Black Friday, Mumbai, The Hummer, and Christmas

A few thoughts the day after Thanksgiving.

As you all know, I often sit at my keyboard looking at contemporary events looking for connections among the chaos of events that rush at us. This is not all that easy this morning after seeing the reports from Mumbai, hearing of National Security warnings about the possible attacks on the subways of New York, hearing reports this morning of a Walmart worker trampled to death, and after a nice family dinner for Thanksgiving at which my Dad was no longer there. Life does go on though for each of us, and my family members will gather for turkey sandwiches for lunch and watch the NU v. CO football game today on TV and play some cards and share stories afterwards and watch the news reports of the day.

Back to back reports on cable news this morning included more about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, possible attacks in New York, and the trampling death early Friday morning of a Walmart worker ……The first were coordinated attacks on commercial centers in Mumbai (Bombay), hotels, rail stations, a Jewish Center, a police station by another, heretofore unknown, Islamic, it appears, radical group with anger and hate as its soul….It was interesting to me that a British commentator referred to Mumbai as “Bombay,” still using its colonial renaming of that city as though by naming a place, a colonial power can claim the place. A small group terrorizing an entire city with indiscriminate and deliberate murders. The reasons will become clearer as time goes by and investigators gather their intelligence….but it appears to be some splinter “franchise” Jihadist blow at the Great Satan, etc., etc. Nihilists with visions of …….this is the part where I get stuck……their vision is of nothing. There appears to be no vision – just nihilist anger and hatred of all things “western.” There’s no justice in what they do. An Al Queda “franchise”……I heard that phrase on the news as though it was a McDonald’s, or a Kentucky Fried Chicken, or a Sam’s Club…..commercialized jihadism.

And at the Walmart store, where a worker was apparently killed by a mob of shoppers rushing the entrance to ……to..…. the “to” part is where I get stuck on this one, too. To buy stuff first early in the morning seems to be the answer. So we have one of America’s largest symbol of globalization with its many imported goods from India and China and anywhere in the world where children and low wage labor manufacture cheap shirts and shoes and electronics and toys and small appliances and all that stuff we place way too high on our priority lists……Christmas shoppers trample to death a Walmart employee. Talk about your post modernist ironies.

I remember the days when Sam Walton bragged about selling goods “Made in America” and I thought that was a good thing. Then last week the manufacturers of The Hummer, the world's most ridiculous suburban vehicle, flew to Washington DC in their several private jets and begged for $25 Billion….and I had to think about that one for a while.

Maybe there are no connections in all this but it seems to me the connection is about what we value: what value we place on things v. life, how we let hate and resentment drive us, what value we place on consumerism v. that which endures, and I don’t mean a one year warranty. I think I’m talking about a “lifetime” warranty…..a promise which guarantees “life.” In a small way perhaps that crowd at Walmart was in the same “vision” state of mind as that “franchise of jihadists” that disregarded life and humanity in Mumbai and sold us “Hummers” from Detroit; at opposite ends of the spectrum, to be sure, but perhaps on the same spectrum.

So entering this Christmas season let us think about the real meaning of Christmas – that “lifetime” warranty we have been given. The redemptive possibilities of life…the value of forgiveness and love…and you can’t buy that at Walmart.

Finally, if there’s a way to do it from San Francisco Bay where we deposited my Dad’s ashes this summer, he will be wearing one of his Nebraska sweatshirts today watching the NU v Colorado game rooting for his team. Sometimes he wore his San Francisco 49’ers hat while watching Nebraska games, too. Go Big Red.

Regards,
Bud