(…Just ask the Turkey!)  

“Thanksgiving” as it were, is a truly unique American holiday. Although being the Capitalist Whores we are, I’m sure we would like the entire world to celebrate with us. Giving thanks for all the wonderful things in this life we DO have, like HDTV, Fast Food, Video Games, iphones, Porn and of course Virtual Reality. Conversely casting off those things we DON’T have as pessimistic formalities. Especially given the fact that like wars, holidays are great for business etc.

I would imagine the first American settlers or pilgrims like those pictured above were thankful that they had found a new land where they could practice their individual, as well as religious freedoms. Far from the European forms of tyrannical royal rule of the day. Moreover for the warm welcome and helping hand provided by the natives of this expansive and untamed land they had decided to commandeer. I can’t help but wonder if these earliest of Dutch settlers had any preconceived notions, or had prophesied the brutal acts of genocide and holocaust that would befall their gracious hosts in the years to come. Do you think they had knowledge, and more importantly understandings of how the Spanish Conquistadors that preceded them in South America had repaid their befriended tour guides.

Of course that was then, and this is now. We have become so much more civilized and sympathetic since the late 1800’s whereupon upwards of 30 million Native Americans were systematically exterminated. All under the guise of “Civilized Civilization,” progress and prosperity. Somehow outside the tenets of our adopted constitution etc. What a difference a few hundred years makes. So much so, that we now feel obligated to police the world community and their governments to “Do as we say,” “Not as we have done.” Vehemently denouncing what is now labeled “Ethnic Cleansing.”

After all, we had to invade Iraq and Kuwait to stop the brutal dictator Saddam Husein from committing these atrocities against not only the Kuwaiti people, but even some of his own indigenous civilian populations. Out of the empathy and sympathy of our Capitalist nature of course. But somehow places like, but not remanded to Darfur Africa, where killings, torture, destruction and rapes have been committed since 2003 remain far outside our political scope, and liberating hand. Is it because this area provides no desirable resources for us to squander. Or perhaps the populous of this region are not yet prepared to benefit from our “McDonald’s”  “Coca-Cola” “Proctor & Gamble” “General Mills” and the like. It certainly seems that these victimized people are guilty of crimes of circumstance. Being divested of any desirable commodities or natural resources. Thus condemning them to be ignored by the US Government and the rest of our “Coalition of Nations.” Commercially speaking, it is a great disappointment that corporate sponsorship couldn’t find some advertising benefits, and at the very least send a few trailer loads of food and water to these people in the spirit of Thanksgiving Day. Did someone say; “Extreme Makeover: Human Edition.”

So here some of us Americans are today, happy and thankful that we can spend some quality time with friends and loved ones on this special day. Happy and thankful that there are only a few holidays in the year we really have to, faking revelry. Happy and thankful we can drink some beers, watch our football games and practice gluttony. Happy and thankful that we have all our essential distractions from reality. Happy and thankful to be at the top of the social food-chain. Happy and thankful for the commercial illusions that keeps us this way. Happy and thankful that we are not homeless, or home-wrecked.

While we continue to ignore the homeless on the corners of our streets, and all the other negative effects that the CurbSide represents. Happy and thankful that our heads are still above the proverbial water. While we watch the bubbles of our neighbors last gasping aspirations evaporate in our peripheral plain. Happy and thankful that we are a caliber of people that would help, if we only knew their names. Happy and thankful that we have all those things that others do not. Happy and thankful, well, that we can be! When so many others cannot!

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