...Is there such a thing anymore as people who care? That the need for entertainment or materialistic need is more overpowering than being kind and courteous to those who need it?

Why am I on such a bend on the day after Thanksgiving? Well, it had nothing to do with anything that happened yesterday. Yesterday's gathering and dinner was a happy and blessed day with new acquaintances made and old ones renewed. There was love and camaraderie very present...

...and much agreeing with my "you couldn't pay me enough to go shopping on Black Friday - if I can't get it online at midnight tonight, it's not worth it". I will admit that I stepped into a Target and an Orchard Supply Hardware today after having lunch with DH and A & B who went shopping for a few hours in the morning. I bought the family underwear and socks at Target and three boxes of Christmas ornaments at OSH. That's it, and that was more than enough for me. It wasn't the crowds or the lines that gets me - it's the carts that run into your hips or the people who don't bother to say excuse me because they're single mindedly focused on the stuff they came to get.

I've been meaning to write about an offense that I read about a few days ago, but work got in the way. Today I heard about something that is all over the news and I was reminded of the other incident and that blew everything out of the water.

Today, on Long Island, 200 people (if you can bother to call them that any longer) trampled a 34 year old man to death after breaking down the doors at a Walmart in the quest for cheap crap, and a deal on a 50" plasma LCD for under $800. A man fell down and people ran right over him. He was 34, and a temporary employee of the chain. Walmart didn't do anything to keep such crap from happening - no lines, no tickets, no allowing certain numbers of people in the store at a time like when the Wii and the iPhone were released.

They wanted that big rush of people, that film of people rushing in. What they've got is a death on their heads and a decent retail end of day coming when they tally up the bucks. I was reading in another blog about how these people will have to live with the "human costs of their deals for a long time". I don't even want to consider these people human if they're going to act like that.

I know there are some of you out there that don't like Walmart and think the lowest common denominator shop there. I used to rally against that because there are people that have a hard time affording stuff that's at Walmart and you can't look down on people because they're poor. That said, I won't give that chauvinistic and racist organization any of my money if I can avoid it. I even commented to DH last night when he saw the ad flyer for the 50" that if he wants to go there he can but he's got to spend his own money and I won't contribute to it for the reasons I just stated: Racist and chauvinistic.

Now I can add inhuman and uncaring to the list. They've called this a "terrible tragedy" as they have to because otherwise the media will crucify them. I certainly hope the lawyers crucify them.

By now a few might be wondering about that other thing that I was going to write about. That thing was a story about a 19 year old boy declared on a web site that he hated himself and was going to kill himself. Because he had cried wolf like this previously on the website, no one really took him seriously despite the link to a live webcam. People cracked jokes or analyzed what was going on as they watched him take the pills and appear to sleep for a few hours.

Finally someone alerted a moderator and the police were contacted. The live webstream ended just after police entered. People watching fell into shock in live chats on this, at least those who weren't laughing. So very few took it seriously and a young man died.

Where the hell was the humanity? Where was the caring, despite the fact he'd said this before? What in blazing hell has happened to people? In the span of a week a young man kills himself in front of a live audience on the web, and another young man is trampled to death at a Walmart.

Have people gotten so jaded and uncaring in this world that someone can die right next to you, or be fighting for their lives, and we sit by and do nothing? Or we watch for entertainment's sake? Or we're on our way to get something entertaining.

I don't want to imagine Christmas morning in 4 weeks when there are going to be people whose footprints were on that 34 year old Walmart employee smiling at their family about the great deals that they got for presents and forgetting or not caring that someone died in the shuffle. Come on, you know that's true.

Because out of those 200+ people you *know* deep down that only a very small fraction will feel guilty and the rest of those unconscionable bastards won't care. People die every day, or he knew the risks, or poor bastard was at the wrong place at the wrong time, or it was really crazy in there, or whatever else they're going to tell themselves in order to justify running down someone in order to save a few bucks on a television or an Xbox or some cheap Walmart crap.

Yes, I'm taking shots at Walmart - they should have done something to prevent this. Every year something happens at Walmart on Black Friday - people are always getting injured, pushed down, trampled; pregnant women, teenagers, employees of the store. Every year Walmart offers crazier and crazier deals and does nothing to control the throngs. I know every retailer wants crazy publicity, so that others could say "darn, I missed that sale" and decide to go check out what else might be there that they could look at, but this kind of publicity is the stuff that should close stores down.

But this isn't just about Black Friday insanity or Walmart's inability or reluctance to take care of its customers. This is about the inhumanity that's going all around.

No one cared (I'm assuming) as an employee was trampled.

No one cared as a young man took his life on a live streaming webcam.

What's the next thing that no one is going to care about that will make me sick to my stomach and continue to swear that I will never ever shop on Black Friday ever? What's that next thing that will make me shed a tear for the levels that humanity has sunken down to...

...and maybe I just don't want to know.