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Show r Thursday, December 4, 2008 0 R E M TIMES Page 3 A very black Friday still can't get over the fact that an innocent man was killed the day after Thanksgiving at a Long Island Wal-Mart over greed and a lack of fore sight. That's right. Holiday shoppers rushing the glass doors stampeded a Wal-Mart worker for post-Turkey Day deals on large screen TVs and music CDs. In their rush for great bargains bar-gains to purchase as gifts, apparently for loved ones for the Christmas season, hundreds of shoppers shop-pers knocked down and trampled a man to death Jdimytai Damour, The Quill &The Sword THE EDITOR'S COLUMN a 34-year-old part-time part-time temp worker who lived from Queens, was cut down in the prime of his life because somebody (or rather a lot of folks) couldn't go without a reduced-price XBox 360 system sys-tem or Rock Band video game. Employees and emergency medical personnel practically had to fight off shoving shoppers shop-pers to get to the man's aid. Four other shoppers were also injured in the melee. Black Friday, indeed. Retailers are also to blame. In their rush to make up for all their losses over the year and appease share holders, they promote these mob-rule holiday super sales that stir shoppers into a shark -like feeding frenzy. They want and expect huge crowds to turn out for their day-after-Thanksgiving merchandise madness, and some merchants mer-chants don't properly ensure that their patrons, let alone their employees, are safe. Corporate Wal-Mart representatives repre-sentatives say the store had enhanced en-hanced its security and staffing for the event, but obviously not quite enough. Though I shop now and then I've never been part of the Black Friday spectacle. Camping Camp-ing out overnight on hard, cold concrete just doesn't appeal to me nor does waiting in line for hours on end freezing and playing Rummy. I also don't like to be physically assaulted by f ellow shoppers and absolutely abso-lutely abhor making purchases in an overcrowded mall or discount dis-count retailer. ' i , 1 h i If I had my druthers, I'd make all my Christmas gift purchases with a mouse seated comfortably behind my desk at home. Though the Nov. 28 trag edy was largely an isolated incident, I think it illustrates the need for serious reforms not only in the way retailers plan and prepare for these types of events, but also for a little bit of introspection intro-spection on the part of all Americans. Is this really what consumer materialism material-ism has brought us to? Are we so addicted to saving a few bucks on products that we're willing to forego basic social mores and human decency to allow holiday shopping to digress into an amoral free-for-all? I know Long Island shoppers didn't individually decide on that grim day, "Gee, I'm going go-ing to push, shove and step on people to get that Barbie doll or that Wii video game." People, when they're in large groups, forget to act like rational, thoughtful human beings and there's a strong likelihood for a group mentality to take over. Taken to extremes, that's how violent mobs are formed. Stores need to either rethink re-think the whole Black Friday blitzkrieg sales model, or provide a better public safety system such as wrist bands, only letting in so many customers cus-tomers at one time, and more security and police boots on the ground. Black Friday could be conducted over the Internet, through a drawing or lottery system or myriad . other ways to make sure neither nei-ther shoppers nor employees are harmed. For goodness sake, spread the sale out over the entire holiday weekend. These companies spend millions mil-lions upon millions of dollars every year marketing their wares and these sales events they can spare a little pocket change to devise a plan and system to address this gaping deficiency. In the absence of any changes, chang-es, holiday bargain-bash sales will give the term "caveat emptor" emp-tor" an entirely new meaning. I Michael Rigert i y r iuvttmu a i. m i v f m z JrCT f L 4 Mall Continued from Page 1 Through associations with the Mountain West Digital Library and Utah Valley University, Uni-versity, the Orem library's steadily growing collection of historic photos will soon be uploaded to the Mountain West's online digital archive (http:mwdl.org) that serves as a clearing house for various universities' and other organizations organi-zations collections, she said. "The Mountain West Digital Library is supposed to kind of pull together all the resources from all over the area," Anderson An-derson said. A search of the database using the keyword "Orem" brought up 107 photos on the Mountain West site currently viewable by the public as part NorthCounty NEWSPAPERS 399 E. State St. Pleasant Grove Rona Rahlf 344 2935 President and Publisher rrahlfheraldextra.com Cathy Allred 443 3262 Lehi, Saratoga Springs, PI. Grove callredheraldextra.com Barbara Christiansen 443 3264 American Fork, Alpine, Cedar Hills bchristiansenheraldextra.com Mike Rigert 443 3265 Orem, Vineyard mrigertheraldextra.com Ashley Franscell 344 2545 Photo Editor afranscellheraldextra.com Josh Walker 443-3260 Advertising Account Executive jwalkerheraldextra.com Volume 135 Porv Exp-ess, an edrton o' the Lehi Free P'ess Daily Heraid Edrton USPS 309-500 a weekly newspaoer Dutvifrw! at 399 E Sa St Pleasant C'ctx Utah 84063 Penodcals oostage pad a! Pleasant Grove, Utar 8062 and at additional mailing offices Postmaster: Send address changes to Norti County Newspapers. p0 Box 7, American Fork, Utah. 84003-0007 Pubte-rM Thursdays by Lee Publications, when is a division of Lee Enterprises, Inc. Member: Audrt Bureau of Circulations k;i t-errcrai man vroc tbyrMnMKxrCfnta." of other organizations' collec--tions, such as Brigham Young University. Though the Orem library's project is currently indexed by the donor's name, once they're part of the Mountain West Digital Library's databases, data-bases, the public will be able to search through a variety of criteria including the date the photo was taken and the name of the photographer. Anderson said the Orem library's li-brary's small but growing collection col-lection includes a photograph the donor said dated from 1887 of a family that was one of the city's original settlers. The library also has a picture of one of Orem's first high school football teams. "The fireman is definitely Louise's favorite," she said of a photo that depicts the city's first fire chief on a bicycle Phone: 756-7669 Fax: 756-5274 DAILY HERALD PUBLISHING CO. Jennette Esplin 756-7669 Classifieds, Obituaries, Celebrations, Legals Kira Johnson 344 2558 News Coordinator kjohnsonheraldextra.com Megan Carleton 344 2570 Project Coordinator, DesignerCopy Editor Allison Davies 344-2570 DesignerCopy Editor Issue 51 Katie Smith, Operations Manager, SALT LAKE COUNTY: DRAPER MURRAY RIVERT0N SANDY UTAH COUNTY: ALPINE AMERICAN fORK HIGHLAND UHI tjZili OREM PROVO PLEASANT GROVE SARATOGA SPRINGS SPANISH CORK tUtl with a fire hose coiled over his shoulder. "That was his first fire truck, you could say," Anderson Ander-son said. Megan Spencer, the Orem library's division manager over access services, said Utah Valley University assisted the library's efforts by assuring that they had the correct software soft-ware needed to convert the images to a digital format. "The scanning and cataloging catalog-ing is all done in-house with current funding," she said. Spencer said patrons will soon be linked to the online on-line Orem photo collection through the Orem Public Library's Li-brary's own web site at bttpJI lib.orem.org. The tricky part comes in that much of the subject matter mat-ter and content in the photos (identities of people, the pho ! North County Newspapers FI IPPIPIPHf? Italy rtadd Wishing Co. I I fl II I Cfl Ell III I W 1 State M.-PtaoMrt Grew, Iff MOM I I 13 kj kj I 1 I I IkJ ( 756-7553 f4X; 756-5274 SbLJIcJtJll ILtUtJ Education j Genera. fflgg," TEACHER Aide PTFT $9-12hr Provo Autism school. Great 4 Moms Email resume 437-0490 Wanted: Experienced Livestock Workers from 010109-1033109 to attend to livestock primarily on the range. Feed water livestock; examines animals to detect de-tect diseases injuries; Assist with vaccinations; hearding into livestock corrals adnor stalls or maunally restraining range. 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WORK around your schedule $450 $15000 monthly PfX or $2000 - $4500 FT aap-ply aap-ply online www.wfhden-ver.com www.wfhden-ver.com I failK.Wrralo Jim Miller, Branch Manager; and Ryan Hunter, '" " ' ' jJ 0 ffl OUR BANK HAS MOVED INTO SARATOGA SPRINGS. o4(eet Qutfoca moving ctem We've opened a new branch in Saratoga Springs with people who are very familiar with this great community. Because they already live here. So come meet Jim Miller, Branch Manager; Katie Smith, ( )perations Manager; and Ryan Hunter, Business Development Representative. They'll show what our big-city banking and small-town service are all about from home loans to commercial funding and everything in between. No need to bring your truck, we've already moved in. A Bank of American Fork BIG CITY BANKING - SMALLTOWN SERVICE" (800) 815-BANK - bankaf.com tographer, when and where it was taken) may not be known. Librarians must often don their Sherlock Holmes caps and magnifying glasses in their attempts to fill in the blanks. They start by getting as much information they can from the donor and how the donor came by the photos. "It's a long extensive web of connections you have to make," Anderson said. She said the current digitized digi-tized archive has plenty of room to grow. "We have as least something some-thing from every decade but before the 50s or the 40s, there's not a whole lot," Anderson An-derson said. Individuals with photos to contribute to the project can contact Krystin Anderson at 229-7379 or send an e-mail to phot osCorem. org. AF 3br 2ba new floor & paint & appl AC storage cvrd parking 51000mo & dep & credit check. No smkpets 785-5203 II Building Materials STEEL Buildings Super discounts Complete: Foundation, Permit Plans Can erect www scg-grp com Source17P 435-657-1622 D Garage Sales JINGLE Bells Boutique Dec 6 10am-4pm St. Peter Catholic Church 634 N 600 E AF. 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