Pursuing Happiness
on Black Friday
By Lee Wishing
Grove City College
Grove City, Pennsylvania
Many
Americans participated in consumerism-gone-wild
sales during the Thanksgiving holiday. Should
we be thankful for this retail madness these sales
generate?
The conversation at my in-laws' feast was filled
with typical Thanksgiving talk: family, God's
blessings and shopping sales. My sister-in-law
left the celebration with her teenage son for
a while to check out a few local stores. Later,
during our 45-minute ride home, my wife suggested
that I make the ten-minute ride to Prime Outlets
Mall - Grove City (PA) with my oldest son to pick
up a bargain or two at the big midnight sale.
According to its website, Prime Outlets - Grove
City, located near the intersection of US Routes
79 and 80, is rated as one of the nation's top
20 outlet centers with over 140 brand name outlets.
The mall was closed on Thanksgiving, but shoppers
from great distances and Canada were primed to
enjoy savings of 25%-65% from 12:01 a.m.-10:00
a.m. on Friday.
My son, eager to pick up a few children's classic
books and Tolkein's Lord of the Rings Trilogy,
rose from bed and joyously dressed at 12:15 a.m.
Friday. About a mile out of town we ran into a
traffic jam. Car accident, we thought.
It was no accident! Due to a successful advertising
campaign, cars were jammed bumper-to-bumper for
three miles on the country road between Grove
City and Prime Outlets. My son and I had never
seen anything like it in our peaceful community
of 8,000. We avoided the jam and took a back way
to the mall. Pausing on an overpass on a lightly
traveled road, we viewed the traffic on Route
79 below with amazement. The four-lane highway
had become a parking lot. Cars were backed up
10 miles to the north and six miles to the south.
And more were stacked up on US Route 80 for four
miles to the east. Some people waited five hours
on the interstates.
The reason became apparent when we cruised into
the mall: the 3,000-car parking lot was full.
Four thousand carloads of people were stuck on
the highway.
Was this a disgusting display of American consumerism
gone wild? A Gordon Gecko dream? Most important,
was this any way to spend a Thanksgiving evening?
We Americans hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
the Pursuit of Happiness. There is some debate
by scholars as to what Thomas Jefferson meant
by the term "the Pursuit of Happiness"
when he penned the Declaration of Independence.
Some scholars believe that Jefferson, influenced
by political philosopher John Locke, intended
the phrase to mean the right to own private property.
Others believe that Jefferson had a larger view
of happiness that not only included the pursuit
of private property, but religious and political
freedom, as well as the right to free speech and
conscience.
Let's return to my earlier thoughts: was this
any way to spend a Thanksgiving evening? Should
we Americans be embarrassed by the ravenous retail
rampage in Grove City?
Some Americans may object on religious grounds.
"Can't we savor a day of thanking God for
his blessings beyond the stroke of midnight?"
they might ask. Others may object for financial
reasons. "Can you imagine the credit card
debt incurred?" they might state angrily.
In America, we have the freedom to voice our concerns.
But others may rejoice that people saved up to
65% on clothing and Christmas gifts in stores
that were mobbed but remarkably orderly. Perhaps
that savings will be used wisely for purchasing
groceries, home repair, college tuition or making
charitable donations. Perhaps some good Samaritans
made bargain-purchases for those less fortunate.
Thomas Jefferson was not a Christian but he deeply
appreciated the bible and knew it well. In fact,
Jefferson created his own version of the bible
by eliminating its references to miracles. Certainly
Jefferson would have read 1 Chronicles 16, which
tells about King David's thanksgiving song and
celebration. David's song of thanks includes these
words: "Let the heavens be glad, and let
the earth rejoice, and let them say among the
nations, 'The Lord reigns!'"
We Americans believe we were endowed by our Creator
with certain unalienable rights, that among these
are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
I believe we will find true, lasting happiness
in glorifying God. And sure, we can be happy about
finding a great bargain on Black Friday. This
is part of America's greatness - we can freely
pursue both kinds of happiness. I'm thankful for
that.
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