The day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday, is traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year. Stores offer great bargains and early bird specials that make shoppers looking to save a few bucks and score an item that would normally be expensive to stores at all hours of the night – hoping to be the one that gets the item that usually has a limit of 10 or less. In most cases, people are peaceful and form a line and take a number, which creates crowd control and limits chaos. But at a Wal-Mart in Long Island this Black Friday – some people showed that they truly have black souls.

According to Foxnews.com, police said a temporary Wal-Mart employee, 34-year-old Jdimytai Damour, was trampled to death as about 2,000 bargain-hunters surged into the store at Friday’s 5:00am opening, leaving a metal portion of the door frame crumpled like an accordion. Other workers were knocked to the ground as they tried to rescue Damour, and customers simply stepped over him and kept shopping even as the store announced it was closing because of the death, police and witnesses said. At least four other people, including a woman eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or treatment for minor injuries. Items on sale at the Valley Stream Wal-Mart included a Samsung 50-inch Plasma HDTV for $798, a Bissel Compact Upright Vacuum for $28, a Samsung 10.2 megapixel digital camera for $69 and DVDs such as The Incredible Hulk for $9.

What makes me absolutely sick to my stomach about this story was that after people literally stepped on Mr. Damour – they actually continued into the store and kept shopping. I don’t care what your size and weight is – there is no way you or I can step on a human being and not realize it. So basically, they knew exactly what they did – but chose a Samsung 10.2 megapixel digital camera for $69 over the well being of a person. If I was part of a huge crowd like that – even though I wouldn’t be caught dead at a Black Friday early opening – I could never in good conscience accidentally step on a human being and care less because I came for a sale item and was not leaving without it. In my opinion, whoever could disgusts me.

I remember one year, when I was about 13, my mother took me to Alexander’s Department Store because the new World Wrestling Federation action figures had just arrived – and that was what I wanted for Christmas. So when the store employee came out with the box of action figures – the impatiently awaiting crowd tore into it like a pack of tigers on a freshly killed zebra. In the melee, I managed to grab a Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake doll – only to have a middle age woman punch me in the face and rip it out of my hand. I have no idea how that “woman” could sit there with a smile on her face when the person she gave the doll to opened the gift and got excited that he or she got it for Christmas – knowing full well that in order to grant a Christmas wish – she had to punch a young boy in the face to do it.

As far as what happened at Wal-Mart last week, one customer who was shopping there the next day, 48-year-old Ellie Berhun, told the Daily News. “Some man lost his life because a VCR was on sale? Please. It’s just too sad for words.”

While my prayers and condolences go out to the Damour family – what I find even sadder is that the day before Black Friday, we all gave thanks for what we had. And the holiday that Black Friday shoppers shop for is Christmas – which is all about peace, love – and good will toward men.