A small part of me feels like the push to keep stores closed on Thanksgiving has some cultural imperialism to it. What about people who don't celebrate Thanksgiving? What about holidays from other cultures that aren't celebrated by mainstream America and people who are kept away from home on important days of togetherness for them?

To be clear, I think people should get to spend days with deep personal and familial significance with their families. I think a system that keeps people from doing that is pretty broken. But focusing on Thanksgiving feels too narrow, and potentially exclusive in a couple ways, for me to be entirely comfortable with. The combination of normative intent and cultural tone-deafness is disconcerting.

On the other hand, let's tackle these issues one at a time, right? If you can make things better for people, by all means, make them better. But let's not forget that this is not a universal issue.