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Forget the turkey. Forget the pumpkin pie. Forget traveling over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house. Forget everything you know
about Thanksgiving. 

No longer is it a day for families to gather and give thanks for their blessings.

It’s a day to shop. 

The Friday after Thanksgiving has come to be known as Black Friday, an ominous moniker if ever there was one. Up to that day, chain retailers would have you believe they have been operating all year at a loss. On Black Friday, which marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season, the red ink magically turns to black and from then until December 31, their stores operate profitably. The chains advertise special Black Friday prices on merchandise research shows will draw the most people through the doors. Crazed bargain-hunters camp outside for hours, waiting to charge through the doors when they are thrown open at 12:01 a.m. or 3 a.m. or 6 a.m or whenever. Every year you read about some poor soul being trampled to death in a Black Friday stampede.

But opening early on Black Friday is no longer good enough for the management at Sears, Kmart, The Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Toys ‘R Us, all of which have announced plans to stay open Thanksgiving Day, along with Walmart and Target which will open at 8 and 9 p.m. respectively Thanksgiving night.

Keeping their stores open on Thanksgiving, and opening them in the wee hours on Black Friday, not only ruins the holiday for the hundreds of thousands of employees who have to staff the check-out lines and/or spend the day stocking shelves in anticipation of the hordes who will rush through the doors, it perverts the meaning of Thanksgiving and, for that matter, Christmas. The Three Wise Men didn’t camp outside Gold ‘R Us, the Frankincense Republic and Myrrh-Mart, and they sure as hell didn’t trample anyone to death.

I am making a note of the chains that will be open on Thanksgiving and will never patronize them again. 

If you agree, please share this posting and do the same. If enough Americans say "enough already," perhaps the greedy bastards who run them will learn that some things, including Thanksgiving, are, and should remain, sacred.