Posted on 11/22/2012 2:16:10 PM PST by NYer
.- The expansion of Thanksgiving weekend shopping to the holiday itself has raised concerns among both workers and clergy who worry that the change puts family time at risk.
Father Sinclair Oubre, Spiritual Moderator of the Texas-based Catholic Labor Network, said the store openings are a “disturbing trend” that is “an assault on the family.”
“We have almost completed the evolutionary process of having two classes of workers: those who get holidays off, and can stay with their families, and those who are forced to work, so that those who have holidays off won't have to stay with their families,” Fr. Oubre said.
Retailers such as Sears, Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Toys “R” Us and Gap are increasingly opening their stores on Thanksgiving Day. The following day, known as Black Friday, is one of the most profitable shopping days of the year.
Business analysts cite increased competition from internet shopping and some customers’ desires to shop on Thanksgiving as motives to open stores on what is traditionally a day off, according to the Wall Street Journal.
In 2011, retailers who opened on Thanksgiving Day earned 22 percent more over the Thanksgiving Day weekend.
Two popular internet petitions on the Change.org website are protesting the changes.
Casey St. Clair, a Target employee of six years from Corona, Calif., organized one petition to “save Thanksgiving” that now has over 370,000 signatures.
She said Thanksgiving Day off “really does give me that one day to relax and visit family I otherwise have no time to see.”
Introducing more business hours on the evening of Thanksgiving Day means that employees need to arrive hours before the store opens, she explained.
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York criticized the new phenomenon of Thanksgiving Day shopping in a Nov. 20 essay in the New York Post.
“The stores, we hear, will open on Thanksgiving. Isn’t that a sign of progress and liberation?” he asked. “Sorry, but no — it’s a sign of a further descent into a highly privatized, impersonal, keep-people-at-a-distance culture, one that values having stuff and doing things over just being with people whom we love, cherish and appreciate.”
The cardinal said he will pray this Thanksgiving that God preserve “a culture where personal friendship, genuine conversation and family unity can be a high priority.”
“I’ll beg God to keep those values constant in our society,” he said. “Why? Because I’m fearful they’re disappearing.”
Life was simpler and happier. We were spared the plethora of "must have" electronic devices, from cradle to grave. People talked to each other, be it on the front stoop or over a fence. Today, "txtng" is the preferred mode of communication. Back then, the news was delivered to the tv for half an hour .. today, it is round the clock. Sports were for amusement; now, they have become an excuse to skip church, in some households, especially for the kids.
As for people working on holidays, that was true for the police and hospitals when we were younger. The big difference is that back then, people obeyed the law and parents treated minor injuries at home, instead of running over to the emergency room at the local hospital.
I am grateful for having experienced life in a strong and self-sufficient America.
...I do support the workers at Walmart not working TONIGHT!
**********************
Don’t know about your area, but my WalMart is open 24/7 so many employees work at night.
I was at my local WM this morning and their were NO protesters. I heard one of the Managers saying to workers that they had many volunteers who would work today and Friday.
The vast majority of WM workers like their jobs, benefits and profit sharing and want nothing to do with the labor unions, who only want to get more dues to support socialism/communism.
I give your posting #16 a thumbs-up! You nailed it.
I once worked for an airline and often worked on holidays. It was no big deal and family made adjustments sometimes.
Same occurred later when I worked for a high-tech defense contractor (TI) and we worked 15 hours a day, 7 days a week for about 6 months. Almost got fired there when I took a day off to be in my little sister’s wedding.
I can't understand why Thanksgiving Day shopping would be so disturbing to this guy, when you consider that Sunday shopping has become commonplace even for many so-called Catholics. I wonder if Cardinal Dolan has made any recent pronouncements about Catholics dishonoring the Lord's Day by shopping for discretionary items?
What are these mysterious "discretionary items"? Pimple cures, tampons, adult diapers, diarrhea remedies, condoms?
I would normally agree with the sentiment on this thread, but I tend to be skeptical of motives when a Catholic priest launches a protest against working on a civil holiday like Thanksgiving, even while he apparently ignores the same issue on Sundays and Catholic religious holidays.
How about nearly everything inside the walls of a Best Buy store, for starters?
It’s only an “assault” on those families who are already shredded by the author’s “liberal” ideologies that they have no cohesion.
Bourbon! Now!
As far as the plantation overseers in DC are concerned....if you’re not working you’d best be shopping!!!!
Anyone who uses the phrase "social justice" is a crypto-Marxist.
Really?
Tell that to all the cooks, waitresses, bartenders, toll takers, police, firemen, nurses, xray tecs ,hospital housekeepers, football players.ticket takers and beer salesmen at those games ...truth is much of America was at work during the dinner hour of Thanksgiving ...
Exactly..if people do not shop on Thanksgiving day no one will be open next year..
The Jets' players certainly weren't. ;)
Or, more likely, you're just being querulous. Too bad the nog doesn't make you merry.
But you seek to impose your will onto others.
Sounds like fascism to me.
Try the nog. Really.
Explain exactly what it is that you want, or do you just like to whine?
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