Black Friday blues

In case a person hasn't heard, yesterday was Black Friday. I can't imagine anybody hasn't heard of it because the event receives as much publicity as the Thanksgiving holiday we celebrated on Thursday.

Black Friday is a manufactured event in which the focus is on how much shopping our country does in anticipation of Christmas. If ever there was an event that displayed the United States’ obsession with materialism, it is this event. And it is tremendously disappointing.

After all, in the eyes of many, Christmas will not exactly be Christmas unless we all run out and spend ourselves blind. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy buying gifts for loved ones and consider it a blessing to be able to show those around me how I feel about them.

However, things are being taken too far. How far? Let us begin with the actions of many national retail chains on Thanksgiving.

Not too long ago, Thanksgiving was a holiday in which most reputable businesses would shut down for the day to allow their employees to spend time with their families. Unless somebody worked in the area of essential services (police, fire, news/communication, etc.), there was a good chance they would enjoy a day off.

This attitude is slowly changing, and we saw evidence of that on Thursday. Many national chains opened on Thanksgiving night to get a jump on Black Friday. Several opened at 8 or 9 pm Thanksgiving night and stayed open through the night into Friday.

I know times are tough economically and businesses need to exploit every opportunity to make money. But seriously, do we really have to spoil a national day of Thanksgiving so people can tumble over each other to buy things they do not really need anyway? Can’t we wait one more day before we do that?

Unfortunately, I see Thanksgiving going the way of other holidays in terms of how it is respected. I am old enough to remember when holidays like Memorial Day and Labor Day resulted in many businesses being shut down so their employees could observe the holiday. Not anymore. Those days are business as usual for most companies now.

Now, it appears the same treatment is being given to Thanksgiving. How long will it be before most businesses are observing normal working hours on this day? After all, a major component for many on this holiday is to give thanks to God for how our nation has been blessed. As our country becomes more secularized, will the need for a day of Thanksgiving be watered down or eliminated?

Don't laugh. It would be easy to write me off as hysterical and paranoid on this topic, but as Bobby Dylan sang:  The times they are a-changin'.

It is hard for me to respect a company that would not allow its employees to have Thanksgiving off as a holiday. Additionally, I will be keeping a close eye on what companies will be open on Christmas as well. My money talks (and so does yours), and if I catch wind of a company showing such disrespect toward its people, then it will be difficult for me to spend money there.

While some may scoff and believe that one person cannot make a difference, I will respectfully remind those people that many of the messes in our country are because people simply will not take a stand against issues that are wrong.

As a country, we worship at the altar of materialism. We look the other way most of the time. Can't we just draw the line and let Thanksgiving and Christmas remain special days? It is not much to ask.

The worst is yet to come

Since the start of President Barack Obama's administration in January, his primary focus has been on jumpstarting our nation's feeble economy.

Last month, a stimulus package was passed by Congress that Obama hopes will improve the overall situation. Of course, Obama has stated that the package will not be a quick fix, and it will take quite a while to get things moving in a positive direction.

On that, I agree with the president. We did not get in this mess overnight, and we will not get out of it overnight.

So, how bad might it get in the coming months? Last week, the Federal Reserve downgraded its predictions for our nation's economic performance. Late last year, the Fed predicted that national unemployment in 2009 would reach between 7.1 and 7.6 percent, according to the Associated Press.

Only two months and two days into the year, our unemployment is already 7.6 percent. Therefore, the Fed's experts went back to the drawing board and are now projecting that unemployment will settle between 8.5 and 8.8 percent this year.

Additionally, the Fed is forecasting the economy will decrease between 0.5 and 1.3 percent, according to the AP.

So, for those of you optimistic about the nearly $800 billion stimulus package that recently was passed, it is time to come back down to earth. As I wrote a few paragraphs ago, our problems are going to take a long time to fix.

It is admirable that our lawmakers are attempting to reach out to the country and help ease our pain, but I am cynical about whether this package will help that much. Large federal programs often fall short of expectations.

For example, President Franklin Roosevelt is often lauded for the New Deal that attempted to help citizens during the Great Depression. While it did get some people back to work, people often forget that unemployment remained above 10 percent well into FDR's second term.

World War II is what eventually brought us out of the Depression because it required manufacturing needs that forced the creation of new jobs.

Hopefully, it will not require another world war to bring us out of our current problems. If World War III were to happen, the problems we face now would be like one raindrop in the middle of a thunderstorm.

So, how should we approach our current situation? Instead of waiting for our government to solve all our problems, we should do what Americans do best. We need to work hard, save our money, and help our neighbors the best we can.

I know that is not a very sophisticated formula, but it has brought our country more success than failure. In fact, straying from this formula is likely what has brought us to our current problems.

We have worked hard, but we have not saved our money. We have overextended ourselves, and many find themselves trying to maintain a lifestyle they could not afford in the first place.

As sad as this is, maybe this is a lesson our nation needs to learn so it will be better in the long run. Our generation has embraced materialism and what has it gotten us? It has gotten us a lot of nice toys, but also a lot of debt.

If nothing else, we can teach the next generation about our mistakes. We should at least do that because they are the ones who are going to be paying the tab for our excesses.

Let us hope they won't get too mad at us when we tell them.