I know a lot of people are outraged that other people chose to work today (Thanksgiving). Many of those upset people, with a sense of unearned moral superiority, started a petition to try to close down the retailers today. We can file this petition into the “busybodies file.” I don’t feel sorry for people who choose to earn a living. Armed service members, public safety workers, medical workers, restaurant staff, tow truck drivers, and grocery store clerks, among others, have all chosen occupations which sometimes requires them to work on holidays. I’m damned grateful they do, too. I put gas in the car, bought stuff at the grocery store, and went to the gym today because individuals chose to pursue profit today and my life is better for it.
Some other people think that Christmas may be too commercialized. Not me — I LOVE Black Friday because it is a celebration of abundance. The Massachusetts pilgrims were celebrating that they weren’t going to starve at the first Thanksgiving. Today, Americans have a cornucopia of inexpensive products for sale, at ridiculously low prices, many of which make their lives much better. Americans will storm stores, today and tomorrow, and snap these products off the shelf. Americans will become more prosperous because of those voluntary exchanges. I know who created that abundance, too — and I praise Him every time I realize that I’m not going to starve.
If you, like me, think Christmas is about a heckuva lot more than presents, celebrate Black Friday with the knowledge that each and every time that register rings, someone might say “Merry Christmas“– that’s a good thing. When retailers started decorating for Christmas, in October, I jumped up and down. I made sure to seek out every store manager and thank him or her, for making the birth of our Savior the focal point of his store. Every day should be a celebration of the Christ-mas in my world.
I’m thankful that people still CAN pursue profit in this country, people can CHOOSE to work on holidays, and Americans can CELEBRATE religious holidays out in the open. It wasn’t always like that in the world. America and her freedom agenda have produced the most prosperity, for the most amount of people, with the maximum amount of individual liberty, in the history of humankind…
…and I live here. That’s something for which I am grateful.
But that freedom is always under assault by the busybodies, who somehow think they can (and should) plan your life better than you might. In closing, I offer you a link to a modern day freedom fighter, Judge Andrew Napolitano and his thoughts about Thanksgiving:
What if our thanks are due primarily to the Author of our freedoms, who made us in His image and likeness, and to those who have exercised those freedoms to seek and reveal the truth? What if it is the truth, and not the government, that will keep us free?
What if we have the right to pursue happiness no matter what the government says? What if we have the right to be unique no matter what the government wants? What if the freedom to seek the truth will bring us happiness?
What if that freedom which is still ours is a just cause for a happy Thanksgiving, after all?