Trampled to Death in America: Materialism Trumps Humanity

The America I know and love is better than this.

NEW YORK —  A worker was killed in the crush Friday after a throng of shoppers eager for post-Thanksgiving bargains burst through the doors at a suburban Wal-Mart, authorities said.

At least four other people were injured, and the store in Valley Stream on Long Island was closed.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Bentonville, Ark., called the incident a "tragic situation" and said the employee came from a temporary agency and was doing maintenance work at the store.

"He was bum-rushed by 200 people," co-worker Jimmy Overby, 43, told the Daily News. "They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too. ... I literally had to fight people off my back."

Nassau County police said the 34-year-old worker was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead at about 6 a.m. The man's name was not released and the cause of death was not immediately known.

A police statement said shortly after the store's 5 a.m. opening time, shoppers "physically broke down the doors, knocking (the worker) to the ground."

A metal portion of the door was crumpled like an accordion.

Shoppers around the country lined up early outside stores in the annual bargain hunting ritual known as Black Friday. Many stores open early and stay open late, and some of the most dramatic bargains are available in limited quantities.

Among the bargains offered by Wal-Mart for Friday were Samsung 50-inch high definition Plasma TVs for less than $800.

Witnesses told the Daily News that before the store was closed, eager shoppers streamed past emergency crews as they worked furiously to save the worker's life.

"They were working on him, but you could see he was dead," said Halcyon Alexander, 29. "People were still coming through."

How far adrift have some of us gone -- how bereft of any moral compass must some Americans be -- that shoppers can take a man's life and rush past his body lying on the ground in pursuit of the Almighty Sale?

Trampling fellow human beings to death happens in heartless corners of the world far too often (the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia comes to mind), but how can an innocent worker be trampled to death in America in pursuit of material things?

Someone will find a way to blame Wal-Mart for this tragedy, because Wal-Mart is not unionized and is therefore to blame for everything, but that's a cop-out.  How dare Wal-Mart offer amazingly low prices and fail to anticipate that some if its customers would treat each other like animals?!

There is a place for moral blame, and it belongs on the pushers and shovers and tramplers.  They should be deeply ashamed, if not prosecuted.  Every one of them should be visiting the dead man's family in due course, supporting his survivors, if any, and begging for forgiveness.

"What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?"  Matthew 16:26

"If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."  Mark 9:35

Comments

[Ted]

Seems clear cut to me, Barack Obama cannot become President of the United States under Article II of the Constitution. Please listen to the linked youtube, and if you can, point out exactly where its conclusion is erroneous. Since the United States Supreme Court will be under the same Constitutional constraints with regard to the cases now before it, I don't see HOW the Supreme Court can find otherwise. But, again, if anyone's got a legal theory Obama can use to get out of checkmate, have at it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqH7rSHcvgU

[James R McKenna]

Your comments are right on and I agree with them wholeheartedly.My thoughts and prayers are with the family.