Brown: Thanksgiving is dying.

It's so sad to see how secondary family life has become. Whatever happened to treasuring sitting around the dinner table discussing the day without the TV blasting? When did it become OK to miss a milestone in a baby's development? When did we start believing that "quality time" was a good substitute for quantity of time? Whatever happened to putting family first before personal goals and desires?

What about holidays? For years you see the cries that fall on deaf ears from people saying holidays have become about shopping and not about family. Now it's getting even worse. As I did a little shopping myself this past week, I saw signs on several retail chains claiming in big, bold letters that they would be open Thanksgiving Day. Even fast food joints boasted this in several signs in their windows and doors. However, I see no one outraged, no one worried. If anything, I see people sighing in relief! How much further will we support the death of family traditions? When will we say enough is enough? There's no balance anymore. The balance keeps tilting and if you say something it's as if you're too old fashioned or too conservative or too whatever! The point is, the outrage is directed at those of us who criticize this change in society not those of us who wish to preserve the value of family.

I believe in seeing life in different colors. Black and white are not realistic. I know that Thanksgiving is just another day like any other and family togetherness should not be confined to the holidays, it's more than that. But it's moves like these that slowly corrode the framework of a family-centered society. Little by little we are moving towards a society of loners, self-centered individuals looking for fans instead of friends and forgetting the importance of family. In this country people live to work instead of working to live. The layer of people's superficial attitude is becoming callus and hard beyond penetration. The it's-all-about-me mentality is what rules the minds of most people these days. My life, my happiness, my goals, my orgasms, me, mine, my. Has it ever occurred to anyone that helping others, that looking to serve others is the true key to happiness? When we are focused on ourselves and our feelings and our desires we are bound to be constantly disappointed. However, if we look to help our family, our children, our community happiness is a guarantee. When you open your horizons to the bigger picture and focus on what's really important you can rest assured you will feel more rewarded and valuable than going around in your designer clothes and luxury car.

Now back to this holiday. In a few years I'm sure many businesses who stood strong and closed on Thanksgiving to allow their employees to be home with family will have to open their doors to stay competitive and stay in business. So where will it end? Soon we'll have no right to take a day off for any religious holiday and the 4th of July will die too. We'll probably work all weekend too and there will be no time or energy left to raise and nurture future generations. Hey! But that's OK cause at least those kids will have the best of everything, right? College education, designer clothes and all the wealth we never had. Cause that's why we work, right? To give them what we never had, a better life. Because mom staying at home with you meant you had to wear last season's kicks and you totally got laughed at in school which scarred you for life, so you'll do anything to prevent your kids from going through that, even if it means they'll be deprived of time with a parent. It's worth it, right?

When will you say no, when will you fight back against the current? I'm trying my best and I feel alone at this. I know no one really understands my decision to cramp my family of three is a small, one-bedroom apartment. I see it like this: if I have to sacrifice a bigger home, money, clothes and career success just to be there for my son I will have lived a good life and I can die tomorrow certain of that.