People get mad at the weirdest things.
You’d think I’d have learned my lesson when I got hammered for being a racist for saying something about “tiny Mexican villages” in the bottom of potholes in Oklahoma. Not only was I talking about something totally imaginary, I meant tiny Mexican villages in a good way – they’re little and cute. Anyway, I hurt someone’s feelings and it was silly, but it happened, nonetheless.
There’s been a big stink this year about retail stores opening on Thanksgiving Day, and forcing employees to work or be fired. I guess there are a lot of people who are appalled at the thought of corporate America being greedy, and think it’s obscene to force people to work on a family-oriented holiday.
I guess I’m ambivalent about it, mostly because I’ve never had a job that recognized holidays – before I was a nurse, I was a nurse’s aide and neither one of those professions ever get a day off, so I’m pretty used to the thought of working on holidays. This Thanksgiving was the first in two years that we’ve been home and all together, so trucking isn’t any better for holiday time, and although I’m fairly disgusted by the thought of squeezing 12 more hours of profit time in for the blood suckers who keep us all employed, I choose to show my distaste by simply staying home and refusing to participate.
I made the mistake of posting a comment to a thread railing against the injustices of being forced to work Thanksgiving at K-mart (by someone who doesn’t work at K-mart – they’ve just taken it upon themselves to let everyone know what horrid transgression against mankind has been committed by K-mart). I pointed out that a lot more impact can be made by just choosing not to shop than a bunch of picketing and yammering and carrying on. If it’s not profitable, they’re not going to continue doing it. I also pointed out these people aren’t working for free — they’re getting paid, and they’re lucky to have jobs in a crappy economy.
You’d have thought I kicked a baby in the head and posted pictures of it. I was instantly a slave driving corporation-loving communist. Seriously, people were angry enough for me to just remove the post altogether. I didn’t mean it was OK for people to be forced to do anything, I meant you do what you gotta do, and as long as you’re at least getting paid for it, it can’t be all bad. (I feel compelled to insert here that I mean this in legal terms only — it’s never OK to do anything illegal or unsavory.)
Apparently, I’m not sensitive enough to the “working class” — also, I hate small villages in Mexico. In other news, nothing could be further from the truth on either account. Tread lightly on the interwebs – they’s dangerous.
