On what is traditionally one of the busiest shopping days of the year, Black Friday which marks the opening of the “Christmas” shopping season, we learned a very ugly lesson. At the Wal-Mart in Long Island, New York the overwhelming greed and, insensitivity, and self absorption of our society was on full display in a scene that could only be described as “utter chaos” by Nassau County police Detective Lt. Michael Fleming.

As employees attempted to open the doors at 5 a.m. a throng of shoppers slammed into the doors like waves crashing against the rocky shore. As thousands of people pressed their way through, their disregard for their fellow man was apparent as a dozen people were knocked down, pushed aside and otherwise man handled in the rush to save a nickel or two.

A 28-year-old pregnant woman was taken to a hospital, but “the baby is going to be OK,” according to police, yet not everyone was so quick to recover form their bumps and bruises. A 34 year old seasonal Wal-Mart employee was pushed to the ground as the crowd actually forced the doors off of the entrance to the store. The employee was “stepped on by hundreds of people” as other workers attempted to fight their way through the crowd, Fleming said, “Several minutes” passed before others were even able to clear a space around the man and attempt render aid to the trampled employee.

The sad reality is that this mans death will go unpunished as it is virtually impossible to identify exactly who was responsible. Was it the people who pushed the man down? Perhaps it was the people who stepped on him while he lay helpless on the ground? Perhaps it was the gluttonous mass behind them who pushed them forward? Or perhaps it is the stores fault…

“I think it is incumbent upon the commercial establishments to recognize that this has the potential to occur at any store. Today, it happened to be Wal-Mart. It could have been any other store where hundreds and hundreds of people gather.”

Corporate, commercial, or personal greed it does not matter. When the sad reality is that people could not even stop for their fellow man as he lay dead or dying beneath their feet, then we as a people, as a nation have lost our way.