In a decision that has driven nearly 190,000 people to sign a petition against it, Target has joined retailers like Best Buy, Kohl’s and Macy’s in opening its doors at midnight on Black Friday, a five-hour jump back from the 5 a.m. opening time of last year. The stores acknowledge that the decision is unfortunate for their employees but ultimately claim the retailers have to give customers what they want. And what they want is more shopping time.

Midnight isn’t even the worst of it. Walmart opens at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Toys R Us opens at 9 p.m. Employees scheduled to work through the day and night Friday must choose between sacrificing Thanksgiving with their families to sleep in preparation or coming to work completely exhausted. All because customers were apparently begging to be allowed into the stores earlier than ever.

It seems the inevitable conclusion that, in the coming years, retailers will ignore the holiday of Thanksgiving altogether, ironically one of the only major holidays all Americans observe. Before we know it, Black Friday sales will roll back into Black Wednesday sales, and the holiday will become less and less central to our nation, less and less a day for families to gather together and share food and gratitude.

This scenario is a little dramatic but not entirely unfeasible, in light of these retailers’ actions.

It is perhaps optimistic to hope that the retailers may also try to curb some of the chaos that has accompanied Black Friday store openings in recent years. By moving the opening times earlier, customers may be a little more tired and a little less crazy.

Most of us probably remember the incident in 2008 when a 34-year-old Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death by shoppers after the store opened in Valley Stream, N.Y. The crowd unhinged the metal doors once they were opened and did not stop rushing into the store even as other employees — and then the police — attempted to help the injured employee.

The madness doesn’t stop there. Just last year in Madison, a woman was arrested outside a Toys R Us for cutting in line and threatening to shoot other customers who raised objections. In eastern Georgia, a Marine volunteering with Toys for Tots was stabbed when he tried to help stop a shoplifter. In Buffalo, N.Y., a man was trampled by the waiting crowd when a Target store opened its doors.

Even after these events, retailers have continued to play into the mentality that promotes them. By generating a hysterical hype around store opening times and amazing deals, what else could we expect?

Of course, retail works two ways. If customers did not continue to show up with the money, retailers would relent. We believe adopting this mentality would do us all some good.

We are not advocating an end to Black Friday shopping. During this period of economic recession, we recognize that Black Friday is an oasis in the desert for many businesses. If these businesses can regain some of the profits they have lost over the course of the rest of the year, they will be able to continue to employ workers who badly need the jobs.

At the same time, forcing thousands of employees to sacrifice their Thanksgivings with their families and promoting this type of materialistic behavior is irresponsible. Do we want to live in this kind of society? Where does the madness end?

We urge the Marquette community to remember the reason we have a break this week in the first place. We should make the most of our time with family or friends, cherishing their company and celebrating our blessings.

We do not have to give up shopping, but we can redefine it for ourselves. We can wait until the afternoon to hit the stores and only purchase what we actually need. Better yet, we can do something both fun and good for the environment and go thrift shopping.

And while these petitions may not have any effect on retailers this year, perhaps they will in the years to come. As the sentiment that Thanksgiving should be a family-first holiday spreads, maybe, just maybe, we will see less madness and more thankfulness.