Most Americans — from the Obama family in the White House to my little family in Texas — will get a much-deserved break from work on Thanksgiving Day. But millions of others won’t.
Understandably, firefighters, police, and hospital workers will stay on the job. After all, they’re providing essential services for our society.
Yet Wal-Mart, Target, Macy’s, Radio Shack, and other retailers are also requiring their low-paid workers to put in a shift.
Why?
What’s so essential about the gewgaws, gizmos, and garments these mass marketers of consumer excess sell that justifies forcing employees to give up this day of giving thanks with their families?
Retail giants already exploit the day after Thanksgiving — which they’ve dubbed “Black Friday” — for an orgy of commercialism. Yet that’s not enough to satisfy these soulless profiteers.
So they’ve moved the start of Black Friday back into Thursday, often cutting into family mealtimes. Some are even opening their doors at 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day, essentially wiping out this day of family grace for every employee they require to be at work.
Show up or lose your job. Thanks, boss.
A mall outside of Buffalo has gone even more extreme, requiring its 200-plus stores to open on Thanksgiving Day or pay a $200-an-hour fine.
What we have here is the insatiable excess of what Pope Francis recently condemned as “unbridled consumerism.” Yet a Wal-Mart PR flack claims to be doing consumers a favor by staying open to “provide what consumers need.”
Bovine excrement! Wal-Mart offers nothing that needs to be bought on a holiday.
And everything it sells can be bought the very next day from Costco, Crate & Barrel, Barnes & Noble, Dillard’s, Nordstrom, Patagonia, and other stores that respect their employees and America’s values by closing on Thanksgiving Day.
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.
In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $125,000 in one-time donations and to add 1400 new monthly donors by midnight on December 31.
Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
If you have the means to make a substantial gift, please dig deep during this critical time!
With gratitude and resolve,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy