Lexeme Sketches

So the Black Friday hype has come and gone, and I am here to tell you that I had no part of it, and for good reason.

Example One: Pepper Sprayed

Woman Pepper Sprays Fellow Shoppers

Really? A woman sprayed shoppers with pepper spray to gain an advantage over Xboxes on sale? Is this really what Christmas is all about?

Example Two: Pandemonium Reigns

Walmart Frenzy Over Video Games

Wow. Just…wow. Not many people know this, but crowds make me extremely uncomfortable. In fact, crowds make me claustrophobic. I think in this case my phobia is fully justified. These people can barely move and they are trampling and shoving one another to get a video game to go in their kids’ stocking. Here’s a better idea: either buy the game online during cyber Monday or teach your kids a life lesson that they can’t always get what they want.

These are just two examples of the violence that broke out in stores across the nation. I have heard horror stories from friends who work at Wal-Mart that they have actually seen fist fights break out during Black Friday frenzies and I read articles the day after Black Friday of people getting trampled, injured, things stolen out of their carts, or even yanked right from their hands.

I think the best comment I read by a user on YouTube pretty much sums up how I feel about Black Friday:

“The revulsion I feel when watching this kind of thing is mixed with shame for my fellow Americans who participate in this sort of thing. This is one example of what is wrong with our country. We can be so much better than this! Mindless consumerism…Walmart and companies like it are all too happy to oblige…”

I am completely ashamed of this kind of behavior, and ‘the most wonderful time of the year’ ceases to be just that when people are so consumed by greed that they choose to harm others in order to indulge in this ‘mindless consumerism’. My husband once worked in the technology department of Office Depot, and he was subjected to this exact kind of greed-driven stupidity. In fact, he described that he had no room to walk or even type in products on his computer because people were bunched around him so closely that they pinned his arms to his sides. Frenzied customers would grab and pull his clothes, tap him, and yell in his ears to gain his attention. He would come home exhausted and literally collapse on the bed early in the evening because it took so much out of him.

Is this what Christmas is really supposed to be about? I always thought Christmas was about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, spending time with family and friends, and praising God for the blessings He has provided us throughout the year. But media such as this makes it clear that people have lost sight of what Christmas is all about to perpetuate their own personal gain. How shameful, America. How shameful.

I try to update this blog every week, but last Saturday I was at a complete loss as to what to write about. I have spent the beginning of this week trying to decide what to write for an update, and after my daily perusing of articles on Yahoo!, I came across the most perfectly ridiculous thing to write about: PETA Slams Mario.

In the brand new Super Mario game released for the Nintendo 3DS, the iconic Nintendo character Mario is rocking the totally retro tanooki suit which was originally introduced in Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES in 1988. However, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) believes that the tanooki suit promotes animal cruelty by sending a message that it’s okay to wear fur. Excuse me? It’s a freaking game, people. It’s purely for entertainment, not to send a message that it’s okay to mercilessly slaughter animals for fur. I mean, kids mindlessly play this game for crying out loud. And where the hell was PETA the first time the tanooki suit was released? Did they piss and moan about it back in 1988? If that’s what they want to do, then maybe they should bitch about Link using the whip on Epona in Ocarina of Time to make her go faster.

This, my friends, is why I do not support PETA. I am such an animal lover, don’t get me wrong. In fact, one of the best jobs I ever had was working at a veterinary clinic when I was in college, but I don’t support PETA because these people spend more time pissing and moaning about stupid rubbish like Mario wearing a tanooki suit and using controversial tactics to promote themselves. They are constantly shoving their vegan ideals down people’s throats. They say that animals are not to be used as food, but that’s why God put animals on the earth to begin with! Since the dawning of time people have eaten animal meat for survival, used animal hides for shelter and clothing, and used animal bones as tools for hunting and cultivating crops. Hell, the Native Americans still use animals as part of their culture.

Now I do believe animals being raised for slaughter should be treated humanely and that there should be humane ways of killing the animals to sell off for food. I also try to avoid personal care products that were tested on animals, and I don’t attend circuses anymore because those people really do treat their performance animals horribly. I can’t stand to see an animal abused or neglected, and I’d love to see puppy mills get shut down, but I’m not so much of a crusader that I turn vegan and start blowing up labs and blasting on kid-centric video games featuring iconic characters. At least the ASPCA puts on commercials of why you should donate money to help them save animals, even if they do use emotional appeal to get you to pony up some donations. And it is for a good cause because that money goes to funding their facilities and programs.

Realistically, however, we can’t save them all. There’s always going to be poachers hunting tigers and elephants. There’s always going to be incredibly stupid people who let their animals die in extreme heat or breed themselves to death because they refuse to be a responsible pet owner and spay and neuter their pets. But I digress. PETA needs to find other more meaningful things to crusade against instead of wasting their energy griping about video games.