Hearing about the person trampled at Wal-mart was unbelievable. I’ve heard stories about people actually dying from being trampled, but for some reason this situation seemed much worse. On black Friday (November 28th, 2008) a Wal-Mart worker died after anxious shoppers ambushed the store and trampled him. Taking the door off of the hinges, shoppers rushed into the store to grab certain items as fast as they could. Not worrying about the safety of each other or even of themselves, at the end Jdimytai Damour was pronounced dead and four other shoppers were said to only have been injured.
This situation is simply sad. You take something from a person that cant be replaced, just to buy something that can always be replaced? This shows the priorities of many Americans. Putting replaceable things ahead of lives should never take place, no matter the situation. From all of the hype that this day receives, it probably gave the idea to people that they are suppose to be vicious on this particular day, because that’s all its known for. The individual involved in this probably didn’t see what they were doing wrong, all they were doing was following the unwritten rules of black Friday. Get what you want, push through crowds if you have to...these rules have been being followed for years so of course these people didn’t see it as something they weren’t suppose to be doing. This shows something very important about a certain American way of life...Selfishness. It proves that just because these people were getting something that they wanted, they didn’t care who got hurt in the process as long as they get what they want. Having more concern about others lives is something that many Americans need to work on. One argument that can support the sides of the tramplers is that they knew they would get trampled if they stopped and tried to help the man, so therefore they would be risking their lives or maybe would’ve had their life taken such as he did.
Blame should also be put on Wal-mart, and the whole hype from the media about having shoppers come out for “very low” prices. Everyday before black friday I would articles or see media coverage discussing black Friday. Estimating the amount of people that will go out and shop or just explaining statistics of shoppers and income from different stores from the previous years. This made Americans pay attention to this day even more, and inspired them to go out themselves to try getting the best bargains. At a time such as this in America (recession) I believe that these stores liked the media to talked about black Friday daily, because they knew it would benefit them at the end. Stores such as Wal mart knew that if this day was put out there more to the public, than it would increase the amount of money they would make...which is exactly what they wanted during this time. At the end Americans took advantage of cheap prices for items, while also taking the life of a man. Which would you rather take?
