Black Friday is just around the corner. Oh, right, and so is Thanksgiving.

Once Christmas music starts playing Nov. 1 and Black Friday ads start appearing, Thanksgiving can be easy to forget. Yet, Thanksgiving should be the thing we remember.

Thanksgiving is the day we ought to be thankful for what we have, and yet the very next day we are going out to buy as much as we can as cheaply as we can; Black Friday makes focusing on Thanksgiving awfully difficult.

 It is not the premise of Black Friday I find issue with, but rather the importance many of us have begun to place on it.

Employees being forced to work on Thanksgiving is an issue. People focusing on what items they can cross off their Christmas lists instead of focusing on the ideals of Thanksgiving is an issue. Stampeding into stores with reckless abandon, with no respect for our fellow human being over a doorbuster deal, is an issue.

If sales were just on Black Friday, maybe things wouldn’t be so bad. But, when stores over the years began to open not just at special 7 a.m. times but at midnight and even earlier on Thanksgiving, that’s when Thanksgiving became the opening act and Black Friday the show for some people.

I’ll be the first to say it: there is nothing wrong with a great deal. Great deals and a tight college budget go hand in hand. But, when they come in the way of the one day of the year that grounds us in how we should be every day, thankful for what we have, then there is a problem.

I’m sure some people have made Black Friday into a very fun, vibrant family activity. That’s fine, and a great tradition, too, I bet. But keep Black Friday on Black Friday. Give thanks on Thanksgiving. They have their own days for a reason.

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