Be careful what you wish for; Angry Werewolf!

People seem to like the way I write; in fact people tend to like the way I write better than the way I express myself out loud. I make this point because many of my family and friends ask when my next blog will be posted and I just shrug and avoid the page like the plague because there is a lot of internal editing going on every time I post here. We of the Peace Corps are, (among other things) ambassadors of sorts and with that part of our job description comes the duty to mind our p's and q's; those who forget themselves sometimes find their words are unwelcome in certain circles.

Today I woke up, read some news from back in the states and my jaw clenched, my teeth ground and my fingers got that angry itch that said, "Time to express yourself and don't hold back on the hot pepper!" Today, me nah easy; today Hulk is mad!

Barack Obama is going to be our president; I personally am thrilled and I'm sorry for those who, (for other than purely political reasons) aren't. I was filled with a new hope, (no not Star Wars) and I started to think, "Perhaps this world is growing up at last; were getting past issues that have no real merit or meaning and getting on with our lives." Then I read the news from back home on my laptop and I said, "Oh fucking hell, no!"

It's a tale of two stupidities and while there was loss of life in both, only one really sucked my hope near to dry and made me ashamed to be human once more.

In Valley Stream N.Y. a temp worker is opening the doors the day after Thanksgiving. They call it Black Friday, but in the name of my fellow Jamaicans and our president elect I'd like to change it to "Stupid Human Friday" and leave even unconnected color labels out of the equation. This man, Jdimytai Damour was a temp worker and most likely just trying to earn a bit of extra cash to live and/or for the holidays; what he got instead was a wake up call and then a Wake.

The wake up call came in the form of a throng of greedy and incensed humans who, milliseconds after Jdimytai opened the flood gates at Wal Mart(tm), came rampaging into the store like riders on the storm. He was killed by the people he was there to serve; crushed to death, dun-dead. Husbands, wives, children, grandparents, your doctor, lawyer and perhaps even a religious figure or two stormed the place in a flood of humanity that washed over this hapless victim of avarice and trampled him to death! They'll bury him soon; have to, dead you know.

I was stunned to silence, (a rarity for me); a human being was trampled to death by other seemingly normal humans! This was not a wild stampede of wildebeests or crazed elephants on a safari, it was men and women. This wasn't in the midst of some natural or man made disaster where fear and terror could have been used as a (poor) excuse for setting aside our humanity and compassion for our fellow beings; this was shopping! A man was killed so somebody could fucking tickle Elmo.

The depths of human depravity do not end there; forgetting the pregnant woman or others who were hurt, (because most likely it was while they were stomping on Mr. Damour's skull) we come to the brain trusts who then complained when told the store was closing. Yes, much of this killer herd of human cattle bleated out objections like, "I've been in that line since yesterday morning!" and then kept shopping; a man is torn, bruised and bloodied and dying on the floor and they need to get a sweet deal on an X Box.

The police are looking at video tape of the incident, but say it isn't likely they'll find the exact people who used poor Jdimytai as a springboard to savings. I don't understand why they are trying to find just a few people; they need only arrest every worthless sack of water and bone who entered those doors and ignored the man on the ground, while his co-workers (bless every one of you who tried to help him) attempted to get him out of harms way, only to be trampled a bit themselves.

Senior Vice President Hank Mullany of Wal Mart was quoted as saying, "Despite all of our precautions, this unfortunate event occurred; our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those impacted." He was forced to say this of course, to try and mitigate the impending lawsuit landslide which will be coming his way. People already made noise that there weren't enough security guards there; security guards are there to stop worthless and desperate people from stealing, not knock sense into humans who should know better than to turn a fellow Homo-sapian into Eggs Benedict!

This is certainly a time I hope nobody wins a single frivolous lawsuit; I also hope Wal Mart is honorable, (or at least smart) enough to pay this man's family for their loss. I also hope that said family doesn't give into the greed which killed their loved one and try to get more; Wal Mart didn't kill Jdimytai Damour, his fellow human beings did.

There were other incidents less horrific around the US of course and the greed of low priced goods and services didn't only hypnotize the tramplers; as one story pointed out the tramplees were equally as stupid: "A woman reported being trampled by overeager customers at a Wal-Mart opening Friday in Farmingdale, (about 15 miles east of Valley Stream store) Suffolk County police said. She suffered minor injuries, but finished shopping before filling the report, police said." Oh you go girl; get that half off on a waffle iron before you have your broken foot set!

Now I said, this is a tale of two stupidities and here is the second; it actually makes me less angry than the first, other than the location of the incident and who could have gotten caught in the cross-fire.

Across the country on the other side of the good old US of A two men and their feisty female companions were shopping on Stupid Human Friday at a Toys 'R Us store in Palm Desert California when a disagreement caused the two ladies to put up their dukes.

In this case the fight wasn't over a reduced-price Transformer Doll(tm), no this altercation was pure animal rage brought on by one person unhappy with another person scratching in what they perceived as their sand box.

As the women played out a scene from Rocky Balboa, their men scratched their heads until one came up with the great idea of flashing his gun. Sadly, the other guy had a heater too and he wasn't about the bling, only the bang. The second man pulled and fired, sending the first guy running like a sissy to get away.

Hey genius, don't carry an instrument of destruction if you're not willing to use it; keep it in your pants, or better yet turn it in to your local police station. Anyways I digress.

When the gun-flasher couldn't get away from the shit storm he started, he pulled his piece and fired back; the end result is two women bruised and bloodied but alive, have lost their macho boyfriends to the way of the gun. I don't know about you, but I think a heated debate over a Star Bucks hot chocolate and a pumpkin cookie is a much better way to settle an argument.

As I said, this story makes me slightly less angry because it's just four worthless twits beating on and killing each-other; only the fact it happened in a damned toy store really pisses me off. I mean, you can't take this shit out to a nice back alley or abandoned building; you have to go where there are happy kids and stressed out parents who may end up dead due to your neanderthal ways?

Neanderthal ways; this brings me to my closing point. We always say, "Really? This is 2008 I can't believe this is still happening!" I bet in 1008 they said the same thing and I'm guessing that Cro-Magnons grunted out, "Really? it's 500,000 BC; I can't believe these things are still happening, were not Neanderthals!" But we are; underneath our 120,000 years of "modern evolution" were still children on this planet and it shows.

I'm not going to give up hope; I'm flawed and fractured myself, but every day I try to put down the rock and pick up the pen. I joined the Peace Corps to renew myself, my hope and my world; I only wish in my quest for a peaceful evolution, I don't forget myself and trample somebody on my way to a pattie and coco bread.