I took a trip to Mankato last weekend with a close friend. Our goal was simple: buy gold upholstery fringe. We were on a mission to finish a gift for our beloved choir director in honor of Christmas in Christ Chapel. The chair was painted a beautiful purple, the entire choir had signed it, and we were so excited to share our gift with him. I love being a part of these projects, especially around the holidays. What we happened upon, however, was more than we bargained for.

Our struggle came upon entering Michael’s, Hobby Lobby and Hancock Fabrics. In each store, we were swept up by the usual wonderland of holiday consumer “goods.” A tower of Candy Cane boxes at $1.29 apiece, snowman knick-knacks, plastic ornaments and Santa hats made of some unknown material freshly imported from China.

We came to a striking realization: all of this retail is destined to be garbage. The plastic wreaths, the glitter, the pink scrapbooking cardstock in the shape of the word “angel” and the plastic wrapping that encased it. All of it destined for the landfill. This moment led us to this question: to what would our purchase be contributing?

I hate diving into this question. What starts as innocent fun becomes an uncomfortable, slap-in-the-face. A reality check. There we were, money in our pockets, ready to spend, when all could do was contribute to our broken economy. The store was filled to the brim with products made by low wageworkers barely making enough to survive, and the prices we would pay didn’t give us any concept of the ethics involved in our purchase. And at the end of the day, we’ll throw it away and contribute to a continually wasteful culture. Someone else will ship it out away from our campus so it can sit in a landfill or burn in the incinerator and leak toxins into the atmosphere. We can say the same right here on campus. The notebooks we write in, the chocolates we eat, even the t-shirts we buy for homecoming and Greek fundraisers share the same troubling reality.

Our actions have consequences that go deeper than what meets the eye. Jokes that are degrading to women contribute to lasting and noticeable inequality, even though they get an easy laugh. The USA doesn’t even make the top thirty countries in the world that are closing the income gap between men and women. On our campus, many feel happy about the celebration of the St. Lucia court this year, and, yet again, it is lily-white.

Oh, and the chair that we gave our director was a big hit. It brought an incredible smile to his face, and we were all thrilled. It certainly contributed to a moment of happiness for our director, fellow choir members and myself. But, if this moment of happiness contributed to a system of oppression, waste and irresponsibility, was it worth it? I wish I had an answer for you. E-mail lettertotheeditor@gac.edu to keep the conversation going.