No Turkeys Were Harmed in the Writing of This Blog

I understand that England stocks all of the familiar staples of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in their stores this time of year in response to the wishes of the many Americans living there. Even some of the native Brits celebrate the holiday as well, I’m told.  I think it is very special of them to accommodate all of the American ex-pats in this way.  If people in the U.K. are actually giving thanks for what they have as well it is truly a good thing.  I don’t agree with the consumption of a turkey but that is just my personal feeling.  I am all for anything else that would make people stop and be grateful for their lives and their blessings.

I have also learned that the celebration of Halloween has come to Australia recently.  Apparently it had been discussed for quite some time by its citizens and this year there were actually costume parties and trick-or-treaters on the streets.  What an influence we can have on others if we are doing things that make for a good and positive emulation.  I give thanks for the Australians and the Brits who have embraced something that has traditionally been good and happy celebrations in this country for a long time.  I wish that Americans understood that their recent behavior is also up for emulation, although it is not something that is positive.

The recent court decision in Ferguson, Missouri has sparked some behaviors that I truly wish hadn’t happened.  The protests in the streets of Ferguson were something that was not helpful to the cause of the outrage that so many of us were feeling.  Vandalism and destruction of property cannot bring back the life of Michael Brown.  The violence has only put some people out of work and unable to find things to actually celebrate now.  I understand their frustration and anger with a system that believes that those we do not understand are disposable.  Do things our way and be someone that we can use or you are of little consequence.  That hurts so much to say here but it is all that I can see in the tragedy of a lost life for behavior that is not how we perceive as appropriate or “like us”.

In 1997 David Bowie recorded a song called I’m Afraid of Americans.   Even back then I understood where he was coming from.  It is difficult to recognize the America that we live in now, for sure, as the one that I grew up in.  Certainly there have always been anti-social people and troublemakers here but not at the level that I’ve seen in recent years.  It is truly much worse now than it was when David Bowie released that song.  Trent Reznor, who appeared in the video, really looked like the creepy guy that you might meet up with on the streets of America, but as scary as he looked it was still Trent playing a role and not his true self.  We should take a lesson from that video and realize that however a person may look to us they are not necessarily what we might perceive to be as a threat. 

There was an incident in Arkansas last year where a young man was detained, handcuffed and put into the back seat of a police car for some minor infraction.  While there, he somehow managed to “commit suicide” by retrieving a gun from his pocket then shooting himself in the head while his hands were cuffed behind him.  Unbelievably, this was accepted as truth by the police department and other higher ups.  I guess the police “forgot” to pat him down and check for weapons before they cuffed him and the young man must have been a contortionist worthy of Ripley’s Believe or Not to have pulled it off! The young man’s mother contacted Jesse Jackson, who made a valiant attempt to call more attention to the incident  but ultimately, even with Jesse’s help nothing was done.  This story has troubled me ever since it happened and since then there have been countless incidents of injustice and intolerance similar to it.  Many of them do not receive one-tenth of the media coverage that Ferguson has.  They are barely noticed by the public at large.  Why this happens I am not sure but we do have enough outrage to go around every day of the year to keep people angry and frightened all of the time.

I don’t mean to put a downer on your Thanksgiving festivities today, well, maybe I do, a little, but my real purpose in writing today is to remind us that people are watching what we do and say and how we behave all of the time.  Some of the better behaviors that come out of America are being taken to heart and made manifest in positive ways, but when I hear that people as far away as Japan are protesting the Ferguson decision I am concerned.  It is always easier to promote a negative than it is a positive.  This happens as a result of our confusion and mistrust of a society that is breeding selfishness and narcissism faster that rabbits.  It is obviously something that the entire world can relate to I’m sorry to say.

I know for a fact that we can go back to the past and find some worthwhile behaviors to promote to society again like Thanksgiving and Halloween.  These holidays have been celebrated in this country for a very long time.  America is no stranger to civil difficulty but there needs to be a peaceful resolution to our social ills or we risk never being able to right what is wrong.

People everywhere are watching constantly in the information age.  The media has made sure that we can see the good and the bad and we are all the better for it, but please keep in mind today that our lives are all connected and it is more important now than ever before that our contribution in the world be something that is worth knowing about.  Like it or not, America sets standards and precedents all of the time for better or worse.  I am so glad that we have the opportunity to make a difference in the world but it is difficult to be proud of destruction and violence.  People are reaching back to our past to create something good and positive from the holidays that we observe.  We need to make what we show to the world something joyous and hopeful for the future.  I think we can.