Since this is my blog and I make the rules, I hereby decree that you don't have to give thanks today if you can't help but feel like ungrateful little wretches. Personally speaking, I am always grateful on Thanksgiving when it turns out that my turkey has nicely thawed. There is nothing worse than trying to pry out a frozen congealed mass of guts from the belly of the beast at 7 in the morning. I did that under-the-faucet operation several years ago, and I don't ever want to go through it again.
If anybody is unsociably huddled in front of a computer screen on this day of family togetherness and joy, and would like to share a link, anecdote, dirty joke, or just complain, go for it. Last year I included a link to Howard Zinn which didn't work, but here again is the traditional Addams Family Thanksgiving Massacre video. An excerpt:
{as an Indian, ad-libbing during a Thanksgiving play}
Wednesday: Wait!
Amanda: What?
Wednesday: We cannot break bread with you.
Amanda: Huh? Becky, what's going on?
Becky: [whispered] Wednesday!
Wednesday: You have taken the land which is rightfully ours. Years from now my people will be forced to live in mobile homes on reservations. Your people will wear cardigans, and drink highballs. We will sell our bracelets by the road sides, you will play golf, and enjoy hot hors d'oeuvres. My people will have pain and degradation. Your people will have stick shifts. The gods of my tribe have spoken. They have said, "Do not trust the Pilgrims, especially Sarah Miller."
Amanda: Gary, she's changing the words.
Wednesday: And for all these reasons I have decided to scalp you and burn your village to the ground.
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| Happy Thanksgiving from All of Me Here at Sardonicky! |
My godmother was a Cree (long story). Helped my mother when she first 'got off the boat'. She was a socialist and voted for Norman Thomas.
ReplyDeleteJames,
ReplyDeleteYou reminded me of an article I wrote a long time ago about a pow wow in New Paltz. I interviewed Adam Nordwall, the Indian activist who occupied Alcatraz and "discovered" Europe in a publicity stunt. The USA later declared him an enemy of the state. Google archives has the article online: (under my old first marriage name)
thihttp://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1982&dat=19740930&id=SwdHAAAAIBAJ&sjid=wTMNAAAAIBAJ&pg=3181,5647505s
This is from the San Francisco Chronicle on Nordwall:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sfgate.com/news/article/PROFILE-Adam-Fortunate-Eagle-Nordwall-Bay-2781588.php#page-4
Great story and funny.
We were up @ sunrise & out on the beach for our daily run down to the lighthouse (virtuous us!) when we noticed in the sky our annual winter visitors, a flock of turkey vultures that migrate (legally but undocumented) from somewhere in Ohio. They nest/roost in a wildlife conservation area @ the north end of our island and are an amazing flock to behold. With huge wingspans, they float on high thermal updrafts and at that distance look like eagles. Up close & personal, they are kinda ugly & smell bad to boot. But we luv 'em anyway, such busy buzzards! And to tie this all into today's feasting on factory-farmed birds, they too eat the flesh of dead animals---the free range variety.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI sure wish Obama would pardon Bradley Manning instead of the turkey - now that would be something to celebrate. But instead he goes through this ridiculous publicity stunt and everyone applauds while Manning is stuck in prison enduring horrible conditions. I imagine his already fragile psyche has been damaged beyond repair.
ReplyDeleteBut go ahead America, forget all about those being held without due process and enjoy your day. Be thankful that you weren't in the wrong place at the wrong time and that you still maintain your illusion of democracy and justice for all in the land of the free and the brave. Just don't be too brave and follow your conscience. You might end up like Manning.
I strongly recommend AFE's "Heart of the Rock" which details the (re)-occupation of Alcatraz.
ReplyDeleteI'm unfortunately more familiar with the legacy of the occupation of Alcatraz than I wish to be, having worked closely with staff there. There is virtually no respect or understanding of the occupation by the "good, god-fearing white folk" who currently tend and interpret the site for the US government under the aegis of the NPS.
Alcatraz is viewed as a "sacred space" by its current crew because of its history as a prison, and because of the ensuing, cash-flow generating public fascination with such. (Americans being unduly enthusiastic about all forms of punishment and incarceration.)
Any mention of the occupation (more rightly a re-occupation) is described by the staff as a "travesty" and alternately a "sad joke." The Tribal occupiers are described by NPS staff as having "trashed" the place - but that statement utterly negates that the violation of Alcatraz by whites was the original "trashing". The terrifying thing about current attitudes on Alcatraz is the apparent notion that a prison as cruel as Alcatraz - hardly the pinnacle of human achievement or ideals - "could" be trashed. You cannot tray what has already been shit-canned.