Black Friday. ’Tis the season.

Centered around a holiday dedicated to giving thanks, Black Friday traditionally kicked off the holiday shopping season.

The holidays are a time for giving. But instead, Black Friday has creeped into family meal time, creating a Black Thursday event and a recipe for disaster. It used to be the case that stores shut down for holidays, but no more.

With midnight store openings and lines forming for miles, corporate America has turned the Thanksgiving holiday into a mess. The holidays are supposed to be about being good to people instead of trampling them in the aisles of Wal-Mart.

The term Black Friday holds roots in past times, linked to stock market crashes, accounting lingo and even an uprising.  Since then it has spurred ridiculous behavior in the American people. Thanksgiving is supposed to be about spending quality time with family and friends. Black Friday has turned family time into waiting in front of stores for hours to get ready for the shopping rush.

This isn’t a fair trade for either the families or the employees themselves, and it is a major trade-off the employees make when working at a retail store.

Corporations need to take a step back, realize their greedy mannerisms in opening early for Thanksgiving Day sales and start giving a little to their employees. Many retail workers have to report to work at midnight to meet the onslaught of shoppers who just can’t wait another six hours to spend their money.

However, retail workers are not the only ones stuck on the grind while everyone else is eating turkey.

We cannot forget about those dedicated individuals such as doctors, nurses, police and firemen who don’t have the option to take the day off. Most of all, we need to remember the men and women in uniform overseas, who are thousands of miles away from the comforts of home and the company of family, and yet who continue to fight, even on Thanksgiving.

Their work is greatly appreciated, and necessary. But really, who needs to buy non-essentials at midnight, or 4 a.m., or whatever times these stores are opening, in the grand scheme of things?

Thanksgiving has always meant food and family, not spending hours outside of a store competing to buy products.

We’ve already established Black Friday as a day for shopping each other to death. Let’s not allow our Thanksgiving Thursdays to fall to the same illness.