Klarinet Archive - Posting 000731.txt from 2004/11

From: "Keith" <100012.1302@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] RE: klarinet Digest 29 Nov 2004 21:15:00 -0000 Issue 5677
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 17:09:25 -0500


Lelia,

That was beautifully put.

But come on, have you NEVER been thankful for a flutist? Surely they are not
THAT much worse than the looting, pillaging, murderous, slave-owning
invaders.... And I do know one who plays in tempo!

Keith

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 15:26:50 -0500
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
> Subject: [kl] Happy Thanksgiving
> Message-ID: <410-220041112920265029@-----.net>
>
> Answering a question about what Americans give thanks for on
> Thanksgiving Day, Karin Berman wrote,
> >>maybe for managing to wipe out almost all the Native People, taking
> >>their land? Then went home after it all to celebrate with some dead
> >>turkey ???
>
> Here in Virginia, where the earliest colonists pre-dated the
> Pilgrims and were a lot more cruel and exploitative than the
> Pilgrims, I serve our traditional dead Virginia ham instead
> of a dead turkey. However, there's no need to serve any meat
> dish at all. One of the best Thanksgiving dinners I ever
> attended was a fine, nutritionally balanced vegan potluck
> feast made up entirely of traditional Thanksgiving harvest
> foods: apples, cranberries, nuts, bread, rice, beans,
> broccoli, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin and squash, with
> the eighteenth century additions of pineapple, tomatoes and
> oranges joining the older favorites.
>
> Ormond Montoya wrote,
> >I've tried to avoid being a grump, and I've tried to hold my tongue,
> >but perhaps it's better to talk it out.....
>
> Same here. I interpreted the original question, as you did,
> as innocent curiosity. Then came the snarky responses, and
> then the extra-snarkies, and away we go. I've been trying to
> re-write this response but then not sending it every day
> because it seems so unnecessary to explain this holiday to
> most of us, and so futile to try to explain it to people
> evidently eager to seize on nearly any national observance as
> another excuse to bash the USA. I'm happy to bash the USA
> when I think we deserve bashing (for re-electing Dumbya and
> for our invasion of Iraq, for instance), but people who
> figure out ways to bash Thanksgiving seem mean-spirited to
> me, and they seem to miss the whole point of the holiday as
> it's celebrated today.
>
> Thanksgiving has evolved beyond the superficial (and mostly
> fictional) storybook tale about the Pilgrims, who were not
> typical early colonists.
> Most people in the USA today either don't have any Pilgrim
> ancestors, or the Pilgrim blood is thoroughly diluted.
> Today, the only religions here that resemble Puritanism are
> tiny minorities. (There are more than 2,000 religions and
> denominations in the USA.) For all most of us truly
> understand of the Puritans, they might as well be Martians.
> Therefore the holiday has changed, and is celebrated by many
> citizens who are not only non-Puritans but non-Christians,
> including many who follow no religion at all, because taking
> a day to reflect on humility and gratitude seems like a good
> idea on its own merits.
>
> Traditionally celebrated quietly among families and close
> friends, Thanksgiving is a personal observance, when most of
> us are either hosts or guests in private homes. The big meal
> can get excessive, gluttonous, but it's founded on the
> ancient custom of sharing our food (taking food from
> ourselves and giving it to others) as a way of showing love.
> Another of the customs today is to phone close family members
> who can't be present.
> Still another is to give to charity and to help prepare food
> for the needy.
> What we're especially thankful for, in any given year,
> depends on our own circumstances. The fact that the public
> has vigorously resisted efforts to commercialize Thanksgiving
> gives me hope for this country.
>
> Now, then, how many of you think that your ancestors were
> nobler than the looting, murdering, pillaging colonial
> invaders who founded the USA? Do any of you come from a
> culture with no history of warmongering, slave owning,
> religious persecution or political and social corruption?
> Were all of your ancestors saints? I think not. Presumably
> when you give thanks, you don't venerate the thieves and the
> murderers hanging from your family trees. Nor do I. Yet
> we're all the descendants of those who survived times even
> less civilized than our own. We've all got ancestors who
> behaved like killer apes when it was expedient (or even just
> when it was convenient). Maybe we'd rather gloss over what
> they did to survive (and/or how they pretended that they did
> what they did because they had to do it to survive...); but
> when people truly celebrate Thanksgiving Day instead of just
> going through the motions, this holiday at its best means we
> do reflect on the past, both good and bad.
>
> We think about where we've been and where we're going. We
> humble ourselves, honor something better, give thanks for
> something better, try to do better, and consider how we can
> grow into better human beings. Naturally we don't all come to
> the same conclusions. I suppose that this holiday may be
> about jingoism to some people, and to other people, maybe
> it's only about how many dead animals they can eat. To still
> others, maybe it's about, "My god's bigger'n your god, / My
> god's bigger'n yours. / My god's bigger cuz mine eats Ken'L
> Ration...."
>
> Lelia Loban
> Q: How do you know when there's a flute player at your door?
> A: The doorbell speeds up.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of klarinet Digest
> ***********************************
>

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