(no subject)

[lykomancer]

34 year-old Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death this morning by frenzied shoppers.




...when Ed read this to me, I asked if he was kidding.

When I realized he wasn't, I cradled my head in my hands and cried.


I don't have words enough to express my grief and anger and shame.


I told Ed the other day that I thought that the Catholics got the symbolism right, using a bloody crucifix instead of an empty cross. Jesus still suffers. Jesus dies every day, every minute-- starvation and war, murder and overdose and car accidents. Jesus is raped and beaten. Jesus is pepper-sprayed by the cops and shot for being black.

Jesus gets trampled to death by people who need to get their goddamned X-Boxes to celebrate His birthday.



Please help me pass this forward. Please share my horror and hurt. I can't bear this alone.



Jesus began to weep. - John 11:35, NRSV.

Comments

[a-white-rain.livejournal.com]

With this and the attacks in Mumbai, I'm not sure I'll be able to say 'happy holidays' with a straight face.

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

I was depressed all day. I couldn't really even function.

I'm weird. The Twin Towers and Mumbai events don't get to me, at least not as deeply. They hurt; I shake my head and ache inside, yeah. But it's these little tragedies that just fucking kill me. It's the personal.

[yuuo.livejournal.com]

Dude. I... somehow, someone seriously needs to fucking crack down on this Black Friday bullshit, because a retail worker should NOT have to demand hazard pay because he could honestly get trampled to death like this guy WORKING AT A FUCKING WAL-MART.

My fucking god, what is the world coming to? I hope every customer that broke through those doors is having charges pressed against them.

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

I can't even imagine it. It makes me nauseous, the thought of dying like that. Of trying to breathe and having people crash down on your ribs, break and bloody your nose. Of trying to scream and getting your teeth shattered. Feeling your knees pop under other someone's Nikes. *shudders* Jesus.

I wish to God there was some way of nailing everyone through those doors with manslaughter charges for the man killed, and whatever else they could add to that for the miscarriage caused.

[chauni.livejournal.com]

When I read this earlier this morning, I was sickened, literally. My roommate and I were talking about how bad Black Friday is anyway, but to read this? It makes me ache. How far we have fallen.

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

It's the combination of things that makes it especially horrible for me: the end of Thanksgiving (and I wonder if he had a family dinner before he went to work and died), the fact that it was WAL-MART (cheap shit hawked by a company that doesn't care people), the upcoming holidays (which are supposed to be about light in the darkness and life in the dead of winter, not mindless consumerism).

[keio.livejournal.com]

Ignore all life but your own seems to be a slogan for this year-ender. *sigh* Mumbai, Bangkok are only major projections of more contained crises like these.

Goddamn it, no shame. No shame.

[lovingyouin1963.livejournal.com]

What to say except that we just look worse and worse, anymore. I was heartbroken when I heard.

[ozen.livejournal.com]

Now I really want to see one of those heartwarming family specials where the hero/ine goes on a quest to "save christmas"... only this time by sabotaging every retail establishment in the country.

The Charlie Brown Xmas special was way ahead of its time.