Not much more than a rant today, but I reference this story out of Long Island, N.Y., where a Wal-Mart employee, 34, was trampled to death by a throng of shoppers as the store opened. Just as some of those same shoppers had stuffed their bags and were halfway through their sausage and egg croissant breakfast, Jdimytai Damour of Queens was pronounced dead at 6 a.m.

First, how deluded do people have to be to not look and say something like, “Oh wait! There’s a person down here!” How does one continue walking, feel a hump under their foot, feel the incline created by a depressed cheek, nose, chest or stomach and keep going? Wal-Mart floors are pretty smooth and they certainly haven’t invented speed bumps for shoppers yet. Perhaps they should.

This episode says much about how crazed we have become about holiday shopping. Is it, perhaps, time to take a step back and begin to pare back how much we buy for people who have never wanted for anything their entire lives? People are starving everywhere. Not just in Africa. Just down the block, people are without adequate clothing. I’m, perhaps, too idealistic for my own good, but this Christmas fever is appalling. Christmas fever that results in miscarriages (Yes, there was a miscarriage in this episode as well), injuries and deaths is unconscionable. If just for one year, we took the billions spent in needless merchandise and put it toward taking care of the sick, feeding the hungry and clothing the destitute, the world would be radically changed for the better. But true willingness to make this become a reality, even in what some call a Christian nation, escapes us. People simply are not willing to give up their dust-collecting treasurers to help make this a better place to live in, at least not in America. They’ll give up some, sure. A donation here or there. But that’s about the extent of it for most of us. And I’m certainly in included. I’ve got a my fair share of stuff I don’t need. I simply speak of the ideal, not reality, but I would hope might be reality at some point in the future.

This site, particularly this post would be a good starting point.

Returning to Damour, I wonder if next year, will the 100s of shoppers involved in this man’s death, at least who knew what they had done after the fact, will look at the Christmas season any differently. I would hope so, but time heals most things, especially bad memories, so in that regard, I’m not hopeful.