Facebook | Billy Talen’s Notes

A young man was trampled at the early morning Black Friday opening of a Wal-mart. He was a stock clerk charged with helping with the crowd, who rushed in, busting open the doors. A pregnant woman nearby also fell and miscarried her child. Our hearts go out to the these neighbors and friends, both the victims and the rushing-in consumers. The Black Friday rush at the door is a symbol of an era that is ending. A moment when people don’t regard one anothers’ needs or safety, the amphetimine rush of greed. We are repairing our relationships, beginning to care for our neighbors again. We were isolated by the product-life. We’re sorry that the two sacrificed to make Love even more clear. — Rev

AP story here

If you don’t know about Buy Nothing Day then after reading about what happened at this Wal-Mart then you should really check it out. This is also all the more reason to support the work of Billy Talen aka Rev Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping.

Dozens of store employees trying to fight their way out to help the man were also getting trampled by the crowd, Fleming said. Witnesses said that even as the worker lay on the ground, shoppers streamed into the store, stepping over him.

This is when I say enough is enough stop with the consumerism. As the economy worsens consumption will lower and honestly there’s going to be a positive side to that my friends. One “consumer” who witnessed the stampede said that people were acting like savages. Yet you have to understand that this is what marketers want you to act like. Why could a President after September 11th, 2001 have as their only message to “go shopping?“

Bush did nothing to mobilize public opinion to accept the sacrifices that war implies — the first thing a leader would do. Tax cuts could go ahead as planned, and energy saving was dismissed out of hand. “Go shopping” was the administration’s message.

We let corporations like Wal-Mart and Madison Avenue marketers treat us like cattle. It has to stop. If it takes an economic recession to bring people back to their senses then so be it. We don’t really know what’s important to us anymore.

Correction: I’m hearing that the woman did not miscarry her child.