Black Friday? Black Friday! Have I grown so senile I've missed a month or two somewhere along the way? Check calendar … check diary … check Google! Ah - those ****** Americans!

It seems that Black Friday in America is the day after Thanksgiving Day. Another opportunity for commercial gain following after the insidious pressures of Halloween which has become big business here, and sees hordes of children carrying buckets, knocking on people's doors expecting (sometimes quite belligerently) to be given candy or other 'treats'.

'Black Friday' is the commercial link between Halloween and the gross commercialism that signals the approach of Christmas.

What next? Already TV1 has become Americanised, with USA violence replacing quality shows from UK and Australia. Are we to become (under John Key's government of puppets of the USA) a satellite state of America?

Will John Key slip the Stars and Stripes into the corner of our flag in place of the Union Jack? Will we all demand the right to carry guns and shoot anyone we mistrust?

Please - let's stop this rampant greed and loss of values.

We, as New Zealanders, have plenty to be proud of. Don't let us lose our identity by allowing crass American customs to pervade our once relatively healthy lifestyle.

Flis Bridle, Tauranga City.