Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

That headline comes courtesy of the This Is True newsletter by Randy Cassingham, a constant source of interesting commentary. It was the only worthy commentary about the Black Friday tragedy at the brick-and-mortar Wal-Mart in New York where a store associate was killed by a frantic rush of holiday shoppers when he opened the doors at 5 AM.

Cassingham quoted a police official as describing the shoppers as “like a stampede” and that “hundreds of people walked past him, over him or around him” while officers tried to do CPR. “No doubt,” he wrote, “they were the same shoppers who complained bitterly about the ‘appalling lack of help’ in the store.” Indeed. This remarkably callous act in the midst of what is presumably holiday shopping is perhaps the most graphic and sickening sign of how far society has gone from what is supposed to be the intent of these holidays, regardless of which holiday is being celebrated.