Thanks Alot

Today is America’s great day of thanks. As children we are taught to be thankful for all that America stands for. I remember grade school lessons about the day when the pilgrims shared their bounty by getting together with the Indians in peace to share the year’s harvest in a feast of friendship. It’s only in adulthood that we come to realize that this lovely little scene is most likely the product of the victor’s revisionist history and that it was more like the Indians, feeling sorry for the poor wretches that were about to face the ravages of a New England winter and deciding to feed the fools.

Still, the idea of setting aside a day on which to be consciously thankful for the blessings life has bestowed upon us is a fine one. Those of us who have carved out a comfortable existence for ourselves in America do have a lot to be thankful for. We do not have to wonder whether there will be bread on the table today or tomorrow. We do not have to wonder whether we will be able to find shelter from the storms of the coming winter. We do not have to wonder whether our children will have the opportunity to go to school next week. We do not have to fear that some marauding policeman will kick down our door and attack our women for having shown an ankle in the marketplace. We do not have to hide in the bush because we were born into this tribe instead of that tribe – the one with the machetes and the centuries of hatred in their hearts. We do not have to hide in an attic for five years while the Nazis rage outside the door seeking to haul us away to the gas chambers. We do not have to run from our neighborhoods when we see Al Qaida members coming – not from fear of what they will do to us, but from fear of what the occupying army will do to us after Al Qaida blows things up and leaves so there is no one but us against whom to vent their anger.

We do have a system of justice that gives us the right to fair trial if we are wealthy enough to hire a good lawyer. We do have a police force that looks after our well-being and does not in any serious way seek to abuse their power. We do have a system of public schools that offers a free and adequate basic education to every child. We do have the security of knowing that the odds are very much in our favor when we go to bed tonight that we will sleep safely and awaken to the same level of safety we enjoyed yesterday. We do have the wherewithal to continue to overuse the resources available to us so that we will not have to endure one minute of discomfort throughout the day.

And we do have an election system which, provided we can safeguard it adequately against rigged ballot boxes, unfair election judges and bought supreme court justices, might allow us to vote into office a government that will have better priorities than the economic domination of the world.

Oh, but now I’ve gone too far again. Best to just be thankful for what we’ve got. Or not! – your choice.


Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi

Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR

The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle