Some Thanksgiving Thoughts.

 Way back in the 1600s, a group of people landed in the lands of the Wampanoag people and set up a camp.

Their camp rapidly became a village with log buildings. In that first winter, the invaders suffered much from the harsh winter and lack of proper food. In the spring, some of the locals found them and took pity upon them. They were not Christians, but they still had the spirit of charity within them and they made peaceful contact with the newcomers. The first nation people probably would have driven the whites into the sea at the point of a spear had they been "real Christians" but they did not. They took pity on the newcomers, and helped them to learn how to live off the land. How to catch fish, and to fertilize their crops with it. How to plant and grow maize. How to hunt the local animals and which ones provided the best meat. Somewhere in there, the locals found how to hunt the local wild turkeys and geese. (There are variations on this story where they brought the newcomers birds and maize but I'm going with this one.) The next fall, a hunting party of Wampanoag were in the vicinity of the white settlement and decided to check up on them. In gratitude for having been saved and aided by them, the Europeans invited the visitors to stay for the harvest feast. This then became known as the First Thanksgiving. If only the people of the First Nations and the European immigrants had learned from this example. But they did not. In the fullness of time the prediction often attributed to various leaders, that "in 300 years my people will be a vanishing breed, a footnote in the story of the continent." They did not vanish, but are less today than they were. Today the holiday is one in which we traditionally gather our families and celebrate the holiday, at least ostensibly giving thanks for the good things that came our way, and for having family to celebrate with. I am reminded of the time, some 50 years ago, when my Dad and my Uncle both finished eating at about the same time, and both had the same idea to make for the couch in the den at the same time. They both tried to be nonchalant about it, but this lasted about 4 paces, as my Dad went thundering into the Den, steps ahead of my Uncle. Dad got their first, but it would not have mattered, as it was Dad's house. Meanwhile, I just quietly asked my Mother if I could be excused (in the early 70s, table manners were still a thing, and kids who sat at the grownups table had to ask to be excused.) and then quietly went into the living room and took over the couch in there. Everyone else was too busy trying to find suitable seating in line of sight to a television and never considered just napping in the nice, cool, quiet of the living room. Funny how memory comes back like that. I will close by saying that I wish any who read this a happy holiday, and a quiet, safe, and healthy weekend.

The Eleventh hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month.

 

Today, in 1918 the First World War came to an end. The living hell that began in 1914 and threatened to end human society ended in November 1918, with little of the root causes of the War to End All Wars resolved. But, at 11 AM, the guns fell silent. people on both sides joyfully stopped shooting at each other.  The final American killed in the war was recorded by General John Pershing as one Henry Nicholas John Gunther. Gunther had been a supply Sargent in the 79th "Liberty" division's 313th Regiment until he ran afoul of Army censors by writing a complaining letter to a friend back home, telling him to avoid military service at all costs. Demoted to private, Gunther felt that his courage had been called into question, and began volunteering for dangerous assignments, including that of message runner. He was killed in the final minutes of the war, attempting to assault a roadblock occupied by a German machine gun squad. It would have been a pointless gesture, as the war would be over in a few minutes, and Gunther was aware of this. It has been said that the Germans, when they saw him coming, yelled for him to go back, that the war was going to be over in a few minutes, but Gunther kept coming. One of the German gunners fired a burst, which struck the soldier in the temple, killing him instantly. Posthumously, Sargent Gunther was counted as the final casualty of the "War to End All Wars." 

(source: https://www.history.com/news/world-war-i-armistice-last-american-death ) 

         It should be  the default position of all rational human beings that war should be the last resort. War should only be used to rid the world of insane nations, criminal nations like Nazi Germany, who wage wars of oppression against their neighbors. Aggressor nations who refuse to listen to reason or to sit down and talk. Bandit kingdoms who rape and pillage their own people. Talk, first and last. Keep talking, even while you're fighting. *sigh* there is no good way of putting it. Never go to war because you want to. 

No more for now. But never forget why we fight. To preserve freedom and liberate the oppressed.

 Pray for the future of our nation. Now is the time when the Republic needs everyone to come together and reach across the divide, heal the wounds, stop the divisive, violent rhetoric. Let us go forward together, hand in hand, heads held high, as family. 

 

The Great Divide

 

 The political divide did not happen overnight, was not created by Donald Trump, and will not be made to go away by Joe Biden.

Newt Gingrich created the divide with his late night speeches in the well of the House, where he had a no cost cable TV presence. He spun the fable that there must be no compromises. That it would be his way or no way. Not many people saw him, but the right group of people did. Young, politically active republicans. They took Gingrich's message to heart, and went to war. No holds barred, stop at nothing to gain power. The first power grabs were not in the Federal legislature alone, but in state houses, governorship and other state-level offices. Thus the first of the big lies were told. "I'm against fraud, waste, and abuse! I'm a fiscal conservative! you can trust me with your money." Except they were not simple fiscal conservatives. They were die hard right wing christian conservatives, who wanted power not for what they could do for the people, but for what they could do TO the people. They Gerrymandered as much of the political map as they could. Then again in 2000. and again in 2010. The left were stupidly complacent. They had controlled the Congress off and on but more on than off since the 1970s, and saw no reason why things should change. The Supreme Court was carefully stage-managed. The lower courts were allowed to start to run empty. In fact, during Obama's time they were intentionally kept empty by McConnell. Now there are some 50 or so seats in the House which are, and will be for some time to come, absolutely safe GOP seats, and they are filled with Ideologues who, like Gingrich, insist it be their way or no way. At least the GOP are out of the Majority in the House, for now. But it's another census year, and Despite strenuous efforts by former President Obama, the political landscape won't change much.  Then comes 1987, and Reagan-appointee Dennis R Patrick's decision as FCC Chairman to undo the Fairness Doctrine. The Fairness Doctrine was an FCC rule that demanded that broadcasters, both radio and television, who use a federal license, include in their programming a certain number of hours of coverage of public affairs and of controversial issues, and that said coverage be, in the FCCs view fair, unbiased and represent both sides of an issue. This rule was in place from 1944 until it was removed. But the thing is, the Reagan argument was that rules are unnecessary in a civilized society, where the free market will see to it that the battle of ideas carries to those who wish to watch. The problem with that idea is that people will, if given the choice, avoid ideas that don't flow with our own. We self-select for information that agrees with us. Information no longer is non-partisan. Presentation of news is politically driven. People become so familiar with the news that suits their biases that things that run contrary to them are seen as alien,or other. Those who cleave to other ideas are seen as Alien. Politics goes from being the marketplace of Ideas and becomes the Battleground of Ideas. But then comes someone like Trump, who has no connection to truth. He comes and lies to us, and those whose biases are more ideologically of the same polarity as the Trump lies decide they will believe the lie, even if somewhere in their mind they know it's not true. Trump has become like a cult leader, stringing lies together, getting people hooked on the lie. This is why they chant at Trump rallies. It's a form of group affirmation. They need to know they are not the only one who buys the lie. And so it goes. The political divide has gotten wider to the point it's causing families to disintegrate. It's breaking up friendships and causing fights. Please that it not cause worse violence. I'm not a big fan of Joe Biden, but by damn we need someone to pull us back from the brink.