React to an article

Dear journalists and readers of the newspaper The Guardian,

After reading your article on your website titled ''Wal-Mart Worker Killed in Black Friday Shopping Stampede’’, released on November 29, 2008, that really appealed to me, I had to react. I usually just read your articles and talk about them to my friends and family ; however, when reading it and those of multiple notices posted below, I realized that my opinion on this situation might interest some of the readers of this newspaper. Indeed, as I think and especially hope, I was deeply shocked by the tragic events occurred on the occasion of Black Friday on a Long Island Wal- Mart.

It has long been said that the capitalist system has flaws, that the consumer society pushes people to become more stupid, to make them focus only on money and material things. But with this incident, we now have proof that a man’s life is nothing compared to promotions on craps produced in China. Moreover, if purchasers lived the same working conditions as those who produce everything they buy, thinking they are doing a good deal, they might ask more questions about low-price products. But this is not yet the case, they still prefer quantity over quality but people are not the only ones responsible : this overconsumption mentality has become entrenched over the years in our society and is becoming increasingly difficult to break away from it.

Besides, what I find surprising, it’s talking about a regrettable incident, an « unfortunate event », as if we weren’t talking about the life of a man with a family and a future ahead of him, but rather an event where no one is really responsible. People become savages again, as Kimberly Cribbs said,

and the man in our so-called modern society gives the impression of regressing to the uncontrollable status of an animal.

I therefore hope that this so futile event that caused the death of a man will serve to make consumers aware of the seriousness of their actions, but I am not even convinced of this.

(...), one of your faithful readers

...