Opinion: Happy Holiday$ = buy, Buy, BUY!

Dr. Errington Thompson

I was driving to work early on the morning after Thanksgiving last year. Normally at 5:45 a.m., traffic is nonexistent.

Yet, I had to slow to a crawl in front of one of the major toy stores. I could not help but notice the sea of cars in front of me. It was 6 a.m. and the parking lot was packed!

Parents were body slamming each other to get gifts for their kids. I just do not understand this way of thinking. If a parent can not get little Joey the latest GI Joe with a kung-fu grip, is the world going to end? Does that mean that they do not love Joey anymore? I believe the answer to both of those questions is no.



In
my humble opinion, we have become more and more focused on the wrong
things in this country. If we used this energy to chose our government
officials, would our government look and act differently? How about if
we volunteered at local charities with this same energy, would the
country look and feel differently? The answer to these questions may be
a no-brainer.


The
materialistic holiday psychosis trend as we know it started over 20
years ago with the terminally cute Cabbage Patch doll. Parents lost
their minds over this doll. They invaded the toy stores in their
attempts to try to buy one of the dolls for their kids. Heck, some of
these parents were mauling each other over the Cabbage Patch Kids. Fast
forward to 2006, fist fights have broken out over the long-awaited
Playstation 3. I guess that the saying: “the more things change, the
more they stay the same” rings true after all.


Come on, let’s
think about this for just a second, there are no shortages of toys in
the US. If little Susan gets a Barbie or an Etch-a-Sketch instead of
whatever is new and expensive, will Susan be forever harmed? If instead
of getting a new dancing Elmo, Sam gets a regular Elmo at one-third of
the price, will Sam be destined for counseling for his whole adult
life? Honestly, I don’t think so.


In addition to
the intense and rampant holiday materialism, Christmas displays are
another thing that’s becoming way out of hand. It is a given that the
displays in the stores are overbearing, but I’m talking about the ones
where we turn our houses into a Broadway neon sign.


Imagine a couple
of neighbors who do not want to be out classed, getting into the act of
putting their Christmas sprit shamelessly on display . Before you know
it, the Jones’ have had to rent some mega-watt generator from the
electric company in order to run all of the lights and moving displays.



Now, let me say
I’m not against Christmas displays. As a matter of fact, I love them.
When I was a child, my father used to take the whole family around
Dallas to look at some of the light displays. I enjoyed it, and I still
do but as my mother always say: “Too much of anything isn’t good for
you.” For example, if your electric bill increases by 25 percent or
more during the holidays and you have gas to heat your home you might
have a problem.


I would like to
remind everyone that the holiday season is supposed to be a happy time.
It is supposed to be a time of spiritual celebration. Please remember
that the holiday season is also a very injury prone season. You will
find that everybody is rushing around and trying to cut corners. From
falling from ladders to motor vehicle crashes, this is one of the
busiest trauma seasons. Please be safe!


In Other News


What happened to
the immigration debate? There were speeches and demonstrations across
the country. Republicans from the House and Senate held town hall
meetings across the country. Then suddenly there was nothing. Not a
sound. Everyone stopped talking about immigration while it remains a
huge problem. Government officials may think that the solution to this
problem is simple. In reality, the solution is very complex.


Building a fence
is not a complete solution. If economic refugees, or illegal
immigrants, are crossing the Arizona desert, braving temperatures of
130 degrees, and paying thousands of dollars to a mule—a two foot thick
concrete fence loaded with electricity and barb-wire will not stop them
either. Real and practical solutions are needed here.


The solution
will probably have to include the following : First and foremost,
employers can not hire economic refugees without legal repercussions.
Secondly, the economic conditions in their native countries must
improve.


Finally, we have
to find a solution for the 13 million economic refugees that are here.
Making them second class citizens does not sound right. Allowing them
full citizenship right now seems to reward them for breaking the law.
The answer is somewhere in the middle. Sending them back is not
realistic, nor is it financially feasible.


According to
some estimates, sending them back could cost as much as $150 billion.
When you think about the cost of rounding folks up, holding them
somewhere, and transporting them back to their native country, $150
billion sounds a little low to me. This problem will only get worse if
we do not address it now.


Moving along,
I’m sure that you heard in Sarasota, Florida that 18,000 votes were
somehow lost. Are we going to get true election reform? Maybe I’m
wrong, but when you have the fox watching the chicken coop, it is
unrealistic that the fox would change the situation. The one thing that
I do know is that electronic voting is very problematic.


Studies have
repeatedly uncovered issues with software security, and the ease with
which someone can open the machines and insert a virus that would
change the votes. Many of the old election obstruction tactics used in
the deep South for decades to keep Blacks from voting are being used
nationwide in order to suppress tens of thousands of voters.


Also, if we truly want every citizen who is eligible to vote then why are we still holding elections on a Tuesday?


Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and a happy and prosperous New Year!


•Dr. Errington C.
Thompson is a surgeon, scholar, author, part-time political activist
and full-time sports fan. He is active in a number of community
projects and initiatives. Dr. Thompson is currently a critical care/
trauma surgeon at Mission Hospital. Thompson can be reached at [email protected].