Dear Members of the Print and Television Media,

Black Friday used to refer to an accounting term as retailers hoped to generate enough sales to turn a profit on the year's biggest shopping day. Now, it's more likely to refer to the color of the bunting used to mourn those who were killed and injured in stores across the country as consumers engage in cage match style battles for consumer goods. And every year, the media reports on what a tragedy it all is and tuts at the vagaries of human nature as if the media itself were in no way complicit in what happened.

Well, you know what? Black Friday was not invented by consumers. Consumers did not coin the term. Black Friday was manufactured by retailers and hyped by the media until the public was convinced that the day was far more important to them than it actually is. So, stop whipping the public into a frenzy for days beforehand with story after story on great deals that are nearly impossible to get. Stop sending out reporters and camera crews to cover the store-opening stampede. Stop interviewing consumers whose sole claim to newsworthiness is that they took their lives in their hands to go shopping. Just stop.

Trust me, I've been to Wal-Mart. On its best day, there's nothing there worth killing or dying for.

No love,

Sandy (no, the other one)