By M. Martin,
I was listening to a Portland vintage rock radio station, The Eagle, this week and the DJ excitedly announced that he had a list of retail stores in the Portland area that were going to be open during Thanksgiving day.
Roughly 1 out of 4 Americans [5] work during Thanksgiving according one survey!!! The more shoppers who shop on Thanksgiving the more moms, dads, sons and daughters get yanked from their Thanksgiving table to be forced to ring up your purchase or forced to make you a sandwich that you could have fixed for yourself at home. I even saw Subway sandwich stores advertising that they were open on Thanksgiving.
It is hard to get the family and extended family together for a single event during the year. When the whole community and country works together to take a day off, then it becomes easy and Thanksgiving becomes a day where the almost impossible becomes possible.
Now we see midnight Black Friday sales. So there are moms and dads who won’t sleep on Thanksgiving night. Let’s be real. The thought of working starting at midnight ruins the spirit and peace of the day before.
I don’t fault the radio announcer or the Subway sandwich store for celebrating shopping on this sacred holiday. They are just responding to the public which are showing cold indifference to the people who have to give up a rare day of family unity and togetherness to serve you so you can save $5.00 on a pair of shoes.