“Black Friday” hysteria claims its first fatality of 2008.

A mob of “Black Friday” shoppers trampled a Wal-Mart employee to death this morning in New York.

A Wal-Mart worker died after being trampled when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island store Friday morning, police and witnesses said.

The 34-year-old employee, a temporary maintenance worker, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.

Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him.

Obscene.

People will blame this on consumerism or the commercializaton of Christmas, but I don’t. Though many Christians are offended by the commercialization of Christmas, I am not. (The secularization of Christmas is another matter.) Gift-giving is a terrific thing, and I have no objection to it in connection with the celebration of Christ’s birth.

The root cause, and what does offend me is hysteria, and Black Friday is an hysteria if there ever was one. I hate it being the lead story on TV news in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I hate the name “Black Friday,” I hate stores opening at 4 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving, and I hate the ridiculous celebration of consumerism (though consumerism itself I find much less objectionable).

Get a grip, people. It’s a freakin’ sale, not a natural disaster.

H/T: Michelle Malkin.