The dark underbelly of "Black Friday"

I spent "Black Friday" far from any shopping center.  Instead, I spent it with a sister peace warrior in the battle to empower young people.  We spent our day talking about what we can do to help disadvantaged girls get ahead in a society which does not adequately prepare them to be successful in the world of work.  These girls have not been given the coaching and education they need and deserve to know just how to fight for themselves and navigate the rules to the game of life.  We dis-empower such young people by allowing the perpetual cycle of poverty to continue.  My friend and I do what we can and when we don't know what else to do, we look to others who do this good work to brainstorm with so we can come up with more ideas.

The irony of it it all is that I have chosen to stand up against the retail enslavement of people in my community and across the world today.  Yes, I said enslavement.  And yes, today is Black Friday.  Those who work for barely living wages do so because there is a feeder system (young people grow up without adequate workplace and career-planning training, in addition to the lack of programs that teach young people how to "unlearn" the habits and negative self-talk of poverty).  As long as my society demands the right to consume at dirt cheap prices, there will be companies who engage in low-wage employment practices, further perpetuating the cycle of poverty. There are those who fight against me right now as I take a stand on this issue but I know I'm not alone and I will stand up for what I believe until others stand up with me.  And you can start by (1) being conscious of how your shopping choices impact all the unseen people involved in bringing a product to you and (2) making any small change in your shopping choices.  Even just one.  Shop locally, support a local craftsman, make your own gifts, give to charity, sponsor children living in poverty, reduce your holiday spending budget or even just buy one less thing.  Any small action you take is one important step.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/brainsparker?fref=ts

2012 Black Friday: Enslavement of the low-wage American worker: 

Last night, before I went to bed, I checked Facebook and saw several posts by friends and many of my college-age former students posting about having to head to work at retail stores at midnight. They went because they need to keep their jobs and they need the money. Did they have a choice? No. And why not? Because our culture of CONSUMPTION has become one which now makes Black Friday not just an opportunity for retail stores to "kick off" the Christmas shopping season, but rather a requirement for us to consume, consume, consume. And who will make this possible for us? The low-wage workers who have no choice to work at these businesses, because when you live in poverty and you lack skills for higher paying jobs, you take and keep any job you can get.

Is it appropriate for any of us to ask someone to work a ten or twelve hour overnight shift they don't normally work when their bodies should be resting so that we Americans can purchase low-priced goods made in sweat shops across the world? No. And now we have become a society which has successfully established the enslavement of our own people (those working the low-wage jobs, of course) to fulfill our selfish desires to both make money (corporate retailers) and consume (citizens who have fallen victim to this ploy to get them to spend). This will not stop. Thanksgiving/Black Friday 2013 will be just as ridiculous - or worse. Retail workers will not be allowed to sleep through the night because their income hails from retail stores which now "have to" participate in order to compete in the profit game. Only WE can stop this. Ask yourself what truly matters and know that the sweatshops and enslavement of workers has finally come here, to our own community. It is as close as that cashier who took your credit card at 2:15AM so you could get that $55 flat screen television made by enslaved workers in China it's easy not to think about.

No one should have to drink Red Bull all night to make it through a ridiculous work shift their bodies are not already accustomed to. Ever. Especially mere hours after celebrating an American holiday which reminds us to "gives thanks" for what we already have.

My stance may shake people awake or it may anger them.  I struggle to censor myself anymore because I know the truth and I have to sleep at night knowing whether or not I took a stand and did whatever I could to make life a little bit better for those who need our help.  There are so many inequities and so many battles to be fought.  This is a challenge for a peaceful warrior who chooses always to see the love first but sometimes the love is the one thing at the heart of the shakedown which remains true.  As the following quote states, enlightenment is a destructive process.  We cannot awaken half-way and we can no longer pretend that the time has not come.  When everything is falling apart around us, it is the best sign I can imagine that it is time for us to destroy our own limiting and fearful beliefs too.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/truthBECKONS

The famous speech... MLK still speaks...

Have you seen it?  

Have you learned from it?  

Have you been absorbed by it?  

Have you made choices in your life to live by it? 

I've been to Selma, Alabama.  I've stood at the church.  I've traveled the fateful road that saw so many march for what they knew to be their true and God-given rights.  And, I've seen the segregation so obvious to the eye and heart which still exists in this place where the movement began.

"This situation can and will be changed."

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Watch it. 

Listen to his voice. 

Feel it in your heart.  

Live the truth.  

Know this speech and it's important moment that opened a door of change in our collective human history.

Today is not just a day off from school.  

It is a day to reflect and see how much has and has not changed since 1963.

The Speech that woke humanity... Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Let freedom ring!

What now?

Which seeds are we planting?

I don't think I need to say much about September 11th today on the ten year anniversary of that awful day.  The sentiments have been written over and over today by almost everyone remembering September 11th.  We all have our memories, our personal stories and our pain.  I acknowledge that and I feel for us all.

But so much has happened in ten years.  So much has also not happened that should have...

A decade.  I remember feeling like a decade was a long time at one point but September 11th doesn't feel like it was a decade ago.  It feels so current and I'm afraid the reasons for this aren't what we would have wanted back in 2001.  Since then we've added wars, recession, out of touch politics and politicians and waste in more ways than I can even count.  Right after that fateful day it felt like We, in our Collective Soul As The Human Race all vibrated together, feeling like anything was possible.  Feeling like we could build anything, love anyone and right any wrong.

But where are we today?

I don't know my neighbors save for those in my hallway.  Money has been cut for practically everything and it has impacted my own life in major ways.  I've given up on politics and politicians - I just can't handle the layers and layers of spin, sugar coating and down right lies.  I'm glad to have been born an American but that's because it's all I've ever known and I've been given many entitlements from this side of the "border."  Who knows what my life would have been like had I been born an Austrian, a Frenchman or an African Maasi.

In the past ten years I've learned that borders are money-lines, most truths are lies and no one owns anything - not land nor buildings nor diamond rings.  It's all temporarily "ours" and ownership is an idea, not an right.  It all goes away and it all should because in the end, none of it really matters.

What does matter then?  That's easy for me to answer.

Peace.  Love.  Equality.  Fairness.  Abundance for all people (yes, it is possible).  An end to AIDS.  An end to stress.  An end to slavery, starvation and corruption.  An end to disconnectedness.  A return to our collective soul.  One Soul.  One humanity.

And that's what the next decade of my life will be about, no matter who is in the White House, the Kremlin, British Parliament or the apartment upstairs.  They are all just like me and I think more and more of them will learn this over the next ten years.  Here's to faith and here's to the kind of solidarity of purpose we all felt after September 11th - and a return to that seed which was planted that morning, not the twisted story of war and poverty and slavery and commercialism that has pushed us to the brink ten years later.