I’ve received a number of e-mails over the past few days from friends and family wishing me and mine a “Happy Thanksgiving”… but there’s no Thanksgiving in Australia. No Turkey. No football. No 4 day weekend.
Thanksgiving is a pseudo religious/historic celebration of the American Indians acceptance of the Pilgrams to North America and the bounty and abundance of their new found land and religious freedom. American Indians got the short end of that deal. Thanksgiving signals the beginning of the holiday season with a 4 day weekend of football and feasting on Turkey and reckless Christmas shopping. Thanksgiving has been the biggest retail weekend of the year for as long as I can remember.
As I sit in my lounge, watching NFL football on ESPN brought to me by FoxTel I’m wondering how far will the good ol’ U.S. of A. fall? Citibank, the big three (GM, Ford, and Chrysler!), where will it end and who the hell is paying for all of this anyway and what about small businesses? There are small and medium sized businesses hitting the wall every day. What if the Federal Government spent this kind of money directly on social programs targeting people that are defaulting on mortgages if that is the root cause of the problem? I’m probably too naïve and don’t have a deep enough understanding of the situation to provide anything constructive. Anyway, it’s a worry. And America’s woes are impacting the global economy. I’m sure there are a lot of Americans that are in need of a helping hand this holiday season and I wish the best of luck to all of them.
Australia is a lucky country and I’m thankful that I’m here. America’s woes will impact Australia to some degree but the Australian economy is still relatively strong.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in America and Australia! I’m thankful for my good fortune and wish everyone good luck through the holiday season and into the New Year.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Proud to be an American living in Australia.
Once again, I’m proud to be an American and that makes me happy. The American Democracy has one again shown the world the possibilities! Americans dare… we dare to hope and dream. We show faith in the future. Many Americans express their capacity to have faith in their religious beliefs which evidences the capacity to hope in the future. Americans have gone on to put that hope into action and dare to change our future with a collective national voice. We have shown a preference for uncertainty over a continuation of the recent past.
Recently, it has been difficult to be an American. It has been quite awhile since America has really done anything to demonstrate hope for all of mankind. Possibly not since 1969 and Neil Armstrong’s small steps on the moon has America inspired all humankind. American standards of the practice of democracy are in stark contrast to the atrocities that continue to go on in the world. It wasn’t that Australians were making it tough on me personally because I’m American. On the contrary, Australians have embraced me and accepted me into their culture, society and nation. My difficulty starts inside of my mind because I cannot support America’s participation in continuing to perpetuate cruelty to human beings. And being honest with myself about what I believe to be right and wrong, I cannot find any ideological reason to support this sort of behavior. What makes it worse it that the world does look to America for leadership because America is in a position to do something about it (whatever “it” may be).
The meaning of the words from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, “that this new nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”, one hundred and forty-five years later has been realized.
Growing up in Queens, NY in the 1960s and ‘70s, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated for daring to “have a dream” of equality. Huey Newton and Bobby Seals were “revolutionary” Black Panthers. Angela Davis was exiled to Cuba. And atrocities against African Americans were still being perpetrated in the United States. I didn’t believe it to be possible for an African American to garner a majority of support in the U.S. of A. No way.
Yes, way! It’s happened! There is hope for the future. Even in these terrible times of economic uncertainty where the greed of a few has jeopardized the well being of the many, America has shown the world that it dares to take on the future.
Barack Obama’s winning a majority of the popular vote evidences a generational change of populist power in America and the power of American democracy in action to support its social evolution. This was achieved without the revolution envisioned and rapped about by so many. The genius, inspiration and endurance of the founding fathers of the United States vision for a free nation is mind boggling. These men were no less great than Isaac Newton, Albert Einstien, Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr., Darwin and all of those great human beings that have positively influenced the course of humanity.
I hope President Obama can lead this change. He has a mighty task in front of him.
I hope that we all get make it through this economic downturn.
I now have a renewed hope in America and as a consequence, new hope for humankind.
I’m proud to be an American and I love living in Australia.
Recently, it has been difficult to be an American. It has been quite awhile since America has really done anything to demonstrate hope for all of mankind. Possibly not since 1969 and Neil Armstrong’s small steps on the moon has America inspired all humankind. American standards of the practice of democracy are in stark contrast to the atrocities that continue to go on in the world. It wasn’t that Australians were making it tough on me personally because I’m American. On the contrary, Australians have embraced me and accepted me into their culture, society and nation. My difficulty starts inside of my mind because I cannot support America’s participation in continuing to perpetuate cruelty to human beings. And being honest with myself about what I believe to be right and wrong, I cannot find any ideological reason to support this sort of behavior. What makes it worse it that the world does look to America for leadership because America is in a position to do something about it (whatever “it” may be).
The meaning of the words from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, “that this new nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”, one hundred and forty-five years later has been realized.
Growing up in Queens, NY in the 1960s and ‘70s, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated for daring to “have a dream” of equality. Huey Newton and Bobby Seals were “revolutionary” Black Panthers. Angela Davis was exiled to Cuba. And atrocities against African Americans were still being perpetrated in the United States. I didn’t believe it to be possible for an African American to garner a majority of support in the U.S. of A. No way.
Yes, way! It’s happened! There is hope for the future. Even in these terrible times of economic uncertainty where the greed of a few has jeopardized the well being of the many, America has shown the world that it dares to take on the future.
Barack Obama’s winning a majority of the popular vote evidences a generational change of populist power in America and the power of American democracy in action to support its social evolution. This was achieved without the revolution envisioned and rapped about by so many. The genius, inspiration and endurance of the founding fathers of the United States vision for a free nation is mind boggling. These men were no less great than Isaac Newton, Albert Einstien, Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr., Darwin and all of those great human beings that have positively influenced the course of humanity.
I hope President Obama can lead this change. He has a mighty task in front of him.
I hope that we all get make it through this economic downturn.
I now have a renewed hope in America and as a consequence, new hope for humankind.
I’m proud to be an American and I love living in Australia.
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