When the 2012 holiday season rolls around, we might want to strap some people to a chair and force them to listen to “The Little Drummer Boy.” We all know who I’m talking about, don’t we? Those characters who, on Black Friday, went berserk at various malls and stores around the country in an effort to be the first ones to buy this or that.
Leading the nominations for this year’s No Class Hall of Fame would be the woman who pepper sprayed other customers.
Two days before Christmas, it got worse. The first paragraph of a story from the Wall Street Journal explains the insanity best.
“Fights, vandalism and arrests marked the release of Nike’s new Air Jordan basketball shoes as a shopping rush on stores across the country led to unrest that nearly turned into rioting.”
You read that correctly: These overpriced Air Jordans cost $180, and there are people who felt that getting hosed was so important that they resorted to fights, vandalism and getting arrested.
Here’s how bad the foolishness got, according to the WSJ story:
* Cops in Seattle had to use pepper spray on about 20 people who engaged in fisticuffs at one mall.
* In the same mall, “customers” broke down two doors.
*Also in the same mall, one man was arrested for cold-cocking a cop.
*At a Jersey City, N.J. mall, a fight broke out and one man was stabbed.
*A crowd at a store in Richmond, Calif., had to be turned away after someone fired a gun. (I hope my grandchildren, Spencer and Kaila, read this column online. They live in Berkeley, Calif., which is near Richmond. My first directive to both when they moved there was, “Steer clear of Richmond. FAR clear.”)
*A crowd in Taylor, Mich., surged into one mall and knocked over benches and damaged holiday decorations.
*Cops in Lithonia, Ga., had to arrest four people after a crowd broke down the door of one store selling the shoes.
Now let’s recall “the reason for the season,” as the saying goes. Christmas is supposed to be about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, whom Christians regard as the Savior and the Son of God.
How does the Air Jordan frenzy at stores and malls across the country square with the teachings of Jesus Christ? It doesn’t.
These “Christmas shoppers” forgot that the word “Christ” is in “Christmas.” They need to listen to the lyrics of “The Little Drummer Boy,” and listen to them often.
“The Little Drummer Boy” is my favorite Christmas song, especially the version done by the Harry Simeone Chorale. (You might want to avoid, like the plague, the disastrous version done by Bing Crosby and David Bowie.)
A poor boy in Palestine learns that wise men have come to pay homage to a child born in a manger. They bring the child gifts. The boy wants to give one too. But he has nothing but his drum.
So he plays his drum for the Christ child. The “ox and lamb” keep time with his drum-playing. When the boy is done, the Christ child smiles at him, as a way of thanks.
It’s a simple tale that gets its power and majesty from being simply told. (The Harry Simeone Chorale’s version is best because it’s simply done: human voices accompanied by the striking of a triangle.)
No song better illustrates the message and meaning of Christmas. The season is about giving, and what you give doesn’t have to be elaborate or expensive. It need only be what you have to give.
Guess that lesson was lost on those characters who think a pair of Air Jordans is more important than Christ.
Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.
