A Short Thanksgiving Message

Honestly, I’m trying my best to get into the spirit of the day.  Once I write this tome, I will retreat to the kitchen to start the turkey roasting.   At some point, I will also phone my holiday wishes to my brother, perhaps a cousin or two.  So, I will go through the motions of the holiday with hopes that the spirit of the day will overcome me like a smooth relaxing soak in the bathtub.

The day has challenges: Warrior Queen is still down with bronchitis. This will keep us from venturing out where the high temperature for today is forecast to be 30 degrees F.  I think this would be below zero Celsius.

My list of things to be thankful for is short this year:

I’m thankful that we still have a democracy in America.   Honestly, two years ago at this time I had doubts that we would exist at all.   Fortunately, the American experiment is still working with all the tools we need to fix it.   Make no mistake, the fix will be long, arduous and perhaps ugly at times, but it has to be done.  Perhaps next year I’ll have happier things to report for our country.

I’m thankful that my health is returning which will enable me to work more hours at work so I can pay down/off the medical bills I’ve accumulated while the local medical community cured my various ailments.   Yes, it is a vicious cycle.

I’m thankful for the people in my life; those close to me (WQ and the cats), those watching out for my well being when I don’t know they’re watching out for me, and those far away in the blogosphere.

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

(Thank you for reading.  “Much obliged, lord!” – Percy Kilbride in “The Egg and I”)

Roy Clark

A childhood memory surfaced to the front of my consciousness this week when I heard that entertainer Roy Clark passed away.   The memory was the first time I heard his version of Yesterday When I Was Young.  I was in the back of my father’s station wagon returning home from the Spectrum (Philadelphia) where my parents had taken us to see the Barnum & Bailey Circus.  I remember this day well, because I think it was the only time my parents took us out of school to do something together.

Anyway, I remember hearing the deejay say “Here is something new from Roy Clark.”  This would place the event somewhere around May 1969. I remember that the words resonated within me as I listened to them coming from the car speakers.

This is strange because I was not yet 10 years old and yet I could relate to a song regretting a lost youth and living empty life.  Wow!  Talk about being sensitive…

I remember seeing Clark perform on television.  He had just started hosting CBS’s rural focused answer to Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. They called it Hee Haw.  It was a variety show with short skits, blackouts and lots of musical interludes by the top artists in the country and western genre.  I remember Dad reminiscing about seeing Clark perform when Dad was stationed in New Orleans some years before.

I think this performance of Yesterday is from Hee Haw.

Yet Clark’s was widely respected as a guitar virtuoso.  I think this performance of Malaguena shows Clark in top form.

 

 

There Was A Time When Strangers Were Welcome Here*

(A NOTE FROM THE EDIOTIRAL BOARD: This entry was originally published in 2006.  Some of the references are both dated and timely.  It just goes to show how little progress we have made in 12 years. I will amend the entry this year with a video of Neil Sedaka’s The Immigrant.  The video has historic photos of immigrants coming to America, historic photographs of our ancestors.  God help me, I think I see us in their eyes.)

Dear Prospective Citizens,

Yes, this means you, hiding in the ditch along the southwest border while you wait for your smuggler's signal to dash into the United States.  It has come to our attention that America’s open arms policy towards immigrants has been taken too seriously.  Admittedly, in the past we have welcomed all comers regardless of their origin, their race, or their language.  In fact, we embraced this tradition so much that we accepted a gift from France – back when France still liked us - which became an international symbol of hope and freedom for strangers coming to our shores.  We were filled with pride as we read the inscription on the base of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free.”

Well, forget all that.  It turns out that we were just kidding.

I don’t why immigration became an issue now.  It’s not like it hasn’t been smoldering underneath the surface for years.  It could be that someone in the Bush administration or the GOP-led Congress is concerned with their poll numbers, oh I mean the immigration problem.  We have dealt with this issue before, but apparently our efforts have not been good enough.

Congress is now hashing out a series of bills designed to address the problem.  One extreme idea calls for every illegal immigrant – and those that helped him or her enter the country – go to jail.  As I noted earlier, this idea isn’t practical.  We would need more prisons built, which would require money, which would add to the national deficit.

The other extreme, endorsed by the President, calls for amnesty of all illegal aliens.  This idea won’t fly either.  Bush’s idea is a sweep-it-under-the-carpet-and-we’ll-work-out-the-details-later solution.  Blanket forgiveness for all who came here illegally, to hell with those who lawfully applied for citizenship, and all businesses get to keep their cheap labor.  Huh-uh!

Another proposal calls for a fence to be built along the southwest border to keep you from coming in illegally.  Tensions are so high that I wouldn’t be surprised if someone proposes dismantling the Statue of Liberty as scrap metal to help pay for the new fence.

Oh yeah, I can see that now.  We could replace Miss Liberty with a ninety-foot tall image of a snarling Lou Dobbs.  The new inscription could read, “Enter at your own risk.”

The point of all this is to give you something to think about before you run into our country.  Keep in mind there are many trigger-happy volunteers massing at the border who are eager to convince you to go back from where you came.  The days of the great land rushes are over.  Those were the days when people would line up and, when a shot was fired in the air, everyone in line would run to settle lands in the west.  Today’s shots will no doubt be aimed in a different direction.

I’m just using the term “trigger happy” to describe people who like shooting at anything or anybody.  Just a friendly reminder, that’s all.

So, please keep all this mind as you prepare to walk, run, skip, jump, hop or crawl across our border.  Of course, you can always become a citizen of the United States legally by filling out the necessary paperwork and waiting, and waiting, and waiting.  Then, one day, you’ll be granted American citizenship.  This would be a proud day, a day which you won’t have to tell your grandchildren about, because they will already be here when you get your approval. 

Did I mention the term “trigger happy”?   I can’t emphasize that concept enough.

 

 

*The Immigrant - Neil Sedaka

(Thank you for reading.  Please excuse me now while I find a quiet place to be alone and mourn for my country.)