Thanksgiving as weknow it is gone. The only national holiday that actually includes humility andgratitude as subtext is no more. Yes, individual families can refuse to beco-opted by Madison Avenue, but the poor bastards who have no choice - thoseemployed in low-paying retail jobs - will be out of luck from now on. Targetdecided to seize Thanksgiving from its employees this year by opening atmidnight on Black Friday, despite 200,000 online-petition signatures asking thecompany to reverse its decision.
Our Ugly Americanembrace of unadulterated, mindless consumerism has consequences - not just forour souls but also for the lives of those who are exploited in order for us tolive so extravagantly.
My friend LauraBiesack, a UNC-Chapel Hill undergrad, had to be at her job at the Old Navystore in Gary at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Her family had an early dinner soshe could be included. Her plight was shared by many, but if you think workerrights are ignored in right-to-work North Carolina, try to imagine a job in aChinese, Latin American or Indonesian sweatshop, places of despair where mostof the stuff Americans purchased on Black Friday was manufactured.
Duke DivinitySchool professor of Christian ethics Stanley Hauerwas told me, for a story Iwrote in the National Catholic Reporter, that Americans are, for the most part,good, decent and hardworking people, but "so were the people thatsupported the Nazis."
"Goodness canbecome deeply corrupted by its innocence," he went on. "Most of thetime innocence is deeply immoral because it is such a lie not to acknowledgethat we live in a very complex world that we benefit from, and we don't have toacknowledge the havoc our benefits depend upon."
But there's hope.While millions of Americans pitched tents and pulled all-nighters toparticipate in the Black Friday consumer cult-a-thon, many instead recognizedBlack Friday as Buy-Nothing Day. In Garner, my friend Mike Munster and Ibrought our kids to the entrance of a Walmart Supercenter in Garner for 90 minutesof picketing, an annual Buy-Nothing Day ritual of the Charlie MulhollandCatholic Worker House.
My sign asked,"Do You Really Need All That Junk?" while my daughter Bernadette heldone that read, "Celebrate Families Not Shopping." Mike brought a newsign that we plan to use again next year: "Give Time Not Stuffi"Other friends, Joette Steger, Marsh Hardy, Pat Mosca and Ivonne Vera, joinedus, so we had the entrance well covered.
Even though Iregularly demonstrate in support of labor unions and against war, the deathpenalty and discrimination against immigrants, nothing is as un-American as toprotest shopping. Most folks who drove by looked incredulous or perplexed,although it was nice to see an occasional smile from someone who "gotit," and a few people rolled down their car wjndow to apologize for theirerrant ways, giving us a laugh.
Marsh mentionedthat some of the Occupy Raleigh group planned to go to Crabtree Valley Mallthat afternoon for a flash mob action. I ran the idea by my kids, who were game,so we headed to the Occupy encampment That's when the "Crabtree SpecialPolice" and other law enforcement appeared and warned us that mallprotests would not be tolerated.
The questionbecame, "What constitutes an illegal protest at the mall?" (A questionnow before the Wake County district attorney). The - cops told us that no signswould be allowed in the mall, so we left them behind and carpookd to Crabtree.At the food court, several of us sat down for a few minutes of planning. Therewas a stage nearby, and the situation looked promising.
With my redheaded6-year-old, Mary Evelyn, on my shoulders, I climbed the stairs to the stage toannounce we were here to "Occupy Crabtree " Valley MaIL" Thecuriosity of seeing a gray-haired, middle-aged man with a kid on his shouldersyelling from a stage at the food court did the trick The crowd of hundreds fellsilent, while some cheered as I gave a short spiel about love being moreimportant than shopping. I rambled a bit, but the rest of the group came to my assistance.Soon the food court was echoing with the cry. "Human need, not corporategreed."
While I'm suremany people did not agree with us, few could argue that our performance wasnot, for the most part, amusing and fun. I saw plenty of smiling faces, andlots of folks took out their cellphones to record the protest or take pictures.
Soon, a very angrymob of police arrived to break up the show. The crowd cheered loudly, some forus and some for the police who had come to restore good order to shopping.
Those with me,including my children, walked to the nearest door to leave. Once outside,police corralled us into a corner and announced we were under arrest fortrespassing and disorderly conduct The only problem: Two people who hadaccompanied us, Derek Cronmiller and Charles Hancock, while both a part ofOccupy Raleigh, had not participated in the protest. A third, Jen Schradie, aUC Berkeley sociology doctoral student studying social movements; had spent theentire time filming the event, not joining it.
No matter, thecops slapped uncomfortable plastic handcuffs on the six of us and brought usdowntown to be booked. The magistrate gave Occupy Raleigh activist Emily GarvÃn,who had been arrested recently at the Capitol during a police sweep, a $500 bond;the other four, including Roger Ehrlich, a father of four from Gary, werereleased on a promise to return for trial.
I was given a$1,500 bond despite my promise to honorably return for trial. My wife, MaryRider, bailed me out of jail a few hours later, thanks to loans from four ofour friends. We look forward to our court date, Jan. 12, 2012.
While we had anexciting, and even scary, experience at Crabtree, I think the folks from theSilk Hope Catholic Worker House had more fun at The Streets at Southpoint mallin Durham. Catholic Workers Steve Woolford and Annie SewDev joined others andentered the mall as "Zombie Shoppers." Dressed in ripped clothingwith makeup and fake blood, the five zombies hit two levels of the mall walkingstiff-legged and reciting mantras like, "Zombie must shop. Zombie lovesales," SewDev said.
After beingconfronted by police and mall security, the zombies decided to stay incharacter. "I stayed in character until they asked if I'd beendrinking," SewDev said.
Woolford said hestayed in character the longest. "Zombie have no credit. You buy thingsfor zombie?" Woolford said he told shoppers.
When security toldWoolford he was being disruptive, he said: "Kids see zombie, kids smile.You show me where zombie disrupt? You lie; zombie no disrupt."
When he was askedfor his identification, Woolford said, "Zombie no have ID. Zombiedead."
At Best Buy, oneemployee called a co-worker and said, "There's some zombies here makingfun of Black Friday. Come down, you've got to see this." Another personsaid the zombies could shop, "they just couldn't grunt."
(Woolford has anidea for next year. He might go to the mall dressed as Santa Claus and juststart giving stuff away: "Ho, ho, ho. Take this. This is for you.")
After being toldshe was banned from Southpoint for a year, SewDev whined, "Not a wholeyear. Where will zombie shop?"
Sadly, even thezombie shoppers couldn't save Thanksgiving.
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