At least we got the TV for $800 bucks!

[Pale Blue Dot]

On Tuesday of this past week I helped deliver complete Thanksgiving meals to 75 families who live in the city where I teach. Accompanying me, and doing most of the work, were 2 of my former students, now 13. As it turns out, our last delivery was to the home of one of those students, who I am going to call Carrie. Carrie is a sweetheart; a kind, happy girl of average intelligence who I loved teaching because of her sunny disposition and her personality, but who also annoyed me because she never did her homework. I had never seen where she lived before.

We pulled up to her house at about 4:30 on a Wednesday afternoon. There was a young man standing next to the driveway of her apartment. "Is that your brother?" I said to her. "No. I don't know him. This is a big drug area." She said this the way you or I might say "You need to shower before you go out." Her sunny disposition never wavered.

As we walked into her apartment building (which was actually a 2-story house that had been converted into 3 or 4 tiny apartments), it was obvious that the front door had been completely ripped off the hinges. "What happened here?" said her friend Jerri, who lives 2 blocks away. "It was some Halloween thing. Oh, and remember that guy who broke into the 3rd floor?" Carrie said. "Yeah, that was messed up," responded Jerri. This conversation was played out in the tone that you or I might use in a discussion of "Who is Jenna taking to the prom?"

I grew up in an upper middle class white household. I never had to worry about my security or my basic needs. I'm the same exact type of student as Carrie: a friendly, smart, underachiever. And yet because I was white and my family had money, I never had to fret. I KNEW I would be all right.

Carrie deserves the same chance that I had, but she deals with stresses on a daily basis that I could not even conceive and that she is not even aware of. She thinks living on a street with drug dealers on your lawn and people breaking into your building are normal. Would I have survived that environment? NO, I would not.

We live in a consumer society. We don't produce anything anymore - we just buy. As a nation we don't value the little man - the small business - the way we once did. We value Walmart, who can get us what we want for the cheapest possible price. After 9/11, George Bush pleaded with the nation to "Go Shopping." That was music to our ears. We should spend money on things we want, even going into debt to do so, and not feel guilty about doing so? Sign us up!

Except that's not what we should have been doing. We should have been focusing on Carrie. She deserves the same chance to make it that I had. She should even be given a boost because, while I avoided homework because I didn't feel like doing it, she doesn't get hers done because there are drug dealers on her front lawn and she can't ever feel safe in her own home. Its not fair. I had an unfair advantage that I'm taking advantage of even now as I type on this expensive laptop.

Yesterday a man was trampled to death because of our consumer-driven society. No one was standing in front of a Wal-mart at 1AM because they had to feed their family or because they needed their children to be able to afford a good college. They were there - WE were there - because we wanted a slightly better resolution on a slightly bigger TV screen. And we wanted to believe we could get it, in this economy, for $800. A man is dead so that 5 people out of 2,000 could live that pathetic, short-sighted dream. Yet Carrie, a sweetheart who deserves a chance at life, sleeps tonight unsure of who will be entering her apartment.

Shame on us. Shame on all of us.

It is long past time to talk about the type of society we are and the type of society we will be. It is time to recognize that none of us are safe until we all are safe; that none of us will really live until we all can live. For the rest of this weekend I'm begging you to think of the man who died at Walmart yesterday - and think about Carrie. She deserves a shot at America too.

[emilyg]

1. Thank you.

[Adsos Letter]

2. Please don't forget...

that there are those of us out here that work on a year-round basis to do what we can to help those in need.

I agree with your passion, but I don't believe all of us need to be ashamed.

[Pale Blue Dot]

3. Sorry. I don't think it works until we are all ashamed.

If you are making excuses, then so can everyone else on this site, and so could I. We ALL could be doing more to make this a more just and moral society.

[Adsos Letter]

4. I'm not making excuses, and don't feel I need to...

We are very actively involved, both financially, politically, and time-wise, in doing what we can to make it a better world.

The people who sit and complain about the state of things, but don't actually do much (or anything) are the ones who need to feel the shame.

[Breeze54]

5. How do you know that no poor people were there trying to save money and feed their family?

"No one was standing in front of a Wal-mart at 1AM because they had to feed their family..."

What happened was definitely a tragedy and Walmart is complicit by offering only 5 items
and not having proper protection, the police, there to keep the crowd under control.

Blaming poor people for wanting a little something nice for their family is ridiculous.

Blaming poor people for trying to get a deal on something they couldn't afford normally,
in Carrie's neighborhood, is ridiculous.

Putting and keeping families like Carrie's in that situation is unconscionable.

Walmart has had a huge hand in shipping jobs out of the USA.

If you want to blame somebody, blame them for all that you wrote about.

[Pale Blue Dot]

6. I DO blame Walmart. I've hated Walmart for a long time.

I repeat: No one in line at 1AM had their families' basic needs in mind. Have you seen the Wal-Mart Black Friday ad? I have. In fact, I have it right in front of me. There is nothing - NOTHING - in the early bird specials that anyone - ANYONE - NEEDS. Attitudes like yours are EXACTLY why Carrie's family is in the fix that its in.

I BLAME WALMART. I also blame people like you.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Pale Blue Dot]

8. I DELIVERED FOOD TO HER HOUSE BECAUSE HER FAMILY DIDN'T HAVE ANY!

:wtf: yourself. I never said that it was Carrie's family that was going to Walmart for an $800 TV. And I never said that it was just "poor" people that didn't need an $800 TV.

NO ONE needs an $800 TV. Not that badly. Not Bill Gates, not the homeless guy on the corner. NO ONE. Why have created a society in which we think we need things that are completely unimportant. Things that we will trample other human beings to get.

Carrie's family was NOT in line at Walmart at 1AM. They were trying to get some sleep after spending time together as a family.

[Breeze54]

10. yeah... so? --- maybe those 'things' are unimportant to you but others may feel differently.

You have no right to judge them.

I said Carrie's neighborhood. :eyes:

Carrie's family may not have been in line at WM but families like hers were, I'm sure.

Maybe those poor families NEEDED a TV because their kids can't go outside and play for fear of being shot?

But you wouldn't know anything about living like that, because as you stated in your OP, you live in a privileged neighborhood.

You don't live in fear, like Carrie does and all the families like Carrie's.

Do you? :shrug:

[Pale Blue Dot]

11. I see you live close to me.

I invite you down to Hartford anytime you want for a tour and a discussion. PM me if you are interested.

[Breeze54]

16. Why would I want to go to Hartford? Is that the only place in the USA with poor people?

Or is that the only place, you are aware of, that has poor people?

I've already been there but just for a day, passing through.

Thanks though for the invite! :hi:

[flvegan]

14. Biggest fucking reach I've ever seen here at DU.

Quite fucking pathetic, actually. Judging not lest one be judged, yada yada.

I love the invocation of privilege based on the "NEED" of a TV.

Do you have ANY idea of what needy/poor families need, or is it all just soundbytes to you?

[Breeze54]

15. The OP used "privilege'... not me.... Did you bother to even read the OP

before you shot your mouth off?

"Do you have ANY idea of what needy/poor families need..."?

:rofl:

That's a pretty funny comment!! :D

Apparently I do know more than you will ever know.

[ananda]

12. I think I see..

.. what happened at Wal-mart, the way
you just described it, as a metaphor
for the entire American society at large.

It's trample or be trampled, and most of
us are getting trampled, in fact virtually
crushed by the corporate me-first mentality.

And I agree that if there is just one
"Carrie" in the world, then we are all
"Carries." Even if we live in a privileged
family or world, we all must carry the
knowledge that that could be us at any
moment in time or any place.

Sue

[Pale Blue Dot]

13. ...

Yes. Thank you. This is a true story, and also a metaphor about American society.

[DemReadingDU]

18. Thank you for sharing Carrie's story

As we who read the SMW daily postings, the impending financial collapse will be affecting us sooner or later, such that there could be many more families living like Carrie.

[Pale Blue Dot]

19. I agree.

I feel very passionately (obviously) that the time for deluding ourselves is over and the time to have a national conversation about our values and how we got here has begun.

[DemReadingDU]

21. The SMW morphs into the Weekend Economist

Check us out when you have time
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x405605

[flvegan]

9. K&R for Carrie.

Thank you Finnfan for posting this.

[Pale Blue Dot]

17. Thanks. nt

[rvablue]

20. This is so eloquent....I urge you

to write this up and send it to your local paper for their opinion section.

It really says it all.

And I, like you, would never be caught in such a pathetic attempt, and yet, I do feel responsible in so far as I am a member of this society.

Last night I was wondering about those people that got those 5 TVs that were on sale. Are they really going to set them up in their living rooms and look at them every night and not think of that poor man and his family.

Probably not, and that's the sadest thing of all.

[Tansy_Gold]

24. Exactly.

And as Bill Ayers said, we should all regret that we didn't do enough.

yes, we do what we can, but collectively we could do so much more. And it's not just delivering meals or dropping a few canned goods in the donation box at the supermarket. It's the monumental effort we must all make to change the way things are perceived. How does one change the perception that an $800 32-inch tv is a "need"? That's our challenge.


Tansy Gold

[Tashca]

22. Very good.

All the things people are arguing about to do with this Walmart story are symptoms of a much larger problem. I am hoping you are right and people will step back and realize this is something much bigger......a societal problem and we are all involved.

You did a very good job of drawing up the analogy!!!

[LWolf]

23. I will include Carrie

when I think of all my current and past students who have had those kind of obstacles to overcome.

My heart holds them close.