MLK Day: Is America still racist?

MLK Day: Is America still racist?

Happy Martin Luther King Day, a day that is meant to celebrate the legacy of Dr. King.  A day to celebrate the dream and work of attaining equality in America.  A very worthy goal, the first steps are attempting to bring about gender and racial equality in America.  Since Dr. King worked during the civil rights movement of the 1960’s I thought I would ask an interesting question today, does racism still exist in America?

Your answer to that question probably says less about who you are as a person as it does about who you are socioeconomically.  If you are an economically well-off Caucasian, then you probably believe there is less racism in this country than say if you are a poor Caucasian, African-American or Latino American.  Racism in America over my lifetime has gone from being something that was socially acceptable to becoming something that it’s no longer ok to talk about.  The fortunate thing is that the laws have changed and I truly do believe the United States is less racist now than it was when I was born in 1964, but we are far from living in a society based on racial equality.  I’d point to a lot of the recent immigration rules and debates, some of the rhetoric that came out during Obama’s presidential run.

The other night while watching TV I caught an interview that I expected to be mostly fluff but I was caught off guard by George Lucas blatantly addressing racial bias in America.  He was doing publicity for his new movie Red Tails and he said something really surprising.  The story of course is about the famous Tuskegee Airmen, the first black aviators in American military history.  One of the things that has always struck me about this story is how far America hadn’t come almost 100 years after the Civil War.  George Lucas, he of Star Wars creation and fame self-financed this film.  Now no one is going to feel for one of the wealthiest film makers in history for having to spend his own cash, but the reason was a bit shocking.  Lucas said that the reason he couldn’t get major studio financing for a George Lucas, big budget action film was not because of the disaster that was the last Indiana Jones movie, but because there were no major white characters in the film. 

My, and probably your, initial reaction to that is to think damn racist movie people, but after deeper thought I started to change my mind.  Movie people have a pretty good grip on who comes to their movies and spends money.  If they don’t believe that mass white audiences will plunk down money to see a film with no major white characters they are probably right.  I hope they aren’t, and the marketing of this issue and a release date around MLK Day I promise you, are not accidents on Lucas’ part, but it still is addressing a real issue.   Of course how good the movie is will also have serious impact on the box office receipts.  The fact that George Lucas faced this issue however, says that we still have a long way to go in America towardsbecoming the ideal, socially and racially equal society that Dr. King envisioned.  So today, let’s be proud of the accomplishments we’ve made in the last 50 years, but let’s also not forget that we still have a lot of work to do.

Happy Mother’s Day: The Origins of Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day: The Origins of Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day, here’s a nice post on Mother’s and Happiness: http://ministryofhappiness.wordpress.com/2011/05/08/happy-mothers-day-mothers-and-happiness/

The origins of Mother’s Day are as ancient as the Egyptians but those celebrations were typically oriented first to the concept of the god mother, later the mother church and then to motherhood itself.  When settlers came to America, they abandoned the traditional Mother’s Day and it wasn’t until the writer of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, changed the holiday forever.  The link below is the whole history and the bit below that is taken from that piece and explains the modern American holiday.

http://www.mothersdaycentral.com/about-mothersday/history/

Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation of 1870

Julia Ward Howe

The first North American Mother’s Day was conceptualized with Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870. Despite having penned The Battle Hymn of the Republic 12 years earlier, Howe had become so distraught by the death and carnage of the Civil War that she called on Mother’s to come together and protest what she saw as the futility of their Sons killing the Sons of other Mothers. With the following, she called for an international Mother’s Day celebrating peace and motherhood:

Arise, then, women of this day!

Arise all women who have hearts,
Whether your baptism be that of water or of tears
Say firmly:
 
“We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of
charity, mercy and patience.
 
“We women of one country
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
  
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says, “Disarm, Disarm!”
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice!
Blood does not wipe out dishonor
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have of ten forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war.
 
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
 
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
 
Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.
 
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions.
The great and general interests of peace.

Easter, Bunnies, Pagan roots and overly sensitive, Christians, Muslims & NRA members

So recently one of my Facebook friends posted a post on the Pagan roots of Easter and how the early Christians co-opted the holiday and turned it into what we know as Easter.  This is a common theme and I’ve blogged on it before below are the links to the similar posts I did on Halloween and Christmas.

http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/twisted-christmas-the-origins-of-christmas/

http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/halloween-the-devil%e2%80%99s-holiday/

The interesting thing to his posts were the responses, several of us chimed in with jokes ranging from Jesus resurrecting to give out eggs, to questioning whether or not Jesus was in fact, the original Zombie.  Now none of these comments were even remotely meant to diminish anyone else’s belief in the story of Jesus or Christianity.  However the responses that came in were vehemently defensive of the Christian religion.  Christians are not alone in this type of attitude and it reminds me of the way the National Rifle Association (NRA) members respond to any gun regulation and Muslims respond to using the image of Muhammad. 

The question that it leads me to is why are so people so damned defensive about their beliefs?  I mean really, what are Christians and Muslims so worried about, why is that someone else not sharing your beliefs is such a threat to people?  Are they all operating off of the NRA slippery slope argument, you know, that if you give the tiniest of inches all is lost!  Seems a bit silly to me.

For those of you who are interested about the Pagan origins of Easter here is a link below:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/easter1.htm

Finally, to clear up for the curious what the hell bunnies and eggs have to do with the whole thing, check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Bunny

Happy Sunday, Easter, Estre or whatever you might be celebrating today, even if it’s just a nice sunny Sunday afternoon.

A little Irish wisdom on St. Patrick’s Day

So St. Patrick’s Day means a lot of things to a lot of people.  To a lot of folks it’s an excuse to get drunk, or dress up in green and annoy people who don’t.  I’m sure someone somewhere actually even celebrates St. Patrick in some way, although I’ve never met that person.  For me, it’s a day to think about my grandfather who was such a staunch Irish Catholic that once, after our neighbors repainted his favorite lawn chairs orange, he never sat in them again.  A bit silly, but that’s just who he was.  The fellow in the clip below reminds me of my grandpa, talking about the economic crisis and telling it like it is, if you’re offended by profanity, don’t click on the link.  Happy St. Patty’s Day and thanks to Audrey for the clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=koY6kXhQDQo

Friday Fun – Hangover Remedies

Welcome to the last Fun Friday of the year and given that it’s New Year’s Eve it might be a very Fun Friday indeed.  Given the holiday I decided to go out and find some creative forms of hangover remedies for you to experiment with as you start off the New Year.  The link below will teach you hangover remedies from Ireland, Russia, Puerto Rico and even Outer Mongolia!  These will include cucumber juice, bull’s penis, eyeballs and armpit fruit, enjoy!

http://www.40cozy.com/uncategorized/8-bizarre-hangover-cures-from-around-the-world/

Happy New Year’s Eve: Why I don’t Participate in Amateur Night

Why I don’t participate in Amateur Night

I owe this expression to an old neighbor of mine, Jack Wrigley.   When I once asked him if he had any plans for New Year’s Eve he simply replied, “I never participate in Amateur Night.”   Along the way I came to understand the wisdom in that statement and eventually I came to not participate in the traditional New Year’s Eve festivities.  I didn’t always believe this way and a long time ago in a state far, far away I even did the Times Square thing one year.  Trust me for someone who really doesn’t like crowds, this was a huge mistake.  The night turned into a small adventure where we ended up at an apartment party and then got lost on the subway at 4AM and nearly mugged an interesting adventure but not a great night.

My main objection to New Year’s Eve celebrations is that it truly is an amateur drinking night with a deadline.   So many people of all ages go out to a large gathering, party, restaurant and proceed to drink hard so that they are appropriately loaded at midnight.  Back when I was a drunk this was especially annoying because a mere three or four hours of drinking would never leave me more than a little buzzed and I’d be surrounded with a bunch of stumbling drunken idiots.  I might add that a lot of people who don’t drink regularly, don’t drink regularly for good reason, they are lousy drunks.  Inevitably in every New Year’s Eve crowd there is the obnoxious guy, who now that he’s drunk and supposedly doesn’t know what he’s doing starts making utterly rude comments.  There’s the drunken jealous guy who is convinced anyone who looks at his date is trying to bed her.  There are the stumbling drunks, the blasted and near vomiting folks, and the people who are on the edge of passing out and then of course the ones who are passed out.

It seems that very often the drunks who want to mouth off or pick a fight are somehow drawn to me at these soirees and I end up having to deal with them.  The last way I want to signify the starting of a new year is with a fist fight or dealing with some drunken asshole.  So for that reason I prefer to take a pass on Amateur night and will quietly welcome in the New Year at home.

For those of you who are professionals, and you know who you are, and have only professionals at your parties, have a great time and remember to drink lots of water.  Happy New Year.

Twisted Christmas: Really?!

Ok, so I’m far from being a prude and you’ve all read about my feelings about the holiday but really, I mean really?!  Is this the first commercial you should see on Christmas morning?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7oMY6sC7wQ

Fun Friday: Twisted Christmas – My Favorite Christmas Carol

For my combination Fun Friday and Twisted Christmas Eve post I present:  My favorite Christmas Carol

Although as has been evidenced by my previous post:

http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2010/12/22/twisted-christmas-why-i-dont-like-christmas/

I’m not a big fan of the holiday, however, that does not mean that I don’t find things about the season enjoyable and in fact I do have a favorite Christmas song and video, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueVPUsyrT0s

I’ve also posted the lyrics below:

Ho ho ho ho ho

Flying Through the snow
Can you hear him ho ho ho
He’s so full of cheer
only has to work one day a year

Children in their beds
Visions of sugar plums fill their heads
So many kids out there
Santa must be a billionaire

Red suit, boots of black
Big sack of toys hanging off his back
How much does he weigh
How do the reindeer pull his sleigh

Nobody sees him
as he travels the world

Leaving his presents
for the good boys and girls

Ho ho ho ho ho

Sees every move you make
Better be good for goodness sake
Leave him cookies and beer
He’ll be back to your house first next year

I am Santa Claus

Ho ho ho ho ho

Twisted Christmas: The Origins of Christmas

I’m not the biggest fan of Christmas, to say the least, so my vision of Christmas is a little bit twisted, hence the title of my first Christmas post.  I thought like I did for Halloween it my be interesting to take a look at the origins of Christmas, so here goes.

So much like Halloween, the holiday of Christmas has its origins in the pagan religion.  I know, I know, Christmas is the celebration of Jesus’ birthday, except for one thing, no one believes that Jesus of Nazareth was born in December.  The link below provides a long and thorough accounting of the likely date of Jesus’ birth based off of the writings in the bible:

http://www.cgg.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Library.sr/CT/ARTB/k/568/When-Was-Jesus-Born.htm

The conclusion that this author and many others have made is that Jesus was almost certainly born sometime in the fall.  So if December 25^th isn’t Jesus’ birthday why do we celebrate Christmas in December?

Well first we have to recognize that several pagan festivals were celebrated either on the winter solstice or in the case of the Feast of the Son of Isis, celebrated on December 25^th.  The entire holiday season for the Romans covering December and January was called the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun.   Given this, in 350AD Pope Julius I decreed that Christ’s birthday would be celebrated on December 25^th.  He did this for political reasons; the Pope knew that the majority of Romans, who were not Christians at the time, would more easily convert to Christianity if they could still have their rituals and feasts.  Christmas or the Christ Mass seems to have its earliest origins in the 1500’s in Germany.

The most identifiable icon of Christmas, the Christmas tree has its origins as well with the Pagans of Northern Europe as the evergreen tree was symbolic in all of their winter festivals, as well, the wreath was often used as a celebratory symbol in solstice celebrations and at weddings as a sign of fertility.  The solstice holiday was called Yule and huge fires were burnt in honor of the sun-god on this holiday.  Hence our tradition of burning a Yule log, although I can’t imagine what the Pagans would think of today’s televised Yule log.  Finally, the Druids considered Mistletoe a sacred plant and kissing under the Mistletoe was a fertility ritual.  Given all of the fertility symbolism tied to Christmas, it’s amazing their aren’t a lot more birthdays in September.

So very much like Halloween, Christmas is a Christian holiday stacked on top of old Pagan holidays and traditions.  Also like Halloween, the reasons and ways we celebrate the holiday are very different, even from the holiday as it was celebrated even fifty years ago.

Why Thanksgiving is my Favorite Holiday

I love Thanksgiving, it may be the only holiday I truly love.  Why?  Well mostly because it’s unaffiliated, it’s not a religious holiday or a patriotic holiday, there is no abstract reasoning to this holiday.  This is a holiday that is solely about what is near and dear to us and an opportunity to say thanks for all of it.  I would point out that I’ve hosted, and been part of a lot of orphan Thanksgivings in my time, but never an orphan 4th of July or Christmas.  One of the beauties of Thanksgiving is that you chose who is your family that day whether they are blood relatives or not.

Another reason I love this day are the traditions that exist, happy get togethers, food lots of food and football.  For me when I was young the tradition was just a little different in that it started with deer hunting, and particularly when my grandfather was still alive, it was a day to go out and spend some time in the woods with him.  Now I know those of you opposed to hunting won’t get this, but a big part of the reason you’re out there is the quiet moments of the early mornings out in nature, and to have my grandpa along, so much the better.  So we would wake early, go out for a couple of hours, come home and eat a huge breakfast.  Then we’d walk in the mid-day and come home to warmth and football and a feast.  Being an Irish-Italian family that meant the standard Turkey dinner with  the addition of lasagna, meatballs, sausage and maybe a bit of venison thrown in, heaven.

I know that a lot of folks don’t like the excess of Thanksgiving and think this day of what might legitimately be called gluttony is obscene when people are homeless and hungry.  I disagree, I think if we always stay focused on people less fortunate you remain perpetually unhappy.  In my opinion taking one day a year to spoil yourself, eat too much and revel in whatever excess you have is not only sensible but necessary.  We have 364 additional days to help others, what would be wrong is if you didn’t take any of those other days to help.

So Happy Thanksgiving friends, enjoy your day, your family, your friends and your feast, relax it’s ok to be happy today.