The shame of shopping on Thanksgiving

Nov 26, 2013, 5:22 PM | Updated: Aug 17, 2015, 3:54 pm

KTAR.com

The interwebs are abuzz with petitions and calls to boycott certain retailers such as Macy’s, Target and Walmart this holiday season. Why? It would have to be something along the lines of poor working conditions or human rights violations, right?

Nope. These evil profiteers are destroying the sanctity of that highest of holidays: Thanksgiving. These stores have chosen to open Thanksgiving to start the Christmas shopping season a few hours earlier.

The nerve!

How dare they ask their employees to alter their turkey feasting times. How dare they pay their employees time and a half to help their company stay in the black and secure the funds to keep them employed. After all, we have designated ONE meal a year to reflect on what we are thankful for and we will be damned if these evil empires will keep us from doing just that!

It is our right to stuff our faces, drink too much and watch football for six hours, take a nap, then do it all over again. We will show these retailers who’s in charge around here. We should be congratulated for sticking up for the little guy.

While we are patting ourselves on the back in celebration of our successful protest, we should take some time for ourselves. We deserve it.

We will take some time to watch football and be thankful for the thousands of employees who are WORKING to run the stadium and broadcast the game.

We will take some time to bake a pie and be thankful for the employees who are WORKING at the gas company making sure that gas continues to flow to your home on this holiday.

We will take some time to watch the Macy’s Thnaksgiving Day Parade (keep in mind that we are boycotting Macy’s) and be thankful all of the employees, officers and float riders for sacrificing their holiday for our enjoyment.

Or …

We can stop being complete hypocrites!! The world continues to run while we are stuffing our faces and pretending to like our extended family. It takes actual people to show up to work to keep the world running.

Time to get over ourselves and put an end to our selective outrage.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Get Outdoors

Mike Russell

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