Black Friday/Buy Nothing Day/A Holiday Rant
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The day after Thanksgiving "traditionally" marks the first day of the Christmas shopping season, but this year Christmas appeared on store shelves even earlier than usual. I was simultaneously delighted and appalled by seeing plastic Halloween lawn-display zombies displayed side-by-side with Christmas banners proclaiming "Peace." The perverse juxtaposition (intentional or not) appealed to my sick sense of humor. The thought of all the throw away plastic crap being sold in the name of "celebrating the season" turned my stomach.
I would rather be beaten with sticks than venture anywhere near a store today. Frankly, I do best if I stay out of malls altogether at this time of year.
I'm not a religious person, but I believe that Jesus would be horrified by the orgy of consumerism that has been tied to his birth. By now, Robb knows that when I start my rant out about how the Three Kings would have taken back their gifts to the Christ Child if they saw how the giving of those gifts had been perverted, it is time to steer me away from the stores.
I'll be honest. I find American Christmas crass and wasteful.
Americans are drowning in cheap knick-knackery and debt, and yet we engage in a frenzy of purchasing, all in the name of holiday spirit.
Picture Christmas morning. Everyone around the Christmas tree, ripping into presents. Now picture the resulting garbage bag filled with wrapping paper and packaging. Imagine your household's garbage bag, out on the curb with the bags from everyone on your block. Now imagine the pile of trash created by every household in America. Most of that stuff was manufactured somewhere in the third world, and shipped around the the planet, so we could buy it and promptly throw it away.
Why do I bring this up, now?
Well, it is no accident that all this has been on my mind each time I hold a terrified bird as someone jams a hydration tube down the bird's throat in a desperate attempt at saving animal's life. I've been thinking about this as the number of animal deaths climbs to over two thousand. I've been thinking about this when I realize that our seemingly unquenchable appetite for cheap consumer goods is partially to blame for all this carnage.
All that cheap throw-away crap is carried on container ships, just like the one that rammed into the Bay Bridge and ripped open its fuel tanks in the process.
Was it safe for the ship to be sailing in such dense fog? Stop asking questions! We can't interrupt the flow of goods from one end of the world to the other!
How about the endless list of lead-tainted products imported from abroad? Stop asking questions! We want the cheapest possible prices!
Deadly imported foods?
Questionable working conditions for the factory employees who make all this stuff?
Dead birds? Poisoned waters? Ruined fisheries?
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The day after Thanksgiving "traditionally" marks the first day of the Christmas shopping season, but this year Christmas appeared on store shelves even earlier than usual. I was simultaneously delighted and appalled by seeing plastic Halloween lawn-display zombies displayed side-by-side with Christmas banners proclaiming "Peace." The perverse juxtaposition (intentional or not) appealed to my sick sense of humor. The thought of all the throw away plastic crap being sold in the name of "celebrating the season" turned my stomach.
I would rather be beaten with sticks than venture anywhere near a store today. Frankly, I do best if I stay out of malls altogether at this time of year.
I'm not a religious person, but I believe that Jesus would be horrified by the orgy of consumerism that has been tied to his birth. By now, Robb knows that when I start my rant out about how the Three Kings would have taken back their gifts to the Christ Child if they saw how the giving of those gifts had been perverted, it is time to steer me away from the stores.
I'll be honest. I find American Christmas crass and wasteful.
Americans are drowning in cheap knick-knackery and debt, and yet we engage in a frenzy of purchasing, all in the name of holiday spirit.
Picture Christmas morning. Everyone around the Christmas tree, ripping into presents. Now picture the resulting garbage bag filled with wrapping paper and packaging. Imagine your household's garbage bag, out on the curb with the bags from everyone on your block. Now imagine the pile of trash created by every household in America. Most of that stuff was manufactured somewhere in the third world, and shipped around the the planet, so we could buy it and promptly throw it away.
Why do I bring this up, now?
Well, it is no accident that all this has been on my mind each time I hold a terrified bird as someone jams a hydration tube down the bird's throat in a desperate attempt at saving animal's life. I've been thinking about this as the number of animal deaths climbs to over two thousand. I've been thinking about this when I realize that our seemingly unquenchable appetite for cheap consumer goods is partially to blame for all this carnage.
All that cheap throw-away crap is carried on container ships, just like the one that rammed into the Bay Bridge and ripped open its fuel tanks in the process.
Was it safe for the ship to be sailing in such dense fog? Stop asking questions! We can't interrupt the flow of goods from one end of the world to the other!
How about the endless list of lead-tainted products imported from abroad? Stop asking questions! We want the cheapest possible prices!
Deadly imported foods?
Questionable working conditions for the factory employees who make all this stuff?
Dead birds? Poisoned waters? Ruined fisheries?
HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!!!
Only thirty one days until Christmas!
Only thirty one days until Christmas!
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Comments
Do yourself, the planet, and everyone else a favor - buy from a local company this holiday season and try to reduce the distance that your food travels so that you're using less oil to ship it.
I really tried to concentrate while reading your latest blog, but the sound of constant cash registers drowned out any bit of peace I could have had today.
I am going to make bird houses out of scrap wooden pallets this year for Xmas. What sort of birdhouse would our water birds use?
I have heard there is a big increase in products made by the local Amish this year, as everything they make is handmade in the USA, and without lead paint! YAY!
I saw a big and beautiful falcon today perched on the top of one of my wooden forms I built in our backyard made out of fallen branches. The field in back of us is full of crunches up corn cobs and hungry mice.
Annalisa
More to chew on....
LW
Dewdrop
Here's the problem.We as Americans want the cheapest price on what we buy but we also want the highest pay we can get.(I fall into that myself)but you can't have both. If American workers are to be paid a good wage then the company passes the cost on to the consumers. A good example is fruit. American farmers can't use most pesticides so their crops are sometime small due to loss. Forign farmers can use whatever they want so we can get apples from Chile cheaper than they can be grown here.
I don't know what the answer is but I know it has to be out there somewhere
(Pastor) Bubba
Peas In A Pod
http://www.flickr.com/groups/voices/discuss/72157603154354325/
Maybe we could start a alternative Christmas topic there soon too?
Gale (Yeimaya)