“Shoppers pack patriotic punch”? Surely your front-page headline writer (BDN, Nov. 24-25) didn’t expect to be taken seriously.

Are we to believe that home- front patriotism, which once entailed self-denial, sacrifices, rationing and the planting of victory gardens, has degenerated into an orgy of getting and spending? Hasn’t our heedless consumerism gone far enough? We’re turning the country into a coast-to-coast strip mall, plundering the planet for a lion’s share of nonrenewable resources and belching greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as if there were no tomorrow.

Let’s temper our capitalism with humane values. As for the “patriots” who got up before dawn the day after Thanksgiving to crowd their way into Wal-Mart, maybe they need to get a life.

Phil Locke

Bangor