.
But now, at least for a month, those of us without access to Nova M can ring them bells with.............Richard Belzer on Air America! [conspiracy, anyone?]
Air America to Feature Celebrity Drive-Time Guest Hosts-Richard Belzer Kicks Off Series Starting Monday April 14 during the 3-6 - Beginning Monday April 14, Air American Radio will present a month-long series of celebrities who guest host all week during the 3-6 PM ET period.
The programs launch with noted comedian, author and actor Richard Belzer, well-known for his work as Det. John Munch on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and numerous other movie and TV roles. Belzer will be joined by special guests to be announced, bringing an entertaining, fast-paced and engaging afternoon listening experience to Air America Radio audiences nationwide all next week.
and from Nova M Radio...
Randi Rhodes is the #1 rated progressive talk radio host in the nation.
Nova M CEO John Manzo says, “I just can’t stop smiling - Randi is simply the biggest and the best. Randi Rhodes and Mike Malloy under one roof – talk about TALENT!”
Randi Rhodes adds, “With Manzo at helm of Nova M, I am truly going to work for the best of the best. He is radio elite…and I am too . I’m home, I’m home, I’m home!”
“The Randi Rhodes Show” will air live Mon-Fri from 3-6pm Eastern on The Nova M Radio Network.
ABOUT RANDI RHODES
Randi Rhodes is a radio pioneer who put Progressive Talk Radio on the national stage when everyone told her it could not be done. This Brooklyn native became a national talk radio hero to millions when in 2004 she left South Florida radio, where she had the #1 ranked talk show in her market, for national syndication. Randi started her radio odyssey quite modestly by playing ‘classic country’ in a storefront studio in Seminole, TX but today holds the mantle of the #1 progressive talk show host in the nation. Randi is impeccably researched and infectiously funny, she starred in the HBO documentary “Left of the Dial”, is listed in Talkers Magazine’s “Heavy Hundred” and is probably watching C-SPAN right now.
http://www.novamradio.com/
Good luck, Randi. You are a working class hero. Rock on!

WWJB? Love, Baby!

The reviews are in and GLOWING!!! Here's a random sample of reviews to motivate you to join the Church of Stop Shopping!
From the Chicago Tribune:
'What Would Jesus Buy?'--3 stars
A sharp look--and poke--at holiday commercialism
By Jessica Reaves | Tribune staff reporter, November 29, 2007
[…] What could have been a bone-dry exercise in dogmatism is instead a witty, abrasive and hugely entertaining romp, thanks to director Rob VanAlkemade. Credit is also due to Reverend Billy, the alter ego of Billy Talen, who, after watching in horror as Disney took over his neighborhood (New York's Times Square), decided to mimic the local street preachers, the only people being heard over the commercial din. Since launching his crusade in 1997, Reverend Billy has been banned from 130,000 Starbucks worldwide, as well as from every Disney property. He has also added the 35-member Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir to his routine, a Baptist-style event delivered with all the evangelical, red-faced zeal you'd expect from a man who earnestly believes the world is plunging headlong toward what he calls "The Shopocalypse."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/chi-071130buy-story,1,6140027.story
From Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
'What Would Jesus Buy?' is an entertaining reality check
By WILLIAM ARNOLD, P-I MOVIE CRITIC
[…] Beneath the faux-religious bluster and exaggerated blond hairdo, however, we are made to understand that the guy is totally serious. He believes the distortion of the holidays is the key to everything that's gone wrong with America, and he wants us to "take Christmas back from the corporations who stole it."
[ ] It also piles on the statistics: $2.4 trillion in consumer credit-card debt. More than 60 percent of the population over their heads in "eternal debt." Some 15 million Americans clinically addicted to shopping. Three-fourths of the population "dreading Christmas more than looking forward to it."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/341606_jesus30q.html
From MTV Movie Blog comes an interview with the producer, Morgan Spurlock of “Super Size Me”:
[…] The cover of my copy of the “What Would Jesus Buy” press notes, a new movie produced by “Super Size Me” director Morgan Spurlock, shows Mickey Mouse, arms outstretched, crucified on the front of an American Express Card.
For an American of the 21st century, it’s about the least shocking thing found in its pages.
[…] MTV News: Reverend Billy advocates the “Stop Shopping” movement. Are you the Grinch that’s going to steal my Christmas presents?
Morgan Spurlock: [Laughs] There is this amazing disconnect that kind of happened during the holiday where the gifts you give equate love. By giving you this, I love you this much. The more expensive it is and the better it is, then wow you must really love me because this was really expensive and hard to get and hard to find. Well, at the end of “The Grinch” even his heart grew three times that day, so maybe that’s what we’re hoping — that after seeing this film everybody will start to realize it’s not all about stuff, and things, and crap under a tree.
http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2007/11/21/morgan-spurlock-asks-what-would-jesus-buy/

Boycott Black Friday!

Radio host rallies blacks for Friday boycott
By Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN
Radio host and organizer Warren Ballentine hopes a "national blackout" of businesses will send Washington a message that blacks are fed up with racism and injustice, and he rejects criticism that his campaign is un-American.
… The inspirations for the boycott are many: a flurry of nooses hung in public places; the case of six teens charged as adults with attempted murder in Jena, Louisiana, after a racially charged school fight; the conviction of Genarlow Wilson, a black teen charged with child molestation after having consensual oral sex with another teen; and the rape and torture of Megan Williams, a West Virginia woman forced to eat animal feces by six whites who berated her with racial slurs.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/01/national.blackout
Need a different reason to not spend a penny on Black Friday?:
The One True Dan Adams Weblog
Here’s an idea - Support the Writers Strike - FIGHT BLACK FRIDAY WITH RED FRIDAY
SUPPORT RED FRIDAY: BOYCOTT BLACK FRIDAY!
Do not buy any DVD’s!
Do not see any movies!
Do not download any streaming movies!
Show your support for the writers on the biggest shopping day of the year.
Let the studios know that the audience recognizes the importance of the writers guild.
more info on the strike @
http://www.wga.org/
http://unitedhollywood.com/
http://danadams.org/wp/index.php?p=25
And of course, my favorite minister, Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping continue their “Buy Nothing Day,” which seems to be turning into a yearly tradition:
BUY NOTHING DAY
Fri, November 23
1:00 AM - 11:00 PM
The Street, New York, NY
Stop Shopping events all over New York City
http://www.revbilly.com/events/index.php#191
Tonight let’s all turn out for the screening of their movie:
Fri, November 16 5:00 PM - 11:00 PM
What Would Jesus Buy--THE MOVIE
EVERYWHERE, New York, NY
The documentary you have been waiting for
Benefit Screening In NYC On Nov 16th
and San Francisco Nov 24thCinema Village22 East 12th Street, New York, NY 10013212-924-3363
Sorry, New Yorkers, but Cinema Village is sold out tonight. Congrats to Rev. Billy & the gang & best wishes for a long run!