How NOT to Spend Thanksgiving

Every year, more and more businesses open on Thanksgiving Day. I'm not talking about hospitals, of course, or nursing homes; these vital services must be staffed 24/7. But what about the non-essential retail trade, staffed by hard-working, low-paid employees who have families and lives outside of work just like everybody else.

But these employees are quickly losing the few holidays they are allowed to enjoy. Independence Day is long gone, and New Year's Day? Not a chance. Now it's Thanksgiving that's under attack, rapidly diappearing from their calendars because CEOs in offices somewhere are trying to squeeze every last nickel out of the public. how many of these executives are working themselves on tHanksgiving day? Don't be funny; they're home with their families or visiting relatives, and never mind those under them who are prevented from doing the same.

But you, the public can do something about it. You can stay out of the stores on Thanksgiving. You can hit them in their one vulnerable spot: the wallet. Don't darken their retail doors for even a minute, not even to buy "just one thing." Your five minutes in the store makes a dozen clerks pull a seven-, eight-, or nine-hour shift.

So, please, give to those who spend 362 days out of the year serving you something to be thankful for: give them back their Thanksgiving holiday. Don't go shopping! They will thank you for it next year.