Klarinet Archive - Posting 000735.txt from 2004/11

From: "Abraham Gamboa" <abraham.gamboa@-----.br>
Subj: Re: [kl] Happy Thanksgiving
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 19:20:23 -0500

Now here's someone taking a look at the big picture and humanity as a whole
throughout history; very refreshing from the usual one sided prejudice
opinions. ALL HUMANITY IS RESPONSIBLE AND NOT JUST GOERGE BUSH!!
I still wonder why I don't remember protests about the Ruwanda situation
with our young girl seducing (a known fact) president Bill Clinton!!?? And
what about Dafor (spelling??) wrong color...no oil!!??
I thought the Pilgrims were thankful to get away from Europe (all the wars
and repression) and especially away from England!!??
Abe
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
To: <klarinet@-----.org>
Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 6:26 PM
Subject: [kl] Happy Thanksgiving

>
> 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.
>
>
>
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