Susan Bruce [11/22/2002]

By Susan Bruce

November 29 is the day after Thanksgiving. Its the biggest shopping day of the year, the official beginning of the annual Christmas Shopping Event. The racing around, the money, the stress all symbolize what Christmas really means to us in the 21st century. Our lives are already stressful. Many of us have to contend with a schedule that includes balancing more than one job and family. Financial stress is very likely part of life as well. The cost of living in the valley isnt going down rents have near doubled in the last year, and property taxes are going up again for many. Adding Christmas to that mix doesnt feel all that festive. Eleven years ago the folks at ADBUSTERS began a new tradition on the day after Thanksgiving. They called it Buy Nothing Day, or BND. The folks behind BND encourage us to refrain from purchasing anything on that day. There are many reasons for this moratorium. ADBUSTERS hopes to bring continued attention to the price we pay for all that we consume in terms of natural resources. The Worldwatch Institute reports that North Americans have used more natural resources since the end of WWII than all of humanity did in the time before. All that post-Christmas trash, heading for the dump. How many of us have a sense of, oh boy more stuff, when we open a package? Where is this going to go? Last year I spoke to a friend who had been given a bunch of bizarre items by family members. She asked, Do these people even know me? What do we do with all the dreck that we get from people who feel somehow duty bound to give us gifts? We throw it all in a closet in case they come over to visit. Why do we do this?A whole lot of it is societal/peer pressure. Were supposed to love Christmas and giving gifts. Christmas has become such a display of wretched excess theres hardly anything left to love about it. The commercials begin earlier every year. Christmas displays start going up in stores by Halloween. Our smallest citizens are bludgeoned by ads at every turn, programming their needs to them as soon as they can turn on a television set. Oddly enough, ADBUSTERS dollars are being refused. Every year they try to buy time from NBC, CBS, or ABC to run an uncommercial urging folks not to buy anything on November 29. Every year they are refused. The networks claim this concept threatens the current economic policy of the United States. So much for free speech. On late night television you can see ads for phone sex and all manner of other sex related items but you wont see an ad telling you not to buy anything. The only network daring enough to run the uncommercial has been CNN Headline News. Theyve run it since 1996, right after Lou Dobbs. BND has been growing, steadily, since its inception 11 years ago. Over time more groups have become attracted to the concept. In the last few years, the religious communities have become involved. Theres a growing network of Green Christians, whose focus involves the environment and religion. Many religious leaders are encouraging values beyond consumerism. Theres a Christian web site: www.buynothingchristmas.org. I encourage you to take the tour at the ADBUSTERS site: http://adbusters.org/campaign/bnd. Its an interesting and informative site and the graphics are great. Who says having a social conscience has to be tedious? I also recommend Bill McKibbens book, Hundred Dollar Holiday, where he recommends just that, and tells you why its a good idea. He feels that reducing spending creates a more meaningful holiday that what really matters is family, togetherness, community, faith, and fun. The folks behind BND want you to take a day off from shopping and do something else. Swap meets, teach-ins, concerts, street theater, and credit card cut ups, and potluck dinners are all regular parts of BND. There is a gift exemption voucher that can be downloaded from their Web site. BND also recommends giving to charity instead. Imagine what could be done with that concept. I had the opportunity to see some of the food amassed at the Vaughan Community Health Center during the recent food drive done by WMWV. The food was collected to distribute to valley food pantries. Much of the food had already been picked up when I dropped by and there was still a lot, and more kept coming in. Imagine if we did something like that in lieu of spending obscene sums and going into debt. Imagine how wed all feel about our community and ourselves. Money is always there, but the pockets change. Gertrude SteinThe rich have a passion for bargains as lively as it is pointless. Francoise Sagan Susan Bruce of Jackson is a local columnist. She can be reached at madameovary@msn.com